What Happens on Completion Day, a Step-by-Step Timeline

The Day Everything Becomes Yours

Completion day, legal completion, is the day the purchase of your property is finalised under English and Welsh law. Ownership transfers from the seller to you, purchase funds are released, and you become entitled to the keys.

For most buyers, completion day is a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Understanding what is happening in the background helps enormously.

The Night Before Completion

By the morning of completion, the groundwork is already done:

• Your solicitor will have received your mortgage funds from your lender
• You will have transferred the balance of completion funds to your solicitor's client account, ideally the working day before, not on the morning
• Both solicitors will have agreed all completion arrangements

**Transfer funds early.** One of the most common causes of delayed completion is buyers transferring funds on the morning, only for the bank to flag the transfer for security review. CHAPS payments are same-day but not instant. Transfer the previous working day if at all possible.

Completion Day: Hour by Hour

**Morning (from approximately 9am)**

Your solicitor contacts the seller's solicitor to confirm funds are in place and completion can proceed.

The seller's solicitor releases the signed transfer deed (TR1), the document formally transferring ownership, to your solicitor.

**Mid-morning to midday**

Your solicitor sends the completion funds by CHAPS transfer. This single transfer includes the full balance of the purchase price.

**When funds are received**

The seller's solicitor confirms receipt. Legal completion has occurred. The property is legally yours.

The seller's solicitor calls the estate agent to authorise key release.

**Collecting keys**

The estate agent contacts you to confirm keys are available for collection.

What Time Will Keys Be Available?

Completion rarely happens at a precise, predictable time. In a straightforward, chain-free transaction it might happen by 11am. In a long chain where multiple CHAPS transfers cascade through several solicitors' accounts, it might not happen until 2pm or 3pm.

Do not book removals to arrive at 9am on completion day. Aim for midday or later.

If There Is a Chain

In a chain, the buyer at the bottom transfers funds first. Those funds trigger a series of sequential CHAPS transfers up the chain. Each must clear before the next can be authorised. A chain of four or five properties can take most of the working day.

After Completion

Completion is not the end of your solicitor's work. They will:

1. Pay SDLT to HMRC within 14 days

2. Apply to register the transfer at HM Land Registry

3. Register any mortgage

HM Land Registry registration typically takes several weeks to months. You own the property from the moment of completion, but the register will not reflect your ownership until registration is processed. Property Passport UK updates property records once Land Registry data is refreshed.

Practical Checklist

• Transfer completion funds the working day before
• Confirm key collection arrangements with the agent
• Ensure removals are not booked too early
• Have property insurance active from exchange date
• Take meter readings on arrival, photograph as evidence
• Notify utilities, council tax, and Royal Mail of your new address