We exchanged and completed on the same day (Friday). I'd been chasing solicitors all week to exchange with a plan to complete on Friday but there were problems with my buyers deposit. On Thursday I lost my sh*t and refused to exchange but my husband talked me round and we agreed to do it all on Friday. There were 4 parties in the chain and ours was the bottom property.
We had reserved a van to move ourselves but we wouldn't have to pay if we didn't pick it up. We didn't book a company as didn't know when we would be moving. I'd been packing but leaving some stuff out in case we didn't move on Friday.
We got to 11am and the solicitor phoned to say it looked like we'd exchange and complete today.
At 1pm they phoned again to say there was a problem with out mortgage as Nationwide computer systems had been down for 2 days and although they'd ordered the money for 2 days earlier it hadn't come. They suggested we all exchange that day and move on license and then complete in the Monday.
At that point we had to finish packing (more stuff left than I thought), collect the van and start loading it up. I also had to phone utilities to cancel and set up new house and let insurers know we were moving.
Because it all happened quite late in the day, the estate agent arranged for us to just swap keys between ourselves. Luckily everyone in the chain was understanding that things were chaotic and last minute. We eventually left our property at 7pm, we were moving boxes out as buyer was moving in. We hadn't emptied the shed but kept our key and went back the next day to do that. I think we finished unloading the van / cars at midnight.
Our sellers hadn't been able to move their washer / dryer or take curtains down so came back the next morning for them. He also brought an electrician with him as I'd phoned him and asked if there was a switch I couldn't find as no upstairs lights were working. It turns out some light fittings were changed and there'd been a crossed eire so the electrician came to fix it.
I think the reason it was so crazy was that we weren't fully packed as we didn't have a definite moving date and we were trying to move everything ourselves. I was naive and didn't consider that removal companies are probably used to people changing dates at the last minute and that it was OK to do that.
We were lucky that our buyer and seller were so reasonable.
It was utter madness!
Having said that my stress levels were through the roof all week trying to chase solicitors. If we hadn't moved that day it would have been another fortnight and I don't think I'd have coped with 2 more weeks of stress.