Completion day, keys and what to sort out
Exchange and completion are two different days, and almost everything people get wrong about the end of a purchase comes from treating them as one.
At exchange, contracts become binding. Neither side can walk away without serious financial consequences. At completion, the money moves and the property becomes yours. Registering you as the new owner at HM Land Registry happens afterwards, and the fee for it is one of the disbursements in your quote. The gap between them is usually days rather than weeks, and it is the window in which the practical arrangements have to happen.
Insurance should start at exchange, not completion
This is the one worth acting on today if you are mid-purchase. It applies to England and Wales; Scotland has no exchange and completion split and works differently.
Your conveyancer will tell you to have buildings cover in place from the moment contracts are exchanged, and it is not boilerplate. Two reasons, and neither depends on who technically bears the risk.
First, your lender will require it. Cover from exchange is a standard condition of a mortgage offer, and funds can be held up if you cannot evidence it.
Second, the contract decides who carries the risk between exchange and completion, and you should not assume it falls on the seller. Even where the conditions leave risk with the seller, they typically do not oblige the seller to insure, so there may be no policy standing behind the building at all. Auction contracts and the commercial standard conditions commonly put the risk on the buyer from exchange outright. Ask your conveyancer which conditions your contract uses and what they say about risk and insurance. It is a one-line question and the answer decides whether a gap exists.
Base the sum insured on the rebuild cost, not the purchase price. They are different numbers and the rebuild figure is usually the lower of the two. A Level 2 survey with valuation includes an insurance reinstatement figure, which saves you guessing.
Leasehold flats are the exception worth checking. The building is normally insured by the freeholder or management company, and you insure your contents and any improvements. Paying for buildings cover you do not need is a common and silent waste.
When you actually get the keys
On completion day, your conveyancer sends the money to the seller’s conveyancer. The keys are released once that money arrives and the seller’s side confirms it.
That is why nobody can promise you a time. The transfer goes through the banking system, often along a chain, and each link has to complete before the next can. Money sent first thing can land mid-morning or mid-afternoon. If you are in a chain of four, you are waiting on three other transactions as well as your own.
Keys are usually collected from the estate agent rather than handed over at the door. Ask your agent the day before where you are collecting from and until what time they are open, because a completion that lands at 4.45pm and an office that shuts at 5pm is a bad combination.
What to do in the last fortnight
Removals booked, with the caveat that you are booking a day you cannot yet guarantee. Most firms understand this; confirm their policy on moving the date.
Meter readings taken on the day, with photographs. Notify the utility suppliers and the council for council tax. Redirect your post. Tell your insurer the date the new cover starts and the old one ends.
And resist the urge to do anything clever with money or credit. Taking out finance, changing jobs or moving large sums between accounts in the final weeks can disrupt a mortgage offer that has already been issued, because lenders can and do re-check before release of funds. The time to reorganise your finances is after completion.
Things that go wrong, and what actually prevents them
Most late problems are information problems, not legal ones. The buyer’s conveyancer raises an enquiry, the seller has to find a document, and the document is in a loft.
If you are selling, the single most effective thing you can do is assemble your paperwork before you are asked: guarantees, building regulations certificates, the lease and service charge statements if it is leasehold, and anything relating to work done to the property. How long conveyancing takes covers where the rest of the time goes, and most of it is this.
Buying at auction turns the timetable upside down
Everything above assumes a normal sale. At auction it is different, and the difference is the whole point.
The fall of the hammer is the exchange. You are bound at that moment, you usually pay a deposit on the day, and completion is typically around 28 days later rather than whenever the chain is ready. There is no gap in which to get a survey, raise enquiries or change your mind.
So the legal work moves to the front. The seller publishes a legal pack before the sale, containing the title, searches, special conditions and any leases, and you are expected to have had it reviewed before you bid. Auction contracts also commonly put the risk on the buyer from the fall of the hammer, which makes insurance from that moment a live question rather than a theoretical one.
If you are thinking about bidding, get a conveyancer to read the legal pack first. It is a much smaller piece of work than a full purchase and it is the only chance you get.
Frequently asked questions
Can I complete and move on the same day?
Yes, and most people do. It makes for a long day, because you cannot load the van until the keys to the new place are confirmed, and you cannot be sure of the time. Completing on a Friday is popular and also the busiest, so banking delays bite hardest then.
What happens if completion fails on the day?
Contracts are already exchanged, so the sale is still binding. The contract provides for late completion, usually with interest payable by whoever caused the delay, and in a serious case a notice to complete. It is uncomfortable rather than fatal, and your conveyancer will deal with it.
Do I need to be there for anything?
No. You need to have signed the transfer deed and sent your funds beforehand, and after that the day happens between the conveyancers and the banks. What you do need is to be contactable.
If you are at the start of this rather than the end, you can compare conveyancing quotes from SRA and CLC regulated firms, with searches and Land Registry fees already in the total.