Exchanging contracts - TR1, deeds, etc - need a witness - FIL okay?

Sara21

When we purchased our house earlier this year, the instructions stated that the witness must not be in your immediate family. We assumed it would be ok for my partner's dad to witness my signature, and my dad to witness my partner's signature - but the solicitor asked us to complete them again with someone impartial 
It'll probably save time (and a stamp!) just to get someone else to witness!

Tiglet2

My firm's instructions to clients are for witnesses to be non-related, not living at the property and not involved in the transaction.  A father-in-law is obviously related but if he has a different surname and resides at a different address, then the solicitor may not make the connection.  However, do you want to take a risk that the TR1 will have to be returned to you for re-signing so close to completion?  Just ask a neighbour at arm's length.

onthemend88

We got our neighbour and my mum's partner (not my Dad) to sign as witnesses. 

OldMusicGuy

We are waiting to complete. Our solicitor made it very clear that the witness for the transfer document should not be a relative. They said "independent person (not a relative)". 

So I would say no, but like others said, you should check with your solicitor.

momo1103

My form said it could not be anybody related to us so I took this to mean blood and family relatives.
I got my dad's friend (family friend) to witness ours (same person witnessed both mine and wife's). He didn't have to put his job title down though.. only his name and address.

Bowley

Same here, mine stated an independent witness over the age of 18 who we are not related to. Nothing about a specific profession though. We used work colleagues.

Competsoph

davidmcn said:

You really don't need to tell us all which threads you're following!

Despite your concern I wasn’t informing you or anyone else. I was commenting so I would receive notifications when others posted as I’m in a similar situation and would like to follow the post. I am now aware you can bookmark so every days a school day hey 🤫🙃

eddddy

Competsoph said:

davidmcn said:

You really don't need to tell us all which threads you're following!

Despite your concern I wasn’t informing you or anyone else. I was commenting so I would receive notifications when others posted as I’m in a similar situation and would like to follow the post. I am now aware you can bookmark so every days a school day hey 🤫🙃

It would have been interesting if the other 400+ people who've viewed the thread used your strategy - and added a reply of "Following" in order to receive notifications.

You would have got 400+ notifications telling you that people had replied with the word "Following".

And everyone would have had to scroll through 40 pages of replies saying "Following" to find any information.

Competsoph

eddddy said:

It would have been interesting if the other 400+ people who've viewed the thread used your strategy - and added a reply of "Following" in order to receive notifications.

You would have got 400+ notifications telling you that people had replied with the word "Following".

And everyone would have had to scroll through 40 pages of replies saying "Following" to find any information.

It would surely make for monotonous reading, as does your pointless comment to my post in which I have described how I have now made myself aware of the ability to bookmark! 

Feels awful being the only person ever to make an honest mistake..