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Original poster

What time did you get your keys?

40 replies

mamnotmum · 17/01/2025 11:27

I know it depends on a lot of things but we move next week. I'd love to know what time you all got your keys on completion day and how long the chain was?

Our chain is short - our buyer (in rented, mortgage needed and won't move on completion day) - us (no mortgage) - our seller (no mortgage) - their seller (empty property). I'm really hopefully that midday is realistic.

OP posts:
catndogslife · 17/01/2025 12:05

Dropped off our keys at midday. Travelled 50 miles to new location and collected keys for new house at 2 pm.
Chain of 3 properties, we were in the middle!

OwletteGecko · 17/01/2025 12:06

We bought a probate house so there was no one moving out. Our buyers were first time buyers. We got the keys at 4.30pm. it was winter and getting dark.

By 2pm our removal people were trying to work out if they could get our boxes over the fence and into the garden!

Then ,when we got the keys, they'd left everything - four sofas, four beds, even the cutlery in the drawers - so there wasn't much room for our stuff!

Good luck. Hope yours is much earlier and easier.

Original poster
mamnotmum · 17/01/2025 12:13

Ohhhh nooo. Maybe I'm being too optimistic then.

Our estate agent already has our key and the person we are buying from lives about a minute from their agent so I don't think keys will be an issue. Just potentially paperwork/solicitors.

OP posts:
sweetpickle2 · 17/01/2025 12:15

Our chain was FTBs in rented with mortgage buying our place, us moving into a house with a mortgage, our sellers moving into an empty house with a mortgage.

Was about midday before we were instructed to hand over our keys, then we drove about 4 hours away to our new house, and were told we could collect the keys about 2 hours into that journey.

Twiglets1 · 17/01/2025 12:23

It's supposed to be by around lunchtime but I'll be honest and say we haven't always got the keys that early or been ready to move out that early ourselves.

My daughter (FTB) moved 3 years ago and we expected the keys to be ready early as the tenant had moved out and no one was living in the flat but the keys weren't ready to be collected until mid afternoon for some strange reason. So it's best to be quite relaxed with your expectations if you can.

maximist · 17/01/2025 12:31

I got mine at about 1pm.

LuckysDadsHat · 17/01/2025 12:35

2.30 for a 3 person chain. FTB, us and empty house.

NeddieSeagoonsSteamPoweredTelephone · 17/01/2025 12:39

LuckysDadsHat · 17/01/2025 12:35

2.30 for a 3 person chain. FTB, us and empty house.

This was about the same for us - cash buyer for our house, us moving with a mortgage, and our vendor moving to a care home. Dropped our keys off at 12 as instructed, then had to wait for our money to move to be able to collect the keys to our new home. Only to find it was filthy and some stuff had been left behind. But it was ours now so it didn’t matter! Still very happy here 12 years later.

HaveItAll90 · 17/01/2025 12:42

Very recently
Chain was ftb-us- empty house

We didn't get keys to empty house till 1pm. And although we were completely packed and ready the removal men needed one more journey so the people buying our house never actually got in til 2! Thankfully she was lovely about the delay to getting inti her own home!

BigDahliaFan · 17/01/2025 12:44

About 2pm, fortunately sellers had let us deposit a load of garden stuff the day before. Lovely sellers.

We ended up feeding the movers a load of bacon baps for lunch while we waited.

My husband - 10am the day after they should have moved. He ended up staying at his parents house over night - there'd been a bank SNAFU.

Nourishinghandcream · 17/01/2025 12:53

We did not have to move out & in on the same day as we had an overlap and another house to move into.

We had already moved out of our old house but I went back on completion day to give it a good clean and do final meter readings.
The money did not come through until late in the afternoon (talking nearly 5pm) by which time the new owner has decided it was too late to move that day and the EA had closed so I had to drive over to the EA and post the keys through the letter box.
Still don't know where the new owner (and their furniture) stayed that night.🤔

usernamesaretoohardtothinkof · 17/01/2025 12:56

About 2pm. Everyone was ready to move earlier but the money took time to go through.

Nespressso · 17/01/2025 13:00

We didn’t get ours til the next day, despite the money going through ok. We now realise they took the piss but we did t k ow at the time as FTB

our vendor just didn’t have her shit together and wasn’t ready, small local estate agent said she wouldn’t be out til the following day. We didn’t question it as we were idiots. She left it a mess as well. Bitch.

autumn1610 · 17/01/2025 13:06

Us rented and ftb and a couple moving into a probate. We picked keys up about 4/4.30ish I remember it was pretty late in the day

GasPanic · 17/01/2025 13:50

Mine was awful. I was coming up from the south and the car broke down. Had to limp to a garage and then decided to hire a van as was going to have to move more stuff over the next few days. Was just about going to make it to the EA before closing when hit a traffic jam that held me up for 1 hour and stopped me reaching them.

Fortunately the EA took the keys home with them and allowed me to come and pick them up, it was about 20:00 on a Friday.

Then got to the house in the dark and freezing cold.

Tisthedamnseason · 17/01/2025 14:22

5pm for a two house/3 person chain. But we exchanged and completed on the same day (which I won't be doing again!)

tedgran · 17/01/2025 14:50

No use to you now, hope you get the keys soon, but, my sister was a legal secretary, she said don't complete on a Friday, if there are problems with paperwork, banks, etc you may not be able to sort it out over the weekend.

Doris86 · 17/01/2025 14:58

It’s normally midday ish for the first house in the chain. So that’s when you can expect to have to give up the keys to your old house.

The second house in the chain is normally a bit later, maybe 2pm (after the solicitor has been for lunch!). So you might be able to collect keys for new house about then.

Gekko21 · 17/01/2025 15:01

Doris86 · 17/01/2025 14:58

It’s normally midday ish for the first house in the chain. So that’s when you can expect to have to give up the keys to your old house.

The second house in the chain is normally a bit later, maybe 2pm (after the solicitor has been for lunch!). So you might be able to collect keys for new house about then.

Out of interest, why is it so late for the first in the chain? In a long chain, isn't there a big risk of running out of time? And then what happens with the removals?

YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME · 17/01/2025 15:25

4pm for this house, as the solicitors went to lunch!! So, I made them wait for their bill. It was bloody freezing, 21st December, we had done our own removals, so lorry needed to be unloaded and another loaded. Luckily the buyer of our house gave us a week's grace (only needed the day) and we loaded up the second truck at 3am, in -5 degrees. We hosted 14 for Christmas Dinner, which was a brilliant incentive to get the house sorted and boxes emptied.

user1485851222 · 17/01/2025 15:27

Last time we moved, we got them at 2pm. One time we actually got in the house at 7pm, as the sellers were moving themselves, very slow, no idea how to pack van. So my removal men had to assist them... good luck, hope it goes well. I'm waiting on completion date, and now struggling to get removal men, as limited in the area I live in.

NotNeil · 17/01/2025 15:36

We were chain free cash buyers. For a number of reasons we ended up exchanging and completing on the same day. The funds finally got transferred to the vendors at 4.45pm which was too late for us to get to the estate agents for the keys.

We were moving back to the UK from abroad and (fortunately) had arranged for an airbnb for a few days as our furniture wasn't arriving until a few days later so it was fine. We ended up getting the keys the next morning.

Not an experience I would care to repeat.

Hope yours goes smoothly OP.

MooFroo · 17/01/2025 15:45

5pm a Friday

Original poster
mamnotmum · 17/01/2025 19:55

Oh that's lots of late moves!

We've already exchanged. And it isn't a Friday we complete. But the thought of having to get an air b n b with the children and get them to school etc sounds very stressful!

OP posts:
LostittoBostik · 17/01/2025 19:58

It's usually around midday. Later if you're at the top of a very long chain

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