Pre Contract Help!

str1784

Hi
I'm after some advice. Me and my partner are ftb. We've agreed a fee instructed the solicitors and had our surveys done.But we're a bit clueless as to which order things happen next. We had the estate agent on the phone asking if we've recieved our pre contract papers because the sellers are ready to exchange. We've not recived them yet, we've had the confirmation letter and mortgage deeds which we've returned. All the searches have been done except for the land search, which is still in the process of getting done. Will we have to wait for the land searches to be completed before our pre contract papers are sent out?

Thanks

G_M

Different conveyancers do things in different orders, maybe depending on work load.

Ask them?

str1784

Sorry, i forgot to explain, our solicitor is off ill and the best we could get was someone from the person injury department telling us that she's unsure and "will find out by monday" hence me asking for advice on here.

str1784

So is it essential for the land searches to be in by the time of exchange?

G_M

str1784 wrote: »

So is it essential for the land searches to be in by the time of exchange?

Well there's not much point doing them if you Exchange before they come in!

If you Exchange and then find HS2 is scheduled to cross your garden, there's nothing you can do!

G_M

str1784 wrote: »

Sorry, i forgot to explain, our solicitor is off ill and the best we could get was someone from the person injury department telling us that she's unsure and "will find out by monday" hence me asking for advice on here.

Sounds like a very small firm. Is there really only one conveyancing solicitor in the practice?....

str1784

G_M wrote: »

Well there's not much point doing them if you Exchange before they come in!

If you Exchange and then find HS2 is scheduled to cross your garden, there's nothing you can do!

This is what i assumed, but the vendors solisitor is pushing to exchange even though i've explain that the land searches aren't back yet. Can we still sign the pre contract papers our end without exchanging them even if the searches aren't back or will that put us in a position where we couldn't back out? Please excuse my lack of knowledge.

Regarding the solisitors firm, they have been pretty good with any questions up to now but appreantly today was "one of those days" and no one in the conveyancing department was available.

G_M

You can sign the contract and return it (undated) to your solicitor. He will then hold it ready for Exchange.

When the searches, mortgage and everything else are ready, and you have agreed a Completion date, your solicitor and the vendor's solicitor will phone each other, agree to 'Exchange', put the dates into the contracts and post them to each other.

str1784

G_M wrote: »

You can sign the contract and return it (undated) to your solicitor. He will then hold it ready for Exchange.

When the searches, mortgage and everything else are ready, and you have agreed a Completion date, your solicitor and the vendor's solicitor will phone each other, agree to 'Exchange', put the dates into the contracts and post them to each other.

ahh i see, obviously we want to get things moving a quick as possible, i was just worried if the contract turned up tomorrow and we were to sign it and send it back, we'd be in a position where we couldn't back out if the land searches flagged something up. Thanks for putting our minds at ease, you've been great.

Yorkie1

The V's solicitor can push all they like, if you are not ready then you are not ready.

There are several issues here.

1. The searches. These are done to protect your interests. You say that one is still outstanding in any event. When they are all received, your solicitor will put them together and send them to you with an overview report. You read it carefully and raise any questions with your solicitor. For example, if there's mention of a planning application or environmental stuff. Your solicitor may raise further queries with the seller as a result of their own review of the papers, or your enquiries.

2. Survey. Has this been done and received? Are there any issues which might lead you to need further investigations to be done, or to seek to negotiate on price?

3. Have you received the fixtures and fittings form (this tells you what the seller is leaving in the property) and the property information form (stuff like where the stopc*ck is, when any work was done on the house, and which energy companies supply the house) from the seller via your solicitor? If so, have you read it carefully and do you need to query anything? Have the sellers missed out anything or appeared to tell fibs compared to your understanding of the purchase and the property?

Once these are sorted out, and the final purchase price is agreed upon if it needed renegotiating for any reason, the legal paperwork is issued by the seller's solicitor. Your solicitor checks that it's all in order and gets you to sign it. You are not committed to the purchase at this stage.

You only become committed to the purchase once your solicitor has checked all is in order, that you are happy to proceed, and exchanges contracts.

If there is nobody back in the solicitor's office next week, I'd be asking serious questions about how long the solicitor will be absent and what arrangements are being put in place to ensure that your transaction is not jeopardised.

str1784

We've received our survey result and there's no issues there. we've also received the chancel,environmental and drainage searches. Its just the land searches that are taking slightly longer due to council back logs. We were just concerned that we were holding things up by not having the pre contract papers signed and returned, but i suppose its not an issue until the land searches are back as we can't proceed with the exchange anyway. I guess its just us panicking due to the constant call from the estate agents. Are we best off waiting till the land searches are back to sign the papers, or are we ok to trust that our solisitor wouldn't proceed with the exchange until we gave him the ok after we've evaluated the land search results?