Do you exchange on draft contracts?

Cheesedoodles

I saw my solicitor a couple of days ago and I signed a number of documents for the land registry, my mortgage and a draft contract (i specifically remember it having a blue DRAFT stamp). The solicitor then said it's not binding until we exchange.

Yesterday I popped in with the deposit and today he told me we're ready to exchange and might try and get it done tomorrow as long as the vendors solicitor has the signed contract available.

Now...I signed a DRAFT contract. When do I get the actual contract? I though I needed to sign a "real" contract before we could exchange.

Am I confusing myself here?

pie81

Hmm, I think this is a valid concern, if I were your seller I wouldn't accept a contract with a Draft stamp on it. Most likely thing is that your lawyer has forgotten that it had a stamp on it. Give them a call, remind them about the stamp and ask if you need to sign another one (without the stamp).

Fire_Fox

Have you asked your solicitor?

Cheesedoodles

It only occured to me just now. And his office is closed.

I'll fire off an e-mail right now so he get's it tomorrow morning.

Which reminds me... What is the purpose of signing a draft contract if it means nothing??

Cheers.

EagerLearner

Hi Cheesedoodles - more than likely they didn't remember it was the draft one but see what they say. I'm glad you raised the issue as we'll be in the same boat I think in a couple of weeks so I will keep a beady eye out for that!

Richard_Webster

When it gets to exchange the solicitors will simply cross out the word "draft".

A bit silly stamping the word "draft" on the document. A lot of sellers' solicitors happily assume that the buyer's solicitors will accept the wording without amendment. Usually there are some things that need altering - clauses that give the seller an unfair advantage if something goes wrong, which admittedly rarely happens in practice. So when the solicitors have done altering the wording the seller's solicitor in an ideal world would send out a fresh version without alterations but sadly many sellers' solicitors do not do this, so clients end up signing a version with manuscript amendments on it - and crossing out the word "draft" would be a very minor point!