What time to get keys on move in day (rental)?

[portalia]

My estate agent advised that we could pick up keys for our new flat at 12. So I booked a van for that time, to have everything whizzed over and then return the van by 2pm. I have no idea when the other tenants are leaving, but they were returning overseas, so I would have thought they'd be out of the flat before our move in day.

Now I got another email from the estate agents saying that move in time was 3pm. Which is a complete PITA as I now have to book a new van booking. Is this not a bit late?

I thought 12:00 was the time when the flat became 'ours'.

I don’t think there is a set time that applies universally but would think you could go back and say you’ve already made arrangements based on the original time of 12 and need to stick to that and see how you get on? We got ours much later like 5pm which suited us fine but we could have started the tenancy a day later if we’d really needed to move in one go and earlier in the day.

They'd have to do a end of tenancy clean and inventory so I'd be very surprised if the previous tenant vacates the same day.
I'd go back and say you've made your arrangements in accordance with their advised times, but in my experience the new tenant gets the keys as soon as they go to the office and pay the first months rent!