Completion day: what happens, hour by hour

First, exchange of contracts

At exchange both sides sign final copies of the contract and swap them, and from that moment the sale is legally binding: pull out now and you usually pay compensation, and a buyer who drops out is likely to lose the deposit. The deposit is traditionally 10% of the price, though often less in practice. The completion date is fixed at exchange.

How long between the two varies: HomeOwners Alliance puts the average at 7 days, Which? at around two weeks and Citizens Advice at about four. If the contract sets no date, the Standard Conditions of Sale make it 20 working days after exchange. From exchange the home is at the buyer's risk, which is why buildings insurance should start then.

The day, hour by hour

• Morning: the money movesThe buyer's solicitor sends the money to the seller's solicitor, usually by CHAPS, a same-day bank transfer for large payments. A mortgage lender's money is ordered days before: the British Association of Removers says solicitors typically ask for it 5 days ahead.
• When the money arrives: completionThe seller's solicitor confirms completion to the buyer's and tells the estate agent, or whoever holds the keys, to release them. From then the home belongs to the buyer.
• Late morning to early afternoon: the keysThere is no fixed time. With no chain, completion usually happens around 11am. In a chain each sale waits for the money from the one below it, so later links complete later: HomeOwners Alliance's example has the first buyer collecting keys between 9 and 11am and the fourth between 1 and 2pm.
• By the time in the contract: the seller is outThe seller must have moved out and left the home empty ("vacant possession") by the time the contract says. On the Standard Conditions of Sale, money received after 2pm counts as arriving the next working day when compensation is worked out, unless it was late because the seller hadn't moved out, in which case the seller is at fault. Many contracts set a different time.
• Afternoon: moving inKeys collected, meter readings taken, the removal van unloads. If the keys are late, the van waits, which is where a removal company's waiting terms matter (below).

What can hold it up

A chain moves only as fast as its slowest link, and every completion in it usually has to happen the same day. Money sent late, from either side, can push completion back, if it misses the day, to the next working day. A mortgage offer being withdrawn stops it altogether.

If completion is late, on the Standard Conditions of Sale the side responsible for the delay pays the other compensation, at the contract rate (the Law Society's interest rate, 4% above Barclays base rate, unless the contract sets another) on the price. Either side that is ready can serve a notice to complete, which gives the other 10 working days. A buyer who still doesn't complete can lose the deposit and the home; a seller who doesn't must repay the deposit with interest.

Booking the removal for completion day

The British Association of Removers advises being ready to leave by 1pm on completion day, agreeing that with your removal company, and getting the seller to agree, in writing if possible, that they will have left by 1pm too. It is campaigning for keys to be released by 1pm on moving day; that is not a rule yet. It also notes that many completions fall on a Friday, when solicitors, banks and agents can be hard to reach.

Ask the removal company what happens if the keys are late: whether it charges for waiting or overtime, and whether it offers a late keys waiver. Terms differ. Two examples: Bishop's Move waits an hour before charging, three hours with its waiver; Akers Removals in Hertfordshire waits until 2pm free, then charges £120 an hour, or until 4pm with its £120 waiver, and charges for storage and redelivery if there are no keys that day.

Checklist for the day

The weeks before are in our moving house checklist, and who to tell about the new address in who to notify when moving house.

In Scotland

The contract is made by letters between the solicitors, the missives: once they are concluded the deal is binding, and the buyer should insure the home from then. The last step, the settlement, is when the buyer gets possession, usually on the agreed date of entry.

Questions about completion day