Completion day, key collection time?

[SwimBaby]

I’m hoping to exchange contracts tomorrow and complete on a flat on Monday. What actually happens on completion day in terms of what time will I get access to the property? I’ve only ever part exchanged properties for new builds before so am not sure of the process.
My solicitor is so difficult to talk to and get hold of it’s hard to get any info from them.
I’ve transferred all the funds for the flat a couple of weeks ago so they won’t be waiting for any money from me.

Basically your solicitor will transfer funds to your seller's solicitor. Once they have confirmed they've received the funds, it's completed and your solicitor will phone you, and the estate agent to tell them to release the keys.
In my experience it's usually around 11-12ish, but may be later if there is a chain and you're number 3/4/5/6 I. The chain, as it works from bottom up

I didn't get the keys to my place until 16:00.
Brother got his at 11:30.
All depends if your in a chain or how long they take to get out 😊

Thank you, it’s just me buying the flat and the people in the flat have moved into rented accommodation so hopefully it won’t be too late in the day.

Ah you should be good to go pretty early then!
Congrats!

We got the keys about 1pm. I wrongly thought the RE would bring them to the house, but we had to collect them.

I'm sure I mentioned on here before, that I also thought they'd say 'congrats' or 'thanks for buying' or 'just thank you' etc. As she thrust the keys in my hand she said 'there you go!'

Elouera that’s not good , it’s such a special time you’d think they would realise that.
Thank you everyone.

When I bought a flat last year they were going into rented and my buyers were first time buyers. So small chain.

Out of my old property by 12. Got my keys about 3pm

Lots of hanging about as I moved about two miles away only.

Hope that helps.

Do the movers wait if there is a delay?

When I bought my house, there was no chain and I didn't get the keys until 5pm! I was very grumpy.

Movers will wait but some charge for this - we paid a flat £40 rate to waive the wait fee as I think it was £25 an hour otherwise.

I think I’ll change the movers to a slightly later slot. I’ve booked 10-12 but it could be risky.

It depends what time the money gets to the sellers solicitor. Then someone needs to inform estate agents to release the keys. We were buying an empty property and were moving from rented so no chain. I booked a boiler inspection for 3.30 and the estate agent had to accompany us as they hadn’t had the call. Completion happened just before 4 just as I was starting to panic!

Late completion sounds very stressy.

@SwimBaby

Do the movers wait if there is a delay?

I think it all depends who you go with. We had a two hour gap from the house being empty to getting the keys and ours were happy to go get some dinner and come back for the van once we had keys.

@TokenGinger

When I bought my house, there was no chain and I didn't get the keys until 5pm! I was very grumpy.

I had the same experience. Complete last week and the solicitor didn’t receive the money until 5pm. My buyer didn’t sign the contract until 48 hrs before exchange. It was very stressful.

Depends where you are in the chain. We were in the middle of 3. Didn't get a call from the solicitor until 2:30pm. Our vendors had also decided to use an estate agent miles away so I then had to drive for half an hour to collect the keys. It was half four before I could get to our estate agent to drop our keys off, so our buyer didn't pick them up until 5pm. Fortunately he was at work and lived with his parents so didn't intend to move until the next day anyway. Very stressful for us though!

It’s just me in the chain, I have nothing to sell and I’m purchasing a flat. The people in the flat are moving into rented accommodation this weekend. The flat is for my DC who is renting at the moment.
I’m going to change the movers to an early afternoon slot.
Thanks once again for your help.

Hallyup6 that sounds really stressful.

Ideally around midday but last time we didn't get ours till 4.30pm. We were bored, fuming and then exhausted. And had to pay extra to our removals company, all because our seller's solicitor was beyond slow and useless!

It depends on what you agree with the seller and sometimes moving in/ out is a different day.

We exchanged and completed in same day. We saw seller day before completion and they gave us the keys. On completion day we waited for the call solicitor to inform about completion. It was 16:45. We just walked in after that. Sellers used Yopa as an EA.

I complete at 9am on my house in December. Could've get keys until after 5pm as the stupid sellers decided to move themselves. The house was an absolute shit tip when I opened the door - I was furious 🤬

We completed at 9:30 so you may be ok with 10-12 but I wouldn't want to rely on it!

Once you complete the house is not yours- you should be out by then. One flat I sold in March completed at 10.30am. My own hoyse was supposed to complete by 1pm so I was out. As it happened tge money got delayed down the line and it didn't happen that day at all.
I think lunch time is the expected time, which gives everyone time to move out in the morning.

I’ve booked a 12 to 2 slot for the movers to play it safe.
Exchange went through ok today.