The completion date is written into the contract at exchange, so it must be negotiated just before — and in a chain, every household's removals, mortgage logistics and school runs have to converge on one Friday. Except it should not always be a Friday. This step is the diplomacy of picking a date everyone can actually hit.
How the date gets agreed
The conveyancers canvass their clients up and down the chain and converge on a date, usually one to four weeks after the planned exchange. Longer gaps suit complex moves and buyer-friendly removals pricing; shorter gaps reduce the time you carry insurance and nerves. First-time buyers with no sale are the chain's most flexible link — flexibility you can spend as negotiating goodwill.
The Friday trap
Everyone wants Fridays (move, then weekend to unpack). Consequently Fridays are the most expensive removals day, the busiest for conveyancers' completions, and the worst day for problems: if funds arrive late on a Friday, completion rolls to Monday and you may fund two nights of limbo plus penalty interest. A Tuesday or Wednesday completion is cheaper, calmer and has weekdays either side to fix hiccups.
Sync your other clocks
Check the date against: your tenancy notice period (serve notice only after exchange — a paid overlap week is cheap insurance), your mortgage offer expiry, removals availability, work commitments, and school terms. A completion date that technically works but leaves zero margin anywhere is a date that fails if anything sneezes.
Your action list
Practical tips
- Get provisional removals quotes for your candidate dates before agreeing one — availability differs wildly by day.
- Mid-month, mid-week completions are the connoisseur's choice: cheaper removals and unhurried conveyancers.
What can go wrong
- Serving tenancy notice before exchange to 'save a few weeks' rent' gambles your housing on a chain you do not control.
- A zero-overlap plan — out of the flat and into the house on the same morning — fails expensively the first time a lorry is late or funds clear at 3pm.
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