How much notice do you get of exchange of contracts?

donnaessex

We are at the end of our purchase/sale *hopefully*.

We are buying an empty house, and our buyers are FTB so its nice and easy - well it should be...

We signed our contracts yesterday, our vendor signed his last week and our buyers are due to sign on Monday.

My solicitor still cant give me a date of exchange. The reason we need to know is that we have agreed with our vendor that we can have keys on exchange, so that we can carpet the kids bedrooms and living rooms. I need to tell the carpet store when they can deliver.

How much notice did you get before you exchanged?

Thanks in advance.

Person_one

I didn't find out for sure till after it happened I'm afraid. The solicitor gave us several optimistic estimated dates that didn't work out beforehand so don't count on a 'we've scheduled exchange for Thursday' actually meaning much!

donnaessex

Oh really? They can just exchange whenever they want?

Oh god - maybe I'd best get the carpets delivered to our house then rather than risk them not being there on time.

Thanks!

House_owner

With both the houses that we have brought, we didn't get any notice of exchange of contracts, the solicitor just let us know on the day that contracts were exchanged. Its not a good idea to have your carpets fitted between exchange of contract and completion, they may get damaged by the current house owners

donnaessex

House_owner wrote: »

With both the houses that we have brought, we didn't get any notice of exchange of contracts, the solicitor just let us know on the day that contracts were exchanged. Its not a good idea to have your carpets fitted between exchange of contract and completion, they may get damaged by the current house owners

Thanks House Owner.

The couple dont live there anymore - they live 6 hours away and dont come down to sunny Essex if they can help it! :rotfl:

PottyHouse_2

OK house empty but what happens if a pipe leaks (or worse, gets broken into?!) or something else goes wrong in the house before you complete, damaging your belongings ?

Not read anything positive on these forums about parting with carpets/furniture etc etc until completion as the house is not legally yours until then and unless your seller is fantastic, don't think you will get any reimbursement any money spent on damaged goods. Also what about insurance cover, probably not valid in a house you don't yet own.

Just a bit of advice.

Richard_Webster

1. Carpet Point - if the place is empty then sellers unlikely to cause damage but you should make sure you have insurance from exchange of contracts.

2. When does exchange happen? As soon as everyone is ready. Aeons ago solicitors used to visit each other's offices to do the exchange in person - nowadays it is done on the phone. There is no magic ceremony of "exchange of contracts" that has to be prepared for in advance that everybody gets psyched up for, so talking about "exchange dates" is inappropriate.

If there is a chain then all the solicitors in the chain have to be contactable - even if your solicitor is ready it doesn't mean that he will actually be able to exchange the day he hopes to do so, if someone else is out for the day and nobody else can deal with the file.

You could say on a Friday make an arrangement with your carpet people to fit a carpet on the following Wednesday and then tell your solicitor it is OK to exchange but would he tell you if he doesn't manage it that day. You phone your carpet man again on Monday and check he can still come Wednesday and then phone your solicitor and authorise him to exchange on the Monday...