Selling and buying together

Two transactions, one timetable

Most people moving home are doing both at once, and the two transactions are not independent. The money from your sale funds your purchase, so they have to exchange on the same day and complete on the same day. Miss that and you are either homeless with the proceeds sitting in a client account, or committed to a purchase you cannot fund.

Running both sides through one conveyancer is what makes the synchronisation manageable. One person holds the whole picture, one set of deadlines is being tracked, and there is no delay while two firms wait on each other for confirmation.

Why a combined quote costs less

A linked sale and purchase quoted together is normally cheaper than two separate instructions. Some of the work genuinely overlaps — your identity and source-of-funds checks are done once, not twice, and the coordination that would otherwise happen between two firms happens inside one.

Disbursements do not overlap in the same way. Searches are still needed on the property you are buying, and HM Land Registry still charges to register it. The saving is on the legal fee, not the third-party costs.

How the chain works

A chain is every linked transaction that has to exchange simultaneously — your buyer, you, your seller, and whoever they are buying from. Everyone exchanges at once or nobody does.

This is why a chain moves at the speed of its slowest link, and why a delay three houses away that has nothing to do with you can hold up your move. Common causes are a mortgage offer still outstanding, a leasehold management pack that has not arrived, an unresolved enquiry, or a buyer at the bottom who has not yet sold.

The practical implication: being ready early does not get you moved early, but not being ready certainly holds everyone up. [How long conveyancing takes](/blog/how-long-does-conveyancing-take/) goes through the stages and the usual delays.

Completion day

On the day, funds move up the chain in sequence. Your buyer's money reaches your conveyancer, who redeems your mortgage and sends the balance on to your seller's solicitor, who does the same for theirs. Each completion is confirmed before the next can happen.

This is why completions cluster in the early afternoon and why a late transfer anywhere in the chain delays everyone above it. It is also why removal vans frequently wait: keys are not released until money is confirmed received.

How you will own the new property

If you are buying with someone else, you will be asked to decide between joint tenants and tenants in common. It takes a minute to answer and determines whether your share passes automatically to your co-owner on death, or under your Will.

Where the two of you are contributing unequally — often the case when one sale funds most of the deposit — tenants in common with a Declaration of Trust records who is entitled to what. [Joint tenancy vs tenants in common](/blog/joint-tenancy-vs-tenants-in-common/) and [what a Declaration of Trust does](/blog/what-is-a-declaration-of-trust/).