How does exchange/completion work when in a chain?

[summerfruitsquash]

We are coming up to being ready to exchange/complete on both the sale of our house and purchase of new. Short chain, first time buyers - us - vendor moving into rental.

Last time we bought we were first time and the house was a previous rental so very different.

How should I expect it to work in our chain? Will it be a case of 1 day to get out of the house and get is ship shape for new owners or will we be able to have a couple of days?

The whole chain moves on completion day. Hopefully you exchange a little while before then to give you notice to plan removals etc but it doesn't always work out like that (we exchanged last Wednesday and moved on Friday but we were all aiming for the Friday for a couple of weeks so just had to go with it and plan removals). We had to be out of our house by 12 on the Friday and take the keys straight to the estate agents for the buyers to pick up as their money had gone through then. We didn't get our keys until 1.45 as our money stayed in space over lunchtime! So, we were technically homeless sitting around for a couple of hours!
It's a stressy day but it usually works out ok.

Yes - sorry all on the same day. Make sure you are completely packed up ready for the removal men to load up. Keep your cleaning kit and hoover safe somewhere (maybe your car) so they don't pack it so you can whizz round after they have gone. Then drive like the clappers to get to the new house before them so you can whizz round before they get there!!

If you can afford it have the removals pack for you too. Best money I ever spent and it wasn't much. They did it the 2 days before the move, it alleviated the need to decide what we needed to keep out and use etc.

Don't stress too much about getting the place 'shipshape' for the new owners. The exchange and moving day is stressful enough.

By all means, give it a clean after you have packed up, but you don't need a couple of days. By the time two sets of removers have been in and out of the house, the new people will probably want to clean it themselves anyway.

All on the same day. As the first transaction in the chain completes, it moves up the chain as the monies are transferred in turn. Completion of our sale was earlier than expected - 11.30 and I was still hoovering when the buyers turned up with their movers. We negotiated another 20 mins for our movers to complete packing the van. We were then homeless till around 1.45pm as our vendors' solicitor bogged off for lunch instead of confirming he'd received our purchase monies! We sat in a cafe down the road from our new house and joked we were rich, but homeless .

But what about if we are moving a long way? Sorry to butt in but I am moving a 4.5 hour drive away, so I don't really get how it's going to work! We will have to move out the day before I guess?

You might have to loveka. Last time we were moving locally but we had packers. They packed the day before then loaded up on the day, but I'm sure they will move you out the day before if you prefer. They will store your stuff overnight securely too, at a charge.

Nominally I think everyone is usually meant to be able to offer vacate possession by midday, but it can happen earlier at the bottom of the chain and then gets later in the day as the money cascades up from the bottom.
You can leave keys to your old place with your EA. They won't release them to your buyers until you get the phone call from your solicitor that the money has come through, when you then instruct EAs to release keys. You might then have a wait until your own purchase goes through.
We waited ages on one of our moves because our buyer was getting divorced. Her ex's solicitor did the sale and purchase for her ex but didn't inform our buyer's solicitor that her money had come through. Lots of stress and phonecalls, it all came good in the end. However I would never exchange and complete on the same day. By exchanging beforehand you know the move date is set in stone.

Loveka, if you move out the day before, where will you store all your stuff?

It still works the same way, all done in the same day. Only you will spend longer driving and won't spend time hanging around in a cafe like pp, waiting for your solicitor to tell you that the money has gone through.

When we moved several hundred miles, the removal men packed our stuff up on the Friday, kept our stuff on the lorry at their secure depot over the weekend, then drove to our new house and unloaded on the Monday. Not ideal but the rest of the chain wanted to move on the Friday. Dh and i spent the weekend on air beds at the new house. It did give us a chance to decorate without furniture in the house though.

Ugh thought so. Thanks everyone! Looks like we are going to have to be super organised with packing (we've already done all the non essentials and stored them with PiLs).

It may mean an overnight in a hotel for you and at the removers for your belongings. Check insurance!

We were the top of the chain in this, going to rental. We actually moved out two days early as that was cheaper for removals, not being a friday. Left the keys with the agent, who gave them to the buyers once the money cleared two days later. That also meant they knew we were gone and wouldnt have to wait, and by completion we were already doing the next house hunt.

Thanks everyone! So I think we will move our stuff out the day before,and stay on airbeds here. The problem is our two very highly strung cats who I think are going to freak out!

last thing you want is to be chasing after escaping cats. A few days in cat care for them?

Yes I have considered that but where? I guess we would take them to the new place and put them in a cattery there. Also considering making my own in the garden, ie a pen. It's a bit of a worry .

Do you have friends who could look after the cats? The vet may be able to help with sedatives to keep them calm so you can move them with you.

No, not where we are moving to sadly. There is an empty house we could put them in, but I am worried going to 2 unfamiliar places will be worse.

We have valium for them for the drive. They were feral when we got them, so still very difficult/highly strung! Considering driving up and then putting them in a pen in the garden until the furniture is in. I feel guilty moving them as they love it so much here!

We recently moved to our house and was in a 4 way chain-
FTB- us- sellers- sellers.
With our deposit we assumed the FTB deposit would get moved over so we though we didn't anything. But our solicitor asked for another 5% to make up the other half of 10% of our house purchase. We were a bit surprised as it wasn't explained clearly but we managed to cough up the rest of the cash. Be wary of that.
All 4 solicitor exchanged at same time and we completed a week later ( we had to as the seller at top wanted to complete then otherwise he'd pull out) we sorted out removal guys and got packing. On moving day removal guys turned up and got us moving quite quickly we were out the flat by 1pm, dropped the keys to EA and went to the house( wasn't far) as we got to EA forpick up the sellers had just dropped keys whilst travelling there. The removal guys were waiting for us at the house and moved us in smoothly.
Honestly the least stressful part for us was moving day.😊
Good luck