Has anyone completed houses sale/purchase over this corona period?

[Raaaa]

Just what is says in the title really. We've signed our purchase contract and currently waiting for a completion date, buyers are being a bit slow, apparently their solicitors are really bad (typical) just wondered if anyone has actually completed/got the keys?

OutComeTheWolves - our solicitor has said that some clients are reluctant to push on now, due to job uncertainty etc. I think our vendor's solicitor is worried about the same thing, as they have been chasing up for last fortnight. EA too.

The bank has signed off on the updated doc we needed, so we will hopefully have everything sorted soon.

I need to check the rules here 're moving into an empty place. If we can move, it will more than likely just be the pair of us loading the car and doing a hundred round trips... must also check if vans can be hired... I am anticipating a lot of gritted teeth conversation

Best of luck to everyone in property limbo!

Any van is still operating for removals if that helps!

We’ve managed to sell, because we sold to the tenant. And we’re about to buy a show home which we are immediately leasing back to the developer. So while people working from home and postal delays have slowed things down, nobody actually needs to move house so we’ve been able to go ahead.

Sale was agreed middle of January and completed on 3rd April.

Reserved the purchase on 2nd March, have just signed all paperwork and about to hand deliver back to solicitor. Completion Friday if we’re lucky but more likely next week.

We are due to exchange/complete the same day mid May. We are going from rented into an empty property and hiring a van to move ourselves. Fingers crossed for us all!

@Callmesausage - can I ask, was it hard to get all parties to exchange and complete on the same day? This is what I want to negate there being any changes in circumstances but my solicitor does not seem keen.

There is only us in the chain really, the person we are buying from is selling his deceased mothers house (all probate etc sorted some time ago and it has been rented out in the interim).

Our solicitor advised exchange/completion same day.

We are hoping to exchange and complete Mid-may. It’s fancy possession of the house we are buying and our buyers are just hiring a van to move from rented.

Just waiting on paperwork in the post to confirm dates etc.

Desperately want it to go ahead as we could get the garden sorted (don’t currently have one) to at least enjoy in this lockdown period.

And ditto exchange and completion on same day.

Hi, I also have a question about exchange and completion dates...

So it looked like our seller was pulling out, but now it seems not 🤞 We are a chain of 5 and our EA has recommended that we agree an exchange date in the next week or two and have a potentially big gap between then and completion, possibly bringing that date forward.

DP is really anti this idea and says it's too risky as we could be liable for a chunky deposit if it falls through. The bigger the gap, the more likely I suppose. On the other hand, I don't know how practical it is to exchange and complete on the same day in a chain of 5. Can it be done, realistically?

Thank you!

I don’t know about the logistics, but it’s what all the solicitors in our short chain are advising. I think it’s mainly a matter of ensuring all paperwork is 100% and that the money transfers are done at the right time? Perhaps someone more legally minded can advise?

If the sellers of the house I'm buying moved themselves into rented (which they want to do whilst waiting for their next project to come into the market), then I could move into their (empty) house and they'd get their money.
I'm moving out of a rented house, we could swap and they could move in here then we'd both be happy and the sale would complete but nobody else apart from me likes that idea

Yes! My NDN moved last Friday!

They had exchanged a week or two beforehand & weren’t in a chain as such (were renting next to us). They didn’t know until the day of completion whether they would complete or not.

@CoffeeRunner they didn't know if they'd complete until the day?

We were due to exchange today but it’s been put on hold for two weeks because of practicalities with getting removal firms.
We are only in a chain of two though.

That’s what the neighbour said @Raaaa.

Maybe she was being dramatic, maybe not. I wouldn’t really know.

Her family provided removal services (vans & manpower).

No one know if completion will go through until the day though do they? I mean sometimes there is a problem or the money doesn’t filter down.
Is anyone getting professional removers at the moment, it’s not really safe for them is it?

Ah okay I read it as they thought they'd pull out on the completion day..

We've got an exchange date now and looking to complete mid May, there are some removals running around here not sure about other areas

We are hoping to exchange and complete this coming Monday! We all moved in with parents pre lockdown and our new house is vacant!

@Manth0914 snap! It all happened very quickly

We are looking at next week now too!
Can't wait, although nerves are kicking in.

We completed on 26th March - was very easy and no problems despite everyone working from home.

@chocolatedrem, did you have much of a chain and did you use removals?

Congrats to everyone who has made it btw!

@LockdownLiquidLunch we sold and we were buying with no onward chain.

Removals wise we got a man with a van. (Man With Van is the Company) and so they are essential workers and came fine. It just required a lot of communication. Of course, we are young and healthy so had no concerns if we caught the virus tho!

We're about to exchange on a property that's been vacant for some time and we have no chain behind us as we're in rented at the moment.

We've decided to overlap both properties for ten days, to give us time to adequately clean the new house, as well as hire a van so husband and I can move all of the packed boxes, plus the lighter pieces of furniture. This will then leave all the heavy furniture that we can't move ourselves - our removal guys will deal with that.

We're planning on leaving our rented house 48hrs before the removal guys arrive to collect all the heavy stuff (which I'll give a good going over with antibac spray), and sequester ourselves well away from them as they bring it into the new house.

This seemed like a good compromise in reducing overall exposure for all of us.

I would have preferred to wait until life got back to some kind of normality before moving, but with social distancing looking to be with us for some time, we can't put our move off forever.

We are in, are you?!