The agent releases them only once the seller's solicitor confirms the purchase money has arrived. In a chain that depends on every sale below yours, and in Wales two things sit on top of it: Friday is the busiest completion day of the week, and taking the keys early can change when your Land Transaction Tax is due. This guide covers what to do with a loaded van while you wait, what the Welsh rules mean for buyers and for renters, and the questions to ask before the day rather than on it.
Friday is the busiest completion day in Wales
The Welsh Revenue Authority's Land Transaction Tax statistics for April to June 2026 record Friday as the most common day of the week on which transactions come into effect. In each month of that quarter the number of residential transactions was higher than in the same month a year earlier.
More completions on the same day means more payments moving at once, more chains waiting on each other and more vans parked outside houses that are not empty yet. If you have any say in the date, a midweek completion gives everyone more room to recover from a late payment. If it has to be a Friday, book the van for the whole day rather than the morning.
Why the money arrives late
Most sales in England and Wales use the Law Society's Standard Conditions of Sale. They set completion at twenty working days after exchange unless the contract says otherwise, and they treat money received after 2.00pm as completing on the next working day when the bills and any compensation are worked out. Where the buyer is ready but cannot pay because the seller has not moved out, the seller is the one in default.
None of that gets the keys released faster. It decides who pays for the delay, and the party at fault pays compensation at the contract rate, which the conditions define as the Law Society's interest rate. Ask your conveyancer where the money is in the chain before you ask the agent where the keys are.
Early keys can start the tax clock
Land Transaction Tax is Wales's equivalent of stamp duty. You must send a return to the Welsh Revenue Authority and pay the tax within 30 days of the day after completion, and in practice your solicitor or conveyancer files it online and pays it for you. Since 3 July 2023 solicitors and conveyancers can only file LTT online. The Welsh Government sets the rules out in its Land Transaction Tax overview.
The part that matters on moving day is what happens before completion. The Welsh Revenue Authority's technical guidance treats a buyer taking possession of a property before completion as substantial performance of the contract, which can make that the effective date for the tax rather than the completion date. So a seller who kindly offers the keys a few days early so you can drop furniture in is offering something your conveyancer needs to hear about first.
- Do not take keys before completion without telling your conveyancer.
- Storing furniture in the new house before completion can count as taking possession.
- If completion slips, the 30 day LTT window moves with it, but the return is your conveyancer's job, not yours.
Renting: the occupation date
There is no completion on a rental in Wales, but there is a date that does the same job. Under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 every occupation contract has four key matters, and one of them is the occupation date: the day the contract-holder becomes entitled to live in the home. The landlord must give you a written statement of the contract within 14 days starting with that date.
The home also has to be fit for human habitation on the occupation date, not some days later. The Welsh Government's guidance for contract-holders says rent will not be payable for any period during which the property is not fit for human habitation, but that you should raise it with the landlord first and keep paying while you do. Its guide for tenants explains the contract in full.
What to do with a loaded van
Late keys are ordinary, and on our house removals we hold the van as long as the day allows at no extra cost rather than leave you standing in the street. Ask any other firm what its policy is before the day, because many charge for waiting once a set time has passed.
If the keys are not coming that day at all, the choice is between putting everything back in the old house, if the buyer allows it, and taking the load into storage overnight until the keys arrive. Either way, the earlier you know the better, which is why a call to your conveyancer at lunchtime is worth more than an hour outside the agent's office.
On the day, if the keys are late
- 1Ring your conveyancer and ask whether the money has been sent, and from which point in the chain it is coming.
- 2Tell the removal crew the likely release time, so they can plan the unload rather than wait idle.
- 3Keep the essentials box, phone chargers and anything you need overnight in the car, not the van.
- 4If completion is not happening today, decide on storage or unloading back before the end of the working day.
- 5Do not accept keys before completion is confirmed, however kindly they are offered.
Last checked: October 2026.