Exchange of Contracts

snapping_crocodile

Friends of mine have signed the contract to buy their first house. The solicitor is being really slow and they are getting fed up. The vendors have yet to sign the contract. My question is, does this mean they have exchanged, as they have signed the contract, and so are committed to buying the property? Or does exchange only really occur when both parties have signed, therefore they are free to pull out of the sell?

david29dpo

Signing and exchanging ARE different. You can pullout after signing, not after exchanging.

Cannon_Fodder

The solicitor *should* call you to say, "right, contract signed by all who need to, are you happy to exchange"...

Maybe thats only in my experience though, and maybe some solicitors go ahead without further contact.

So, if they speak to the solicitor to say, "don't exchange", he'll let them know if its too late or not.

pie81

Simple answer: if the vendors have not yet signed then neither side is committed.

Exchange happens only once both sides have signed. The sols then "exchange" the signed contracts.

For practical purposes, sols usually ask their client to give them a signed copy of the contract in advance, so they have it ready. However the contract
is held "to the client's order" - in other words the sol is not allowed to exchange it with the other side until the client has confirmed they are happy.

So if your friends want to pull out they can.

snapping_crocodile

Thanks for the advice everyone