Simultaneous exchange & completion on a property

[NanaStrikesAgain]

Can people tell me their experiences of exchanging and completing on a house sale / purchase on the same day please.

We are selling our house and there is no chain as we’re moving in with family. Our buyers are currently renting a house so they have nothing to sell and won’t be moving in straight away as they want to redo the driveway/path before they move in. Buyers are getting a mortgage.

The buyers have suggested we exchange and complete on the same day. It feels like this is a good idea but I don’t know if I’m missing something?

they want to redo the driveway/path
That sounds strange, it's not really the time of year to be doing such things.

Only really something to be attempted if there's no chain either side, which it sounds like is the case here.

The risk to you as a seller is that you need to fully move out of the property you are selling without the security of them having exchanged. So, they could potentially back out or try to renegotiate the price at the last minute.

It's typical to have a week or two between exchanging and completing.

It’s fine if going into rented/family or coming from rented as you can move ahead or after the day. We did it, was fine (had 2.5 weeks left of the rental so moving day was a week later giving us time to buy stuff etc

We did it a couple of years ago. The only "issue" we had was that there were so many last minute things to resolve on the day (and we were travelling for 24 hours), that by the time completion actually occurred just before 5pm, it was too late to collect the keys from the estate agent.

It wasn't an issue for us as we had already rented somewhere else to stay for the first week as our belongings were in transit from abroad.

Why do they want to do that?

It normally works out fine, but I'd want a decent reason for having to organise everything for moving without being certain completion will happen.

I did it once but I was moving out of rented with overlap and they were moving in with family, so no chain.

My biggest question would be: are they suggesting it to speed up completion i.e. everyone’s ready to go and you’d be waiting another couple of weeks simply for the sake of it, or is there some delay to exchange which would be more concerning and prompt questions.

I did that once and honestly, coming from different system, absolutely hated it due to the uncertainty until last second.
But it ended up fine, though we were bricking it that top of the chain who announced it week before when we all said "we are ready to exchange and shall we finally?" will change their mind last swc because they werebeing difficult throughout.
But I am overall against English system of apending money with no certainty so...🙈 Sorry.

It's just more stressful because everything can change and delay so if you have booked movers, it can be an issue if they say "sorry, need to move it 2 days". Though in your case it's not an issue with moving to family.

I wouldn't- what if you move out in advance and they pull out (or try to get money off) on the day? or if you line up removals then it doesn't go through. Would it really matter to everyone to have a week between exchange and completion?

So you are happy to move out completely on any day for which you have had no definite notice. If they buyers don't exchange, they can pull out at any time, up to and including the day of completion. You will meanwhile have incurred legal fees, removal costs , stress and inconvenience.
The question should be, why would they want to exchange and complete on the same day? Why do they want to reserve the right to pull out at the last minute?

We did it.

Thankfully, we weren't moving in that day, because they dropped the keys with the estate agent at 5.29pm, and were still packing lorries when we got there. They will have had a very long night ahead.

Potential issues - it can all fall apart after youve packed and pretty much moved. So you have uncertainty until it's all done.

You can ask them to agree to cover your removal costs in the event that they pull out.

I’ve done it quite a few times but not for a property I was actually moving into - it’s been for properties I was then developing/renovating.

I did it once. It was fine for me

I've done this, but wasn't under any pressure to move out of my previous place.

I wouldn’t do this unless there was an exceptionally good reason. At any point up to exchange people can and do pull out. It’s bad enough when you lose money on searches but if you need to be ready to go on the same day as you exchange, what it could mean is that you’ve booked removals (and probably had to pay for them in full) and also packed all of your stuff into boxes ready to leave and then it all falls apart. Plus if you have kids when would you be giving notice to school?

Personally I’d want at least 2 weeks between exchange and completion when you can do the “irreversible” things like giving notice to school, terminating utilities, paying the balance on removals, etc. And of course the packing!

Yes. The people we were buying from pulled out a few minutes before exchange.

We were all packed up, removals on the road to us. We were moving for new jobs and had given up our jobs. Cost us thousands. They came crawling back a few months later wanting us to buy it again! I think you can imagine what we said.

@Bulbsbulbsbulbs

Wow - that's utterly despicable.

I hope that you have settled somewhere lovely now.

We did it about 3 years ago. I'd not recommend as we had to pack the lorry so early to get time to do it and in load that the entire house was loaded before we knew we had actually sold. If it had been delayed all our beds were on a wagon and they said they'd not reload it to then load it again the next day. I hated it tbh having small kids. We did all move but it was awful just waiting around with an empty house

We did it on a probate property where it did not matter if it happened (or not) as no-one was living there at the time.
For the record, it did happen but only because we made it very clear to the buyer our patience was running out (after initial enthusiasm, they had been stalling which turned out to be them wanting to decide on a new kitchen before moving).

When we were actually moving house and dependant on the chain, we insisted on a gap between E&C.

It wasn’t supposed to happen but because the conveyancers were slow they had to do both on the same day and they had the cheek to charge me extra for it (crappy online conveyancers Muve) but I was a first time buyer and thankfully no long chain.

We did it for our first house where we were buying a part ex house from a house builder. It was fine.

I did it once. Never again. Our sellers were desperate as they were stony broke so pushed us to agree to it.

Our pets were in kennels, kids in childcare, all our belongings on the removal van and then our solicitor called to say that the seller's mortgage company had started repossession proceedings so we couldn't proceed with the purchase.

Thankfully the sellers had moved out and left a key for us so we told our solicitor to go ahead with the sale, sent the removals company to unpack our stuff in the new house and we basically squatted for a month until the repossession order was reversed and we could proceed with the purchase.

Even without a chain, it wouldn't be keen. I wouldn't want to move all my belongings out and risk it falling through. Properties are generally easier to market furnished, so you'd then either need to move it all back in or have a less marketable property.

So unless there was an extremely good reason (e.g. their mortgage offer expiring) I would want a gap.

Yes, done it 3 times ...

It’s pretty common in chain free situations and can work fine, especially like yours where neither side is under pressure to move the same day.

The main thing to be aware of is risk. Until completion actually happens, either side can still pull out and you don’t have the usual gap for funds to be fully lined up. If the buyer’s mortgage money is delayed that day, everything stalls. Some people are fine with that, others prefer at least a short gap for peace of mind.
Worth checking with your solicitor how confident they are the buyer’s lender can release funds on the day. If everyone’s organised, it can be smooth.