Exchanging contracts

pledgeX

OUr situation is as follows... We've had an offer on a house accepted. All our searches and surveys have been carried out, we've been given a mortgage offer, we're happy with all the fixtures and fittings/property information forms and all our queries have been answered.

We've transferred the 10% deposit to our solicitor and I believe we are just waiting on a completion date. The next step is to exchange contracts.

How does this process actually work? We've signed a draft contract but that didn't really have much info on it apart from everones names and the house adress etc. Is it going to be a monster contract that we'll have to take away and read or is a fairly straightforward document that we can go to the solicitors and sign there and then? Should we be given the contract in advance to read through first, or is it the done thing that you're given it and expected to sign pretty quickly? Is the vendor doing the same thing with her contract at the same time, or could we end up signing it then waiting on the vendor?

Sorry for all the questions, we've been going through the stages for a couple of months now and now our solicitor is pushing for exchange and it's all started to happen very quickly!! It's obviously an important stage so I want to know what's going on and make sure we aren't rushed into something.

Thanks for any help.

SmlSave

Now that you've signed the contract it sounds like you're ready to exchange.

If you feel that you want to read the contract (and will understand it) then by all means ask your solicitor to provide you with a copy. Otherwsie it's normal just to sign it and you're ready! The only reason a solicitor would ask you to read the contract is if it's anything out of the oridinary.

Exchange of contracts happens by telephone with all the solicitors calling each other and making sure they're ready with the same completion date - it always reminds me of a line of domino's when there's a large chain.

pledgeX

So do we need to sign anything now? Or is the fact we signed the draft contract back at the start enough?

I've literally just got an email from my solicitor and she's only asking for confirmation that she can go ahead and exchange today. There's no mention of us needing to read or sign anything which seems a bit odd to be honest. Thought there's be more to exchanging contracts than literally just saying yes!

megzmam

think what you signed previously was the contract so you sound like all systems go, i'd get back in touch and let them pursue the exchange today.
we signed contract last thursday and contracts were supposed to be exchanged monday, then tuesday then again yesterday but our solicitor missed deadline :mad::mad: hoping all will be sorted today though fingers crossed, we are due to complete tomorrow!
hope all goes well for you and good luck x

Richard_Webster

When you were sent the "draft contract" to sign did your solicitor include any report explaining about the legal stuff relating to the property? If not you should be demanding an explanation.

The actual contract wording can get quite technical and all the small print would confuse most people, but that isn't really the point. You should be told in some form of report about the results of searches, about any covenants and rights that apply to the property, whether any extensions have the right permissions, etc..

pledgeX

Richard_Webster wrote: »

When you were sent the "draft contract" to sign did your solicitor include any report explaining about the legal stuff relating to the property?

We've had plenty of papaerwork back from the solicitor explaining the results of all the searches and the deeds and all the legal bits and pieces. As you say we found it hard to understand some of the terminolgy used, but after querying this we were assured everything looked satisfactory.

I posted on this forum back when I got the draft contract as I wasn't 100% what the form was for, but the consensus was that it just clarifies all the parties involved and the house in question and purchase price etc. Which we looked through and everything was correct so we signed it.

I've gone back to our solicitor asking for more of an explanation as to what we need to do and what's in the contract and whether we need to sign anything, so hopefully I'll hear back soon. Just a bit worried that we might have overlooked something here.

pledgeX

I've gone back to our solicitor and she's said all she needs is the ok from us. No need for us to sign anything or read anything new.

This just wasn't how I imagined this would all work, but as a FTB I don't know what to expect!!!