Review the formal agreement first: it specifies the completion date and time. The Estate Agents Authority states that “time shall be of the essence of the formal agreement” and that parties should strictly comply with its time limits. The seller should then check the provisional agreement, which normally records the completion day—the day when the vendor hands over the property to the purchaser.
Check the formal agreement
The seller should locate the provision stating the completion date and time and record the wording exactly. The review should also identify every other time limit in the formal agreement, because the Estate Agents Authority says that parties should strictly comply with those limits.
The cited materials do not state a standard completion date, completion time, or number of days that applies to every sale. The seller therefore needs the terms of the particular agreement to answer the question.
Cross-check the provisional agreement
The provisional agreement normally records the completion day. The Community Legal Information Centre explains that this is the day when the vendor hands over the property to the purchaser.
The seller should compare that entry with the completion date and time in the formal agreement. Any difference, missing information, or unclear wording should be noted and clarified before the date is treated as settled. The two entries should be checked against each other rather than assumed to be interchangeable.
Make a deadline checklist
A practical review can cover four points:
- Completion date and time: Confirm the exact wording in the formal agreement.
- Completion day: Check the entry normally recorded in the provisional agreement.
- Other time limits: List each time limit in the formal agreement and keep its exact wording.
- Unclear points: Identify any difference or ambiguity that still needs clarification.
What the seller must still confirm
The seller must confirm the contract-specific details for the sale: the stated completion date and time, the completion day recorded in the provisional agreement, and every other time limit in the formal agreement. The available sources do not provide a universal completion date, deadline, or fallback period, so the seller should not supply a missing date or calculate one from general information instead of checking the agreement.