Settlement day: how the move fits around handover

What settlement actually is

Between exchanging contracts and getting the keys sits settlement: the day the balance moves from your lender to the seller and the title changes hands. In NSW it's completed electronically between the banks and the conveyancers; you don't attend anything, you wait for a phone call. The NSW Government's buying and selling property guidance covers the legal side; this page covers the part they don't: where your furniture should be while it happens.

The practical facts that shape moving day:

• Settlement is a business-hours event. Most complete in the early afternoon. Morning settlements happen, but you can't bank on one.
• The keys release only after completion. The agent hands them over once your conveyancer confirms. Until then, the new place isn't yours to open.
• The time can move on the day. A document queue at one of the four banks in the chain is all it takes to push 1pm to 3:30pm.

The shape of a good settlement-day move

You can't control the minute the call comes, so the move is built to make that minute irrelevant:

1. Early start at the old place. The crew loads in the morning while the lawyers do their thing. A packed 3-bed house loads before lunch.
2. Stage near the new place. The loaded truck positions close to the new address, not across the LGA. From Seven Hills to The Ponds that's a 20-minute reposition, done before the call.
3. Keys release, truck rolls. The moment your conveyancer rings, someone collects the keys from the agent and the crew starts the unload. No dead hours, no truck sitting loaded overnight.
4. Beds first, kitchen second. However late the keys land, the beds go up and get assembled first. A 4pm key release still ends with everyone sleeping in the new house.

When settlement slips

Sometimes the date itself moves: a valuation arrives late, a bank misses its slot, someone up the chain isn't ready. It's common, it's usually days not weeks, and it's nobody's fault at your kitchen table. What matters is what your bookings do next:

• Your removalist booking: ours moves with the new date, no fee, no drama. Ask any removalist this question before you book; it's the single most important line in the quote.
• Your old place: if you've already given notice or sold, ask your conveyancer early about bridging the gap. A few days with the truck's contents in storage is solvable when it's planned, painful when it's discovered at 4pm Friday.
• Your connections: power and internet bookings shift with a phone call if you made them yourself. One more reason not to leave them to the last week.

Builder handover: the easier cousin

On the growth front, plenty of moves key to a builder handover rather than a settlement. Handover happens at a booked appointment: you walk the house, sign off, and take the keys at a known time. From a moving point of view that's the easy version, and we set the truck to it directly. The only wrinkle is that builders reschedule too, so the same rule applies: the booking follows the date, not the other way around.

The week-by-week lead-up

The Move Planner draws this against your actual date, but the standing order is: