Can we start moving into new house before having to vacate ours?

[fme]

Hi,
We are selling our house to first time buyer and are (hopefully) moving into another (second-hand but currently vacant) house.
No long chain which is good.
Obviously we need to have contracts signed on our house before we sign for new house we're moving to.
My question is, is it possible to then get keys of new house a day or two before our buyer moves in to our house?
Is there a legality involved with this or is it at discretion of parties involved?

 

[Scotsgirl]

It is very unlikely you will get keys to your new house as you don't yet own it. Most solicitors wouldn't advise their clients to hand over keys before posession.

I moved house this year and asked could I put my furniture in the house the morning of the day of signing, so I could move from my house directly into the new house. Otherwise I would have had to unload into a warehouse for a few hours, and then pack up again and move into new house. Nightmare! Solicitors wouldn't hear of it - wouldn't even allow the estate agent let me in with my furniture and lock up behind me, until I could collect the keys from him later.

What we did was, the people buying my house very kindly agreed to sign their final contracts on a Thursday afternoon and rest of money was handed over, but let me stay in my house until the next afternoon, even though they now owned it. My solicitor got a bank draft first thing in the morning and delivered it to the sellers solicitor. Within an hour I was informed keys were waiting for collection. I was still loading up the first vanload of furniture so it worked out well.

At the same time I had to be prepared to unload into storage or even stay with family for the weekend. Sometimes things don't go to plan.

The only other alternative is to get a bridging loan so you can buy the other house before selling your own, but some of the banks seem reluctant to do this for just a few days. I think it is a lot of paperwork for them, for very little money. Mine refused to do this. Perhaps depends on band you're with.

 

[mf1]

Put simply - you are not entitled to possession of a property until you have paid for it in full. And you cannot pay for your new property until you have the funds from the sale of the first. And once you have funds from the sale, you have to have given vacant possession.

There are real issues in a vendor allowing a purchaser access to the property until they (purchaser) have paid over the funds- most solicitors have at least one horror story of a nightmare scenario where clients were happy enough to facilitate their purchaser who then decided not to close or sought a reduced price.

So, either try for bridging - and I cannot remember the last time I handled a bridging cheque -or move out of one, store everything and move into second property some time later.

mf