Help with final stages of the buying process

5t3ve

Hi all,

Hoping for some feedback on 'what happens next' as this is my first purchase and i'm a little lost.

My partner and I are in the process of buying a property - we found somewhere, offer accepted, mortgage approved, searches done, contracts signed (Without a completion date yet!) - so basically we're 99% of the way there.

I've never been told how many are in the chain - I've heard whispers of 5 from the estate agent, but to be honest I don't believe a word he says - as he never seems too sure! so my first question is - how are you supposed to know how big the chain is??

Secondly - I'm interested in finding out what happens next.

We went to our solicitor with some dates that we were happy to move on - the first one got passed to the sellers solicitor who wrote a letter back saying it was no good, but suggested 2 others.

We then went back saying either were fine - but the sooner the better.

Our solicitor tried processing the 'exchange of contracts' today, - told us they'd 'released our contract' and then came back a few hours later saying 'no exchange'.

What does this mean in practical terms? What does releasing a contract mean? and any ideas why we'd be stuck with 'no exchange'?

One other question is that when our dates get passed to the sellers solicitors - does this then need to go to 4 other solicitors and then back the other way for all to be agreed before we exchange? Is it a much harder process than I think?

Don't get me wrong - i'm more than happy with our solicitor - I'm just not familiar with the terminology or the process as a whole!

Thanks in Advance.

Richard_Webster

See below

Our solicitor tried processing the 'exchange of contracts' today, - told us they'd 'released our contract' and then came back a few hours later saying 'no exchange'.

What does this mean in practical terms? What does releasing a contract mean? and any ideas why we'd be stuck with 'no exchange'?

Your seller probably won't want to exchange with you unless he can exchange on his purchase and so on up the chain. So your solicitor "releases" a contract which means that he undertakes to complete the exchange on agreed terms as to price, completion date, amount of deposit and any other terms such as the provision of some indemnity policy or the other, provided the seller's solicitor comes back to him by some agreed time later in the day.

One other question is that when our dates get passed to the sellers solicitors - does this then need to go to 4 other solicitors and then back the other way for all to be agreed before we exchange? Is it a much harder process than I think?

Yes it goes up as far as there is agreement and then may stop. Someone further up may not be ready to exchange so may effectively be saying that he won't discuss dates until his clients are ready to proceed. You could get an exchange tomorrow, it could be weeks and weeks, depending on what issues there are further up and how long the chain actually is - it may be longer than you think!

5t3ve

Many thanks for the reply Richard - very helpful as always!!

5t3ve

As it goes - we actually ended up Exchanging contracts this morning - we're completing at the end of the month!