Daily brief - Why You Shouldn’t Book Removals Too Early

As your conveyancing process nears its end, it is quite natural to consider booking in removals.  After all, you’re finally ready to move from the house being sold, into the new one you’ve spent weeks, if not months, waiting for.  You’ve been told by the agents that the chain is ready, so you pay the deposit on removals for the proposed completion date.  Only after this, do you let your conveyancer know what has been done. This hopefully works out fine, but you could receive a confused reply to the effect of:

“These dates were never run by us.  We will contact you shortly once we have found out more from the sellers’ solicitors.”

Having now booked in removals, you are concerned and now keen to push the matter through to meet that removals deadline; this may not be possible.  Should your conveyancer reply to the effect that the chain is in fact not ready, you are in a pickle.  The first lesson in here is to always have completion dates confirmed by your conveyancer prior to agreeing to any ancillary agreements, such as removals. 

Ensuring close contact with your conveyancer at the time also has the further benefit of ensuring removals are not booked to occur prior to, or after completion.  The former is a pain, wasted deposit and a scramble for next day removals, whereas the latter could very well be a breach of your contract.   

The standard contract used in the sale of land in almost all conveyances will confirm that ‘vacant possession’ is to be given on completion.  Vacant possession is the condition that, upon completion, occupiers and items not contracted to remain at the property will be removed from the property.  A house full of boxed furniture and now panicking proprietors will not be considered vacant by any measure.

The sum of this simple lesson is to always have your conveyancer confirm the completion date.