Whether you’re a first-time buyer or you’ve found your forever home, completion day is an exciting and busy time. After all the build-up of searching, carrying out building surveys, and filling out extensive paperwork, it’s finally time to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy your new home.
To ensure a smooth transition, it’s helpful to know what to expect on completion day. With this in mind, we’ve put together a buyer’s guide with everything you need to know about house completion and what you’ll need to do on the day.
You can also trust the team at ONP to handle all areas of your property conveyancing for a stress-free move. Since 1987, we’ve specialised in property law and built a reputation for reliable, regulated service under the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Our strong Trustpilot score (4.6) reflects the confidence our customers place in us.
What does completion mean when buying a house?
House completion is the process of completing all contracts relating to your house purchase. Completion day is the day that your new home is officially yours.
Depending on your circumstances, you may only be completing as a first-time buyer, or you may need to complete one sale as a seller and one as a buyer.
It’s possible to exchange contracts and complete on the same day. However, there will usually be a few weeks between the dates.
What happens on completion day?
Ahead of exchanging contracts, you and the seller will decide a date for completion and communicate through your solicitors. This allows you to make moving arrangements for that expected day.
Completion day must be on a weekday so that all the money can be cleared the same day.
When completion day arrives, all the legal document will have been exchanged and signed, so there are a few final actions that need to happen:
- Funds are transferred: Your solicitor will send your money to the seller’s solicitor. This will include both your deposit and mortgage funds. The seller’s solicitor will confirm they have the funds, and give you the go-ahead to move in.
- You pick up the keys: The seller will have vacated the property and you can collect the keys.
- You become the legal property owner: Once you have the keys, you’re free to head over to the property that you now have legal ownership of, and start moving in!
A typical completion day timeline
Of course, no two circumstances are the same, so completion day timelines can vary. However, for many buyers, the day will include the following checkpoints:
Morning
In the morning of completion day, your solicitor will request funds from your mortgage lender and send these across to the seller’s solicitor. It may take a couple of hours for the money to move through the chain.
Midday
Once the seller’s solicitor has received the funds, the sale is officially complete. They then inform the estate agent, who will get in touch with you to let you know the sale has completed.
The estate agent will also provide details on where you can collect the keys. In many cases, you can head to the estate agent branch to pick up the keys, however, sometimes you’ll collect them from the solicitor or seller instead.
Afternoon
For most buyers, the new property keys are available to collect from around 1pm or 2pm. By this time, the sellers will have had the chance to vacate the property after the purchase funds have been successfully transferred.
From there, you can head over to your new home whenever you like. Once you arrive, it’s a wise idea to:
- Make sure you have any extra keys (for example, garage, shed, windows, back door)
- Do a property walkthrough and check all fixtures and fittings are in the condition you expect
- Check that anything the seller planned to leave behind (such as appliances or blinds) are present
- Take meter readings
- Locate the fuse box and stopcock so you know where they are
- Ensure you have a box of moving essentials (for example, toilet paper, a kettle and mugs, and cleaning supplies)
Why might delays occur on completion day?
If you’re a first-time buyer or moving into a chain-free property, you may find the completion timeline to be quick, with the opportunity to collect your keys around midday.
However, it’s important to remember that delays can occur, potentially pushing back your moving day timeline by a couple of hours. This may be due to:
- Long chains: If there are lots of properties in the chain all completing on the same day, more transfers are required which can take extra time. Sales falling through further up the chain can also cause disruption.
- Banking issues: Slow transfer times or issues with moving money can slow down the completion process. In the unlikely situation that the funds for the sale don’t clear by around 4pm, there’s the chance the completion may have to be pushed to the next day. But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean the sale is lost.
- Sellers not moving out in time: Whether the removal van gets stuck in traffic or packing up just takes longer than expected, if the sellers aren’t able to move out at the expected time, you may find you need to wait until you can get the keys and move in.
Although delays can be frustrating, it’s best to try and stay calm and try to focus on ensuring you’re ready at your end for any next steps. We recommend making sure you have your phone to hand at all times on completion day so your solicitor and estate agent can keep you up to date on the sale progress. We also wrote a helpful guide on how you can avoid delays in the conveyancing process.
ONP: Helping you every step of the property-buying journey
Our team of property solicitors have years of experience in helping buyers purchase their dream homes. Alongside handling all the paperwork and liaising with the seller’s solicitors, one of our most important roles is keeping the process moving. From the moment you make an offer and appoint one of our helpful conveyancing solicitors to the moment you open the door to your new property, we’ll be there to guide you.
Find out more about our conveyancing services, and get in touch for a no-obligation quote. Our handy case tracker also makes checking the progress of your property purchase fast and easy, so you always have a clear picture of where you’re at.
