Legal conditions in offer letter

Glastoun

I received a written copy of my offer letter today, and besides noticing how huge the amount looks when it's typed out in black and white, there was also a clause that said this:

"This offer is conditional on the Seller confirming that no part of the sale proceeds... will be mandated to a third party who is not a relative of the Seller."

I presume there's some legal reason that this is included, but what business of mine is it what the Seller does with their money once they've sold it? Or does 'mandate' have a specific use in this context?

And being in Scotland, I like that the Crofting Commission have to consent to the title of the property, if applicable.

I don't think it's applicable though.

G_M

No idea, but does that mean the seller cannot use the money to pay off a mortage.....?

Guest101

I'm really confused by this, it's an offer letter, not a contract (unless i've misread) - so why's it even there?

ValHaller

G_M wrote: »

No idea, but does that mean the seller cannot use the money to pay off a mortgage.....?

I don't think so. The money all goes to the seller who pays off the mortgage - via his solicitor of course.

It looks more like an anti money laundering sort of measure

Guest101

ValHaller wrote: »

I don't think so. The money all goes to the seller who pays off the mortgage - via his solicitor of course.

It looks more like an anti money laundering sort of measure

But the anti money laundering side of things is done when they buy a house, not sell.

It's like saying here's your money, but you can't spend it.

Glastoun

Guest101 wrote: »

I'm really confused by this, it's an offer letter, not a contract (unless i've misread) - so why's it even there?

It's in Scotland, the offer letter forms the initial part of the contract.

It's by the by that the solicitor has never met us, we've never signed anything, they've had no proof of ID, and we haven't paid them anything yet - so anyone could phone up and put in an offer on a million pound house in someone else's name, and the first they would know about it would be the copy offer letter they received through the post.......