Completion Day Problems - What time did you get the keys?

[AchillesLastStand]

FTBs here and we will finally be completing next Monday (hallelujah!). I’m feeling a mix of nerves and excitement. When we exchanged at the end of the August the solicitor sent us letter explaining what would happen and I think it mentioned we’d get the keys by 1pm and need to collect them from estate agent.

Obviously this is legally binding but understandably things can go wrong. What time have you usually collected the keys on completion day and what problems have arose?

I’m trying to prepare myself for all eventualities! The plan is we get the keys Monday afternoon and then go down and clean the house. Then we have removals booked for Tuesday morning. I know it’s not going to be that straight forward!

On my last two moves : 5pm, just as everything was closing. And we got the keys for out current place in the afternoon but the vendors had barely started packing. We were on the drive in December with a five month old baby. We ended up paying our movers to help them fuck off and eventually got in sometime in the evening. 😩

Around midday a couple of times.
The last time, it was 5 on a Friday afternoon. The removal people weren’t happy.
TBF, nor were we

I have moved lots of times and they do usually confirm that all the money has changed hands by about lunchtime. And the vendors have been out and given the place a once over all but one time.

You have the luxury of not moving out and in on the same day. If you arrive and the vendors show no sign of leaving, or have left a load of crap to dispose of, call the EA and your solicitor immediately.

But I wouldn’t worry too much, despite all the stress things generally run ok.

Enjoy your new home

4.10, removal men kept ringing us asking if we had the key.

First time I moved, not until 4:30pm.

Moved three weeks ago and completion was at 10:30am! I’ve never been so surprised and stressed. Thankfully my solicitor said just to stay calm and asked how long we needed. We were packed and gone by noon.

Mine were still packing they left loads of stuff & the house was beyond filthy.
Was annoyed at the time but soon got over it.

Thank you @ShingleBeach.

There’s a lot of variation in times for collecting keys. I thought 12.00 or 1.00 pm was the usual time. 4.30 and 5.00pm seems very late in the day for collection. I think I would find that extremely stressful!

I’ll be anxiously waiting for my mobile to ring on Monday. It’s going to feel like a long day until the phone rings!

16:00 for me!

But OP you've got to wait for the money to come down the chain. The first transfer of money might start at midday but until that happens the second one won't happen... and that's without allowing for any problems. In our last house move there was a couple of hours between our buyers selling theirs and paying us the money for ours, not helped by their solicitor going on an extended lunch break. They were outside ours wanting to get in but hadn't paid us yet. We eventually completed ours about 3.30 once they'd paid and got our purchase completed at 4ish.

11.30pm at night. Fortunately we weren't moving in. Went to see halfway through the afternoon & they'd decided to move themselves. It wasn't going well. DH wanted to go to bed, so popped back very late & that's when we got the keys.

@waxytimes

But OP you've got to wait for the money to come down the chain. The first transfer of money might start at midday but until that happens the second one won't happen... and that's without allowing for any problems. In our last house move there was a couple of hours between our buyers selling theirs and paying us the money for ours, not helped by their solicitor going on an extended lunch break. They were outside ours wanting to get in but hadn't paid us yet. We eventually completed ours about 3.30 once they'd paid and got our purchase completed at 4ish.

I know it takes longer if there’s a chain. The good news is we’re not in a chain as we’re FTBs and our seller already has a property she’s moving into that she’s inherited, and then she’s moving into a new build before Christmas. Our mortgage lender is transferring funds on Friday. I’m hoping things will move more quickly because of this but we’ll see!

As an estate agent we tend to get release of key calls any where from 10am in the morning up until 4.45pm being the latest we've ever received a call. It all depends on how quickly you're solicitor sets the money off from the bottom of the chain.

However, if the person you are buying from is also moving (and its not an empty house) then you are a little at their mercy! Hopefully they will have been on the ball and have everything moved out early doors but some don't .

In some cases I've known people move their stuff in as people are moving theirs out!

We are due to complete on a Friday and I have an irrational fear that it won’t be finished by the end of the working day

We’ve bought 5 houses over the years- the only late one was when the estate agents lost the keys so we had to wait for a locksmith and eventually got in about 4pm but all others were between 1-2pm

We were 4.30pm and we were FTB and the sellers were moving in with family until their new house was ready. I dont quite know what the hold up was!

You’re in the massively luxurious position of not having to complete and move in on the same day. It’ll be absolutely fine.

I'm mildly traumatised by my completion day 6 years ago.

It was touch and go until the day whether the new builds would be completed due to some paperwork, the CEO of the Council got involved, we completed on the last day of my mortgage expiry.

I was patiently waiting for a completion call for 2 hours until someone called and asked if I the wanted keys. They'd emailed two hours earlier that I'd completed, oohh.

Empty flat 10am. Last sale of my house: told I'd need to had keys in around lunch time, which I did, waited and waited to hear funds had cleared (I was staying in a hotel fir the weekend) and it didn't happen til the Monday! So empty house, paid for hotel... lawyer said I could ask for interest in the balance but frankly it want my buyers fault but his buyer.
I think lunch time is the usual time, but obviously it's when funds are released and if a long chain it can take some time for money to be moved up.

12:20pm, and we were top of chain. So much earlier than we'd been led to fear by the removal guys!

Sounds like you’ll be fine.

Our most stressful was when we had to exchange and complete the same day because elderly vendor was critically ill in hospital and it’s a total mess if one party dies between exchange and completion.

Packed house into van by lunch, waited to find out if we were moving into new house or stuff into storage and us into parent’s attic while we looked for somewhere to rent. Got the keys late afternoon, 4 or 5.

17:30 after everyone was technically shut.

It was not a good day (not our fault ..bottom of the chain absolute morons) and we got our son to say goodbye to the old house and then had to bring him back there after school 🙄 thought we were going to have to sleep on the floor there at one point!

We’ve always got ours at the time we’ve been told… always around lunchtime.