National Conveyancing Week - Post exchange, completion & post completion

You have now had the good news from your Conveyancer that Contracts have been exchanged! You can now start making your arrangements to prepare for completion. On exchange of Contracts, you must ensure that you have put your buildings insurance in place for the property from the day of exchange. You can now book, or firm up your removals, and finish packing. You will need to contact your utility companies to let them know you are moving and also make appointments to set up other services such as broadband, telephone etc. If you have not already paid any remaining balance of your completion monies, you must ensure that the final balance is paid to your Conveyancer at the very latest by the day before completion.

On the day of completion, your Conveyancer will have set up your completion with their accounts’ team and should already have your mortgage money (most Conveyancers request that this is sent by your mortgage company the day before completion so they have it ready to send the money first thing on the completion day). If you are just buying, your Conveyancer will send the purchase money to your seller’s Conveyancer first thing. If you are selling and buying, your Conveyancer will need to wait for your sale money to come in before they can then send the purchase money on to your seller’s Conveyancer. With a sale and purchase a “normal” time for completion will be between 12 and 2. It can happen earlier, and it can happen later. It all depends on the length of the chain, and also how quickly other Conveyancers send sale monies. With a purchase, it is likely that completion will have taken place by round 11. As soon as completion has taken place, you will receive a call from your Conveyancer to advise you that you can collect the keys, normally from the estate agents. On a sale, you will need to drop your keys with the estate agents. They cannot release the keys to a buyer until the Conveyancer acting for the seller has called them to confirm they have received the sale money. The completion day itself can be a long day, especially if there is a long chain and some clients may not fully move into their property until early evening. As soon as you enter the property, it would be prudent for you to take meter readings so you can pass these details to the energy company. The seller should also take meter readings.

Once you have got the (probably stressful) completion day over, you should then think about which companies you will need to advise of your change of address. Below is a list of some address change notifications you should deal with, but this is by no means exhaustive:_

• Council tax department
• Driving Licence
• Utilities
• Vehicle Registration Document
• Doctors/dentist
• Subscriptions
• Bank/Building Society
• Pension company
• Workplace/Schools/Childcare

Following completion of your purchase, your Conveyancer will receive completion paperwork from your seller’s Conveyancer which will include a Transfer Deed signed by the seller, to enable them to submit the application for registration with the Land Registry. HM Land Registry will then complete the application and your Conveyancer will receive an up to date Title Information Document, showing you as the new owner of the property. HM Land Registry do have delays currently and therefore it may be some months before the application has been completed. Once your Conveyancer has received the Tile Information Document and sent a copy to you and your mortgage lender, your file will then be archived.

This now concludes our National Conveyancing Week series of mini blogs on the Conveyancing process. If you would like to contact Thomas Flavell & Sons to deal with your Conveyancing, complete our enquiry form.

Thomas Flavell & Sons, specialist Conveyancing Solicitors in the Midlands - Proud to Support National Conveyancing Week 2023.