Conditional Exchange on Property

Sjo1

Hi
Whilst waiting for Probate (24 weeks and counting) a buyer has appeared for my deceased parents house
They have suggested a 'Conditional Exchange of Contracts' until Probate allows to fully happen
They will put deposit into my lawyers account and have suggested they could have early access to the house to carry out works. 
Im not keen and neither is my lawyer
Out of curiosity has anyone come across this before

user1977

It doesn't necessarily follow that conditional exchange also means the buyer gets access before completion. If you want the contract tied up early (i.e. so the buyers can't back out) then no harm from your point of view. Is probate the only point upon which they want it to be conditional? You say they "have appeared" which suggests there's been no due diligence etc so far?

saajan_12

Depends heavily on what the contract terms would say
- wording of the conditions
- what happens & when if the condition is met
- what happens & when if the condition is not met

Ask they / their solicitors draft something for you / your solicitor to review (and post here). 

eddddy

Sjo1 said:

Im not keen and neither is my lawyer

In addition to the comments above - it may be that your solicitor's firm is not keen because they only want to do standard conveyancing. If they're not experienced in custom conditional contracts, they might not want to get involved, and/or they might not be able to give you the best advice.


As an example, with a solicitor's firm I used, I dealt with a 'Conveyancing Executive' for a regular sale/purchase, but I had to deal directly with a 'Senior Partner' when a conditional contract was involved.

So the legal fees were much higher.

housebuyer143

Once you exchange you can get something called a key agreement which allows then access to the property prior to completion to do specific agreed works. 
Agree with the above that it's probably out of the ordinary and the solicitor doesn't want to get involved.