Asking to move furniture in after exchange but before completion

[worriedworriedworriedworried]

Would it be cheeky asking our vendor if we're able to start moving things into the property once we've exchanged on it but before completion? FWIW the house is empty and I'd like to give it a good clean before we properly move in. We have toddler twins and I can't imagine what moving in day will look like otherwise... obviously we'd have all insurances in place to protect ourselves.

Bit risky legally. I would not allow it. Bit of a cheek to ask although some people do. Also if it does not go ahead and you sue for breach of contract you are lumbered with the stuff moved in there.

I had this with a buyer who was pregnant with twins wanting to move in in between exchange and completion. I refused as too risky - what if they'd then claimed to find things not working, wanted to change the price etc etc? It would also have been in breach of mortgage terms. What I did do was get the solicitor to get things moving as fast as possible with the sale so they did get to completion quite fast.

Get the proper removal and packing service, it's well well worth paying for. It's not about the distance, it's the getting things packed and moved as easily as possible and these people are experts at manoeuvring furniture. The difficult bit is getting furniture in and out and packing safely in van so nothing gets broken.

If you have any family help, get them to have the twins for a day or two. We had no family to actually leave our 5yo with but what we did to minimise anxiety for her with our 200 mile move was to put her in holiday club on packing day. She never saw the house all packed up. We then drove off straight from holiday club to a night in a hotel partway there. DH then went ahead of us to supervise unpacking at the new house, whilst DD and I went to my Mum's for a night. By the time we arrived at new location her bed and all of her stuff was unpacked and ready to play with.

Erm no this isn't really on. You don't own the house so you shouldn't be entering in my opinion. Lots can change between exchange and completion unfortunately xx

Get packers in. I’ve agreed that our buyers will be able to bring pots and put in garden after exchange (fingers firmly crossed ) but I wouldn’t be happy with things in the house until completion.

We had packing done last move which was 20 years ago and we had a toddler and were going a fair distance, worth every penny. Quite reassuring to read so many say you don’t need to do much when you use packers as they are arriving Wednesday and I am moving around putting coloured dots on things and starting to feel a touch nervous.

It’s entirely up the vendor. Lots would say no. To be optimistic, we managed to persuade our vendor to rent to us before even exchanging, as the house was empty and we needed to break the chain to keep our buyer.

The packing quotes we've received so far range from £1800-£2200 which seem ludicrous for a 10- maximum 12- minute drive away. I was absolutely adamant we'd do the packing ourselves but we might have to throw money at this to get it done properly
Are you sure those quotes are right? Last time we moved it was about £2800 I think but only £500 of that was the packing service, the rest was the removals itself. The small packing cost on top of the removals bit is totally worth it.

When I bought my first flat the vendors let me move 2 weeks before completion. They were so kind and relaxed. Neither of us even thought to tell the solicitors or agents. So yes, I’d let you move some stuff in.

They were very relaxed indeed. That could have gone badly wrong for them.

The packing quotes we've received so far range from £1800-£2200 which seem ludicrous for a 10- maximum 12- minute drive away

Say what now??

We moved about a 12 minute drive away. We asked for quotes with and without packing from each removal company. The TOTAL removal quote ranged from £2000-2500, of which £200-500 was the cost of the packing. And that was for a 3 bed house with a garage stacked to the rafters with crap.

@worriedworriedworriedworried I'd ask for some more quotes and get them to split out the packing vs the removal cost.

We had an agreement with our vendors that allowed us to rewire and decorate! We would have been out of pocket, but we weren’t going to pull out and they weren’t either. Anything is possible if both parties agree. Their solicitor was the main difficulty, but the vendor told him to calm down!

That's nuts.
Neither of you could possibly just know the other party wasn't going to pull out.

Well at 96 in a care home, I was pretty sure of her. I was absolutely certain about my commitment.

why wouldn’t we crack on? Her dying was the biggest issue, so we had that (unfortunate) outcome in the contract too. Simple’s.

I wouldn't allow this. You can't insure the contents until completion, you can insure the building itself.

It's called early key release. We've done it previously with an empty property.

We had the keys 3 days early. Decorated my daughters bedroom. Painted. New blinds. New rug etc. then I build her bed, set all her toys up on moving day. I was heavily pregnant so it really helped to spread it all out a bit.

Early key release is a special arrangement that can be written into the contract for doing work such as painting before completion but it is not used for storing possessions such as beds & wardrobes

So what though, if both parties agree, you can do what you want.

Yes if both parties agree the buyer can come into the house and do what they want, they owner doesn’t have to take their solicitors advice. It’s just not very likely that OPs vendors will agree to them installing furniture before they own the house.