Exchanging contracts tomorrow

bratcatcher

Hi all,
Wondering if any of you may know what we can do! My v. clever husband arranged with the solicitors to go exchange contracts tomorrow morning 9.15 - and has just announced tonight that he thinks we are supposed to be taking the deposit with us!! I know, I shouldnt have trusted him to actually have things ready and in order but I've been busy at work and didnt think I needed to check up on him!! I shouldve known better eh!
So the money is in the savings account (with Abbey), the bank open at 9. My questions are:
1) Do we indeed need the deposit to exchange contracts?
2) will they be able to issue us a bankers draft that quickly? I mean we will have to phone the solicitor to say we are running a bit late but is it going to take hours?
3) do they also want the stamp duty/solicitors fees too?
4) can we not just do a transfer of funds directly into the solicitors account?
5) is there any better way of doing it?
The guy who is selling us the house is going to go mad if we dont exchange tomorrow!
Thanks in advance anyone who can help
Becky

ineedhelp2008

1) Yes!!
2) It shouldn't take too long
3) when are you completing? they will need the balance by at least the day before completion
4) yes, but this will take time
5) in this instance, i would probably say bankers draft would be the easiest but I would probably give your solicitor a call a 9.01am to find out what he/she wants you to do!

dont panic, exchange is just a phone call so can be done at any point tomorrow.

Good luck!

bratcatcher

Thank you. I will be waiting outside the bank at 9am while I leave the hubby to talk to the solicitor - I can hear him on the telephone saying 'we have left a few things late' - WE!!!! I'm assuming I can get a bankers draft for the whole lot. i.e. deposit, fees and stamp?
The solicitor wants us to go in to sign for the exchange so I just hope he can see us half hour later instead.

ineedhelp2008

yeah, if the money is all in the same account it is easier just to pay the whole lot now and then all you've got to worry about is packing! When are you hoping to move?

bratcatcher

Oh its all a been a right mess really, we are exchanging tomorrow with a mortgage offer that we got ages ago but with all the rate changes is now v. expensive so we dont complete for another 5 weeks to give us time to get a new mortgage offer with a better rate and get the contracts exchanged on the house we are living in to prove that to the lender. A total mess but worth it as the saving is £200 per month!
The seller is desperate for us to exchange but flexible with completion, but this suits us as we are getting the house at a low price and there have been about 5 offers on it since, all bigger than ours - one by 15k so we want to exchange to make sure its ours!
Nightmare, Im never moving again!

Wickedkitten

You won't need to pay stamp duty and the solicitors fees until after you complete usually.

Richard_Webster

Also I'm not sure the solicitor actually needs the cheque/draft from the Abbey when you see him. He will want to explain stuff to you and make sure you understand it all and will want signatures on documetns, but it isn''t really going to be a show stopper if you come back a few hours later with the Abbey cheque/draft as long as he has enough time to bank it and make the phone calls to do wthe excahnge before close of business today.

maninthestreet

bratcatcher wrote: »

Oh its all a been a right mess really, we are exchanging tomorrow with a mortgage offer that we got ages ago but with all the rate changes is now v. expensive so we dont complete for another 5 weeks to give us time to get a new mortgage offer with a better rate and get the contracts exchanged on the house we are living in to prove that to the lender. A total mess but worth it as the saving is £200 per month!
The seller is desperate for us to exchange but flexible with completion, but this suits us as we are getting the house at a low price and there have been about 5 offers on it since, all bigger than ours - one by 15k so we want to exchange to make sure its ours!
Nightmare, Im never moving again!

So you are going to exchange contracts with a mortage offer in place with payments you can't really afford, and hope you can get a better offer prior to completion in 5 weeks time? Why has your original mortgage offer now suddenly become very expensive, given the dramatic drop in the BOE base rate in the last few months?

teafiend

I've just exchanged contracts last week and our solicitor wouldn't accept a bankers draft. She said its something about new money laundering regulations? I think she might be talking rubbish, tbh. She said she wanted a Telegraphic Transfer, which would have been almost instant, and would have cost us £34.50. I used my debit card instead and she was happy with that. (She wouldn't accept cash either, also for money laundering reasons).

maninthestreet

AliceBell wrote: »

I've just exchanged contracts last week and our solicitor wouldn't accept a bankers draft. She said its something about new money laundering regulations? I think she might be talking rubbish, tbh. She said she wanted a Telegraphic Transfer, which would have been almost instant, and would have cost us £34.50. I used my debit card instead and she was happy with that. (She wouldn't accept cash either, also for money laundering reasons).

I Can't see why a bankers draft drawn on an account would be unacceptable under money laundering regulations, but a TT from the same account would be.

Robert_Sterling_3

maninthestreet wrote: »

I Can't see why a bankers draft drawn on an account would be unacceptable under money laundering regulations, but a TT from the same account would be.

Perhaps you are looking for logic where there is none.