You’re almost there! On settlement day you will be communicating with your lawyer or conveyancer a lot. They will manage all of the background paperwork, the communication with the bank to get your funds deposited, the transfer of the title, and contact with the vendor's solicitor or conveyancer.
The standard time frame for settlement day is 9 am - 5 pm.
You’d normally settle in the morning but settlement can be delayed if funds aren’t transferred or if the vendor isn’t ready to accept the funds.
Here's how the different moving parts go on settlement day:
Your bank transfers the money they're lending you to your solicitor's trust account
Your solicitor transfers the funds to the vendor's solicitors
The vendor's solicitor confirms receipt of the funds
Both solicitors agree in correspondence to the title transfer
The Land Transfer office swaps the vendor's name for yours on the title
Settlement is concluded
You don't have to worry about the mechanics of how the property gets transferred into your name when you buy it. Generally, all the action on settlement day will be between your mortgage provider and any legal professionals who are involved in the transaction. Take a deep breath: if there are any hold-ups, those will be communicated to you by your solicitor.
Sometimes delays on settlement do happen, but it's rarely because the vendor is trying to shaft you. If you're told that the vendor's lawyer wants to delay settlement, it could be for something as simple as the vendor's bank not discharging their old mortgage in time for the transaction to conclude. Assess any requests for settlement extension with a clear head: your sale and purchase agreement lets you claim financial remedies if settlement takes too long to conclude, but remember that there are people on the other side of the move.
Once you've got everything signed away, however, and the agent has made the keys available to you then you can officially call yourself a homeowner. Congratulations!
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