• Can A Non-solicitor Send A Contract "held To His Order"?

    By Spud on 05th Jun 2015

    I am acting for myself in respect of my house sale but have an interdependent purchase being handled by a solicitor. In order to protect my interests I need to careful to undertake the process of exchange in the correct order i.e.: receive my purchasers’ signed contact and confirm that their deposit has been paid then complete the exchange on my purchase before sending my signed contract to my purchasers solicitor. It would be more convenient if I could send my signed contract on sale by post the day before exchange but 'held to my order' but does that have any legal standing when stated by a non solicitor?

  • 1 Answers

    By Guest on 05/06/2015

    Yes because a solicitor will be holding the contract to your order. You need to be careful here though if you need to be able to move into the property you are. Utica g on completion of your sale. When a client has a sale and purchase which are dependent on each other the process is that the solicitor will obtain a "release" of the contract on the sale, will exchange on the purchase then go back and exchange on the sale. In your case, post your sale contract to the buyer's solicitor then telephone him when you know he has it and get him to go through the terms to make sure the two contracts are identical (you will eventually be doing a reverse formula A exchange, reverse because normally you would have both contracts and the deposit but you being a non-solicitor this isn't practical). You then ask him for a release to a certain time that same working day. Let's say the time is 4pm. Taking a release does not mean you have exchanged on your sale but it does mean that provided you call the solicitor back before 4pm he has to exchange with you. So you go off and exchange on your purchase (or your solicitor does) and then once that is done you call the buyer's solicitor back and complete the exchange. In this way you avoid the risk of exchanging on your sale then being unable to exchange on your purchase. It is essential that you get back to the buyer's solicitor before the release expires, otherwise he doesn't have to exchange with you but you will have exchanged on your purchase.

  • Post Your Answer


  • Do you want to be informed of further comments / replies? Yes No

Ask a Question

Search