Ready to sign - what did they mean?

titusbungle

We are in the process of buying & selling - 12 weeks in. Spoke to the solicitor last week and they said that we should be ready to sign this week. I was working abroad and the signal was poor and when I asked what she meant the signal went! Surveys, mortgage offers, etc are all done so does anyone have an idea of what she'll have meant and where we will be up to?

My assumption is that she means to sign the contract, if it is then what happens next? Are exchanged straight away or do they need to be checked? Sorry for rambling on!

matador04

I guess it depends whether the other parties in the chain have signed yet.

We signed our sale & purchase contracts last week but haven't exchanged yet - still no idea when that will happen.

Propertyauthor

Basically this means all the work has been done to sign the contract - hopefully to buy and to sell. Once contracts are signed they can be 'exchanged'. What this means is both you are your buyer/seller are committed to the sale and a completion date can be set - ie 'completion' and when you get the keys. There is lots to do between exchange and completion so put some time aside for change of address, moving belongings and setting things up for your new home such as utilities/TV/telecoms etc.

G_M

Propertyauthor wrote: »

Basically this means all the work has been done to sign the contract - hopefully to buy and to sell. Once contracts are signed they can be 'exchanged'....

There is a huge difference between 'signing' and 'Exchanging Contracts'.

Your solicitor will get you to sign the contract in preparation for Exchange, but Exchange may not happen for days, or even weeks.

So when the solicitor says we are ready to sign they mean the contract has been written, checked (eg the names, price etc are right) and agreed.

You then sign it and the solicitor will hold it ready for later. But there may be any number of other outstanding things to do: searches, mortgage approval, planning certificates to obtain, survey, waiting for others in the chain.........

Only when ALL those things are ready will the solicitor ring you, say "OK, NOW we are ready, I have your signed contract waiting, do you still want to Exchange (or change your mind)?"

Assuming you say yes, THEN the solicitors will all "Exchange Contracts".

phoebe1989seb

Agree with G_M - when we sold our last house and bought this one in 2011 our solicitor gave us the contract to sign very early on in the proceedings, and although the whole buying/selling process only took a couple of months from start to finish there was a few weeks wait from signing to actual exchange. OTOH, last year we sold my parents' house and our solicitor (different firm in different area) got me to sign (I have POA) a few days before exchange took place.......so it does vary somewhat

SG27

We signed our contracts fairly early on. It was about two months later that we exchanged. It took so long that I thought what we had signed was not the full contract and expected to have to go back to sign again!

kingstreet

... and you can't exchange contracts until all the parties in the chain have agreed on a completion date.