Guide To Exchanging Contracts - Conveyancing Solicitor

By Author: Finven Thomas
Total Articles: 4
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Exchanging contracts is a much celebrated part of the home buying process but as your conveyancing solicitor will tell you, it is not the final stage. Your conveyancing solicitor will have prepared your contract and looked over that of the other party before ensuring that both parties sign the agreements. The contract your conveyancing solicitor will give you to sign will be a legally binding commitment to purchase the property, so it’s essential that you ensure that both you and your conveyancing solicitor have completed all the relevant checks and tasks before you sign on the dotted line.

Your conveyancing solicitor should have performed all of the necessary searches on the property to ensure that it is on a sound footing with the council and that you are fully informed of any planning permission issues that may be relevant to the property. As your conveyancing solicitor should have advised you, there should also have been a surveyor’s report on the property to check that it is structurally in good condition - although it is important to note that the conveyancing ...
... solicitor can’t actually perform this. You should also have a mortgage offer in place and have your conveyancing solicitor check over the terms of the mortgage agreement. Your conveyancing solicitor is not necessarily required to help you with your mortgage agreement in their role as a conveyancing solicitor, but by having a conveyancing solicitor that is willing to help explain any areas you may not understand you will make the whole process much easier on yourself.

Once the mortgage is in place and the contract is ready to be signed, the deposit will then need to be paid and the contracts exchanged. It may seem a daunting task but in reality your conveyancing solicitor will take care of virtually all aspects of the exchange with only your signature necessary. It is at this stage that you become locked into the deal and having paid the deposit, failure to proceed can result in some significant financial losses - usually a minimum of the deposit which is generally about 10% of the purchase price. When you consider that the average house price in the UK is over £200,000, that’s a minimum of £20,000 that could be lost should you fail to complete on the agreement after exchanging contracts.

When the contracts are exchanged, your conveyancing solicitor - under your guidance - will suggest an appropriate completion date for the property to be emptied by, keys handed over and for you to move in. This is usually four weeks from the exchange of contracts but your conveyancing solicitor will likely be able to arrange an earlier or later moving in date depending on your requirements. Your conveyancing solicitor will then send of the change of ownership deeds to the land registry and the property will be officially yours!
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