What happens when you exchange and complete on the same day

As we were running out of time because our mortgage offer was expiring, we decided to exchange and complete on the same day!

 

Initially, I had my reservations as most people we spoke to had exchanged contracts and then completed on a different day but with all the uncertainties from COVID-19, I was glad it all happened in the same day.  There’s a useful page from Which? about exchange and completion.

I thought it might be useful to talk about completion day from the perspective of the buyer and what actually happens on that day!

 

In the few days before we were due to complete

 

Once our exchange and completion date was set, we made sure all the necessary documents were signed and that we transferred all the deposit funds and outstanding balances to our solicitor. By this point, we had signed the following: 

 

·      Contract

·      Lease

·      Lease plans

·      Mortgage deed

·      Exchange authority letter

·      Authority for solicitor to sign letter

·      Declaration of ownership form

 

Our solicitor requested the drawdown of funds from our lender and liaised with the developer’s solicitor to ensure we would exchange and complete on the agreed date.

 

Once our solicitor confirmed we had nothing further to do, I breathed a big sigh of relief! 

 

About three working days before we were due to complete, I realised we didn’t actually know what was going to happen on the day.

 

We emailed the estate agents and ended up receiving a lot of out of office responses and instructions to forward our message to various email accounts due to the disruption caused by COVID-19!

 

Tip! I definitely recommend checking earlier what the steps are on the day of completion so you won’t be as stressed as we were! 

 

After a few frantic emails and phone calls, we were informed via e-mail that one of the estate agents would meet us at 4:30pm to give us the keys. Sadly, we were informed there would not be a handover as they were be unable to enter the flat with us. The handover is where they explain how to use the property.  We received a short email guide instead. 

 

Completion day

 

It turns out not much happens on the day of completion except for a lot of waiting and just feeling very anxious! The anticipation and nervousness I felt reminded me of when we waited for exam results.

 

We contacted our solicitor in the morning and she confirmed she was contacting the developer’s solicitor for the exchange and completion to take place.  It turns out this takes place via a telephone conversation and the mortgage and deposit is transferred to seller on the completion date.

 

As we weren’t in a chain, I had assumed it wouldn’t take long but actually it was wasn’t until 4pm that we received a confirmation email from our solicitor that completion had taken place!

 

Tip! It’s worth asking your conveyancer if they know roughly what time completion would be done by to help minimise some of the anxiety.

 

It was a relief when our solicitor finally contacted us to say it was all done! We received an email confirmation and I forwarded it to the estate agents.  Previously, we were told that they would contact us once they are informed completion had taken place but it wasn’t clear who would inform them so I forwarded the confirmation to them just in case.

 

At around 4:15pm, we received a call from the estate agents saying they would be at the meeting place at 4:30pm. We hadn’t actually left our home at that point because we were trying to get hold of the estate agents to say we needed to meet later since we were only informed that we had completed at 4pm and needed time to travel to the meeting place. Unfortunately, we only had an email address and we hadn’t seen a reply to our email so I didn’t know whether we were supposed to wait until we had confirmation to start heading there or not!  

 

Tip! Another tip is to obtain the mobile number for the estate agent so you can contact them easily on the day in case there are any delays or confusion.  

 

Luckily the estate agent waited for us and we managed to get the keys, albeit a little later than planned! 

 

I remember feeling excited and anxious as we approached the exchange and completion date.  Part of me couldn’t wait to finally be homeowners but another part was worried that something might go wrong and it just wouldn’t happen that day.  The whole transaction had been slow and after seven months, it was a relief to finally see the end! 

 

Buying our first home was an emotional roller coaster ride.  Some highlights below:

 

-         From feeling the rush of adrenaline after making our first offer to feeling frustrated and disappointed on the same day when it didn’t work out and we ultimately withdrew our offer. 

 

-         From the joy that we felt when the next offer was accepted to feeling extremely vulnerable as we didn’t fully understand the cladding issues.

 

-         From feeling anxious when we had to consider whether to pull out of the transaction as the bank wouldn’t issue a mortgage offer because of cladding to the stress I felt when the developer refused to refund the £3k reservation fee.

 

-       The excitement that we felt when we finally held the keys to our property!

 

Hope you journey goes more smoothly than ours!

 

Jess