Exchange and Complete on the same day?

[Misscf81]

Hi,

I am a FTB and need a bit of advice.

My question is, how common is it to exchange and complete on the same day - and am I within my right to stress that this is what I want to take place?

At the minute, my partner is furloughed so the mortgage lender has approved our offer knowing he is furloughed and my employment/income has not been impacted (I am also the main earner) - but with everything going on, this could change at any point.

I am worried that should we exchange in the next few weeks, but then completion is not for a few weeks (or longer) after that - if my employment situation changes in the meantime. not only will we lose the house (as the lender won't lend to us), but we will lose our 20K deposit and I just can't have that.

I have explained to my solicitor that I want to exchange and complete on the same day - to negate there being any changes to my employment in between completion and exchange (and therefore buggering the whole thing up) but she does not seem to get it and says we are too early to be talking about that. There is no chain - we rent and the vendor has already moved out of the house. I am feeling very annoyed as this solicitor does not seem to get why I would not want to risk our deposit, and therefore complete on the same day as we exchange.

Any advice on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated.

It's not unusual, it's also not what always happens and if that's what you want then I see no reason not to get it!
That said, if there is a delay between exchange and completion then I doubt there would be an issue, just don't mention your work has been affected! Perhaps your solicitor thinks it's too early to be thinking about it as they're waiting on some papers to be returned.

So far my work has not been affected, and if it is not, then there is nothing to worry about but I am worried on a week by week basis that something may change, and if the lender wants to check my employment status has not changed between exchange and completion, then we could lose the deposit.

I just feel angry that we are paying this solicitor, yet they won't agree to what we have asked for.

normally it is a daft thing to do BUT if no-one is actually moving that day (as you don't have to and the place is empty) then it is feasible. Problem is that nothing is certain until exchange so you can't book removers, broadband, post redirect etc etc etc and it makes a massive amount of stress and work.

you also can't give notice on your rental until exchange.

that said, I believe that moving to an empty property is ok under current rules, as obviously you won't cross paths with the vendors.

Most solicitors won't even talk about exchange and completion until all the enquiries are complete and both sides and both solicitors are ready to talk about exchange and completion dates. It's too early.

You are concerned you will lose your job between exchange and completion if it's not on the same day, and then your mortgage offer will be withdrawn. Except if you don't tell the lender they will never know, they don't reconfirm employment during the term of an offer. You don't have to worry, even if you can't do both on the same day

Over three house moves we've always exchanged and completed on the same day. It's very common and shouldn't be an issue especially with your chain-free situation. What is unusual is the reason you're giving for wanting to exchange and complete, so I wouldn't get into that at all - it could be why your solicitor is saying to park that concern for now. You can simply say that you want to exchange and complete on the same day and tell her to flag if there's any issue with that and why. There shouldn't be, but equally she might feel like things are so unpredictable at the moment (e.g. with banking systems) that she might not be able to promise anything.

I usually do this if I'm buying an empty property . Sound like you need at give your solicitor a metaphoric kick up the bum!

Normally a simultaneous exchange and completion is not recommended - too much stress on the day with uncertainty of whether it will actually happen. Anyone can pull out before exchange and of course this could mean someone pulling out on the day, when you've already made financial and physical arrangements for the move.

However, during this pandemic/lockdown, the Solicitors Regulation Authority are recommending simultaneous exchange and completions, so that the risk of someone being in breach of the contract (and therefore one party being liable for penalties) is minimised.

If you exchange a week prior to completion you will have that time to pack and prepare, but you also run the risk of the lockdown becoming more restrictive, someone in the chain falling ill, dying, losing their job, unable to access their finances/savings in time, lenders not transferring funds in time, removal companies having to close because of more severe restrictions being put in place etc. With a same day exchange and completion, no-one will be in breach of contract because the "exchange" won't happen until everyone is able to complete.

I have exchanged and completed on the same day. Not unusual but depends on the chain. No chain both times.

As FTBs moving into an empty property we were encouraged to exchange and complete on the same day, how long is your chain?

I've had to do a 28 day exchange before (think we completed a week later) on a repossessed property, as it was a stipulation of the seller (the bank). We contracted the solicitor on the basis that we were working towards exchange within 4 weeks - it's not normal but there's no reason I can understand why they can't work to that kind of stipulation, especially given that they will be handling a far smaller volume of sales currently.

As previous posters have pointed out, there is nothing to stop simultaneous exchange and completion but you are not at the stage to start discussion yet. The solicitor has to receive all enquiries and paperwork and do their report to you. They will then start discussions about an agreed date at that stage.

I don’t think it would be a problem in your circumstances, provided you are happy to pay your notice period on your rented property (usually a month?)

I think we exchanged and completed on our house the same day. There was no chain - we moved out of a house that was going to be rented out and the sellers moved into rented themselves. In those circumstances it works fine. Obviously in a long chain it wouldn’t.

My solicitor is ONLY considering exchange and completion on the same day and has advised us not to do anything else.

Very common. I did this during the last financial crisis. Mortgage offers were being pulled AFTER exchange of contracts and leaving buyers in the lurch. Our buyer was a FTB and we were so concerned this would happen that that I insisted exchange and complete happened on the same day.

As others have said it's not that unusual but not something I like to do personally, as others have said with simultaneous exchange and completion the deal can fall through or be delayed right up until the day you are due to move and if that happened you'd be left with all your stuff packed, movers at the door and needing to be paid, potentially having given notice on your rental and suddenly left high and dry with no comeback whatsoever (and I have personally had deals fall through on the very day we were due to exchange so it does happen). I guess you could just plan to keep your rental and not move in until a few weeks after completion but then you are paying both rent and mortgage which seems a waste at a time money is likely to be tight anyway (unless you would use the time to get work done at the new place or similar I guess)...

Also as others have said the mortgage company don't check in about your employment or ask you to sign anything between exchange and completion so if you do lose your job but can still pay the mortgage it's unlikely to be an issue.

We did it too. All went fine.

Our solicitor is actually recommending on the Law society’s recommendations. Currently there is nothing legally that can protect you if you exchange and then can’t complete because of Coronavirus related reasons. You would just lose deposit

Sorry should had added that law society is recommending it all happen on the same day