Dear Diary #12: Did We Really Just Exchange Contracts Or Is This All A Dream?

Exchange of Contracts

Dear Diary,

I pray I’m not dreaming, but if I am, I hope not to wake up!

After the whole drama of frightfully watching my property chain on the brink of collapse, I finally received the news I’ve been eagerly waiting for.

I’ve been notified by my spectacularly useless solicitor that the drainage search report we’ve all been patiently waiting on has finally came through, after four weeks of arse-scratching and finger sniffing (yes, in that order).

Nope, it really shouldn’t have taken that long. But I’m not going to continue that rant any further, even though I should and easily could. I might, we’ll see.

For a double helping of good news, it appears that my solicitor has learned a new trick called, “calling thou client” – something he has evidently been struggling with since the beginning of time.

Against all odds, the donkey actually picked up the phone and called me. I have no idea if a gun was pointed at his stupid head, but I don’t care either way. I should probably toss him a banana to show him that I recognise and appreciate progress, but I fear he’ll become too complacent and go radio silent on me again!

I best keep the banana.

The donkey informed me that everything was in order and we’re ready to progress. So as soon as I got off the phone I transferred the deposit to my solicitor (which Halifax charged me £25 for, may I add. Criminal!), and then emailed over my building insurance schedule.

By the end of the day we were ready to “exchange contracts”, so that’s exactly what we did.

Fuck me sideways and call me Sally. We are so close that I can see the light and smell the fruits of victory!

The next time I check in I *should* be a homeowner!

However, I refuse to be overly cocky, so I have mentally allocated one last potential fuck-up by my solicitor to cause further delays, so if the donkey does what a donkey does, I’m not blind-sided.

As they say, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

What is “Exchange of Contracts”?

The exchange of contracts is the all important moment when the transfer of title/ownership happens.

This is the stage where the buyer and seller sign final copies of the contract and send them to each other. Once contracts are exchanged, the agreement to sell and buy is legally binding and usually neither party can pull out without paying compensation.

Buyers’ will usually pay the seller a deposit at the exchange of contracts stage. So if you have ANY doubts at all about the transaction, the best time to pull out is before the exchange of contracts.

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