Mikkel
Questions in relation to buying a home - for native English speakers 1. If you buy a house or an apartment then there is a date from which you have access to your new home. In Danish we call this the “taking over date”. What is this called in English? 2. In Danish a potential buyer might ask a seller of a home at which date they can “take over” the home. How would you express this in English? Thanks for your help!
Nov 22, 2017 4:11 PM
Answers · 12
3
The process for finalising a sale and taking over ownership of property in the UK is known as 'exchange and completion'. Exchanging relates to the exchange of contracts, whereas the completion date is the official moving date.
November 22, 2017
2
Nicolas' answer is only partially correct. For renting it's the move-in date, but for buying it's not the closing date, although it's the legal event equivalent to the contract-exchange date in the UK, Australia and some other countries. You would ask your own real-estate agent "What is the closing date?" or "When do we close?", that is the day all the paperwork for the sale is completed and you legally own the new house. The sales contract usually stipulates "close + x" where x can be 1 day and up to 3 days, that is the period you and the seller agreed ahead of time to allow the seller to completely move out, you get the keys thus "access" to your new house after this period. The specific terminology is "getting the keys", You ask your real-estate agent "When do I get the keys?" and she would answer for example "Close plus one". Note that this is also written in the sales contract so it's a legal requirement, the real-estate agent, even if she has the keys in her possession, is not allowed to hand over the keys to you, and legally you cannot enter the house until then. (You could, by prior agreement with the seller, have a few things, bulky furniture for example, moved in during this x-plus period). This is the regulations in California by the way, other states may be slightly different. PS. Hi Mikkel, it sounds like you're more interested in the terminology for the UK and Commonwealth countries, but I just remembered another term used in the U.S. It's "possession date". You ask your agent "When is my possession date?" or "When do I take possession?", and she would answer "Same as Close date" or "Close plus one" as I mentioned above.
November 22, 2017
1
For renting a house or an apartment, I would say move-in date. Example: You ask "What date could I move in? " and the agent answer "The move-in date is the first of the month." For the purchase of a home or apartment, I would say closing date. Example: "What date can we close?" and the date depends on both parties and the office where the transaction will close. Another example, "I have cash and can close any date." Last, "I have to sell my current home so can we close this sale after that sale?"
November 22, 2017
Hi ,interesting topic .I learned some words here ,Thank you all
November 22, 2017
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