After Completion

After Completion Moving Checklist

After you have completed your house sale or purchase there are still a few things that you need to do, here is a little checklist to help you.

Take Meter Readings

You will need to take meter readings when you move out and notify various people and organisations of your move.

What do we do after completion?

Immediately after we have completed your purchase we will submit the completed SDLT Land Transaction Return to the Inland Revenue and pay any stamp duty payable.

We will apply to register you as new owner of the property at the Land Registry as soon as possible after completion. Unfortunately due to back logs at the Land Registry and depending on the type of transaction it can take up to two years for the Land Registry to deal with our registration and, as a result of their timescales, we might not get any requisitions from them for several months after completion. If we do get any queries we will do our best to contact them but may have to contact you if we are unable to deal with them ourselves.

Delays by the Land Registry in dealing with the registration may cause problems if you wish to sell or remortgage the property before it is registered in your name. If this happens, we may be able to expedite our application with the Land Registry but this will still take time and may cause delays in your sale or remortgage. This is beyond our control.

Should I Keep any documents?

Whilst dealing with your purchase we would have sent various documents to you during the course of the transaction. You should store all these documents in a safe place in case they are needed in the future when you come to sell the property. It is not always possible to obtain duplicates.

Delayed Completion

When we exchange contracts on your behalf, the contract document will say by what time on the day of completion, the seller has to have removed all their furniture and belongings from the property (ie give vacant possession). Also the buyer’s solicitor has to pay the purchase money to the seller’s solicitor by that time time. The standard time is 2pm but this is quite often varied.

What should happen on the day of completion is that the buyer’s solicitor sends the money over to the seller’s solicitor to complete the purchase. However, sometimes it is not possible for the seller to get all their belongings out of the property before the contract time or the buyer isn’t able to get the money over before the contract time, as the solicitor is waiting for money on a related sale, or there is a problem with the banking system.

In general, the contract conditions say that the party most at fault will have to pay the other party interest on the balance of the purchase money at the rate set out in the contract on a daily basis until completion actually takes place. For example if completion was due to take place on Friday but did not happen until Monday being the next working day, then interest would be payable for three days, plus possible the cost of hotel accommodation over the weekend, storage of goods etc.

Applying the contract conditions to each situation may not be straightforward as often the precise facts of each situation are different. Some sellers might demand interest or other losses paid to them on the date of the delayed completion before they will agree to complete. Others may be prepared to deal with this after completion. You may need to obtain independent legal advice on whether interest or other costs can be claimed if there is a delay. We may be able to advise you, but we may have to charge you additional fees for this advice, and for any additional work involved in dealing with the delayed completion. If the other party won’t pay your losses then you would have to sue them in court and may have to instruct a litigation solicitor to deal with this for you.

Notice to complete

If completion doesn’t happen on the agreed date for some reason, this does not bring the contract to an end, the contract could run on for days or months until the parties agree to complete the transaction.

If either party was not happy with this and wanted to force the other party to complete they would have to appoint a litigation solicitor to apply to the Courts for a court order forcing the other party to complete the transaction. However, this process could take several months.

As an alternative, where either party is not happy with the contract running on and wants to bring matters to a close, they could serve a notice to complete on the other party. This notice does not actually make the other party complete, it just makes time of the essence which means that if the other party doesn’t complete the matter by 10 working days after the service of the notice, then either party can then rescind the contract and claim damages from the other for breach of contract.

However, this action should not be taken lightly. For example if the seller serves notice to complete on a buyer but at the end of the notice period the seller can’t complete for some reason but the buyer can complete, then the buyer could rescind the contract and claim damages from the seller.

If the situation arises where a notice to complete is required either to be served by you or served on you, then additional fees may be charged.

What can be removed from the property?

There are sometimes disputes after completion about what was agreed to be included and what the seller could remove.

A TA10 or fixtures fittings and contents list normally sets out what is to be left and what is to be removed and you should check this carefully before you exchange contracts.

In general terms the seller has to give the buyer everything that was attached to the property at the time of exchange of contracts. This would include plants and fences in the garden, and anything in the property that is regarded in law as a fixture. This usually means things physically attached to the wall, floor or structure of the property or its grounds that cannot be removed without causing damage.

Freestanding cookers, fridges and furniture are chattels in law and are not automatically included in the sale to the buyer as part of the property. You must tell y our solicitor if you have agreed to buy anything fixtures from the seller so that a clause can be added to the contract.

Our fees for dealing with the conveyancing of your property does not cover dealing with any disputes over fixtures and fittings after completion, and you would either have to resolve such issues directly with the seller or instruct a litigation solicitor, or make a claim against the seller through the course.

What if my home is a Leasehold Property?

If your property is leasehold we will give formal notice of change of ownership to the Landlord and the Management Company (if any) for which it is usual to pay a registration fee.

You may also be required to become a member/director of the management company, but you would have been advised of this in your title report.

If your property is leasehold or is a freehold property with service charges, it is very important that you make a note to pay the annual rent/service charges when they are due each year. We will have told you when it is due but will not remind you to pay it.

You also cannot rely on your landlord reminding you to pay either. They will send out an invoice but not reminders. If you do not pay you could be charged interest for late payments, and there is a chance the Landlord could try to forfeit your lease, and if this happened you could lose your property. You would need to instruct a litigation solicitor to deal with this should it happen, so it is better to make sure all charges are paid on time.