Selling my house. Contract gone to buyers.. what now?

G

gazzer

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Put my house on the market in March and a couple put a booking deposit down on it 5 weeks ago. My solicitor got the deeds of my house 2 weeks ago and 10 days ago she drew up the contracts and sent me out a copy.

Anyway I have chosen the 19th June as the date of closing. The contract was sent to the sellers solicitor last week. I dont know if the sellers are happy with the 19th June date of closing, I dont even know if they have looked at the contract yet.

Would it be normal for a contract to be changed a few times before agreement is reached? What I mean is the couple may not be able to move in by June 19th so could understandably want a later date. This would mean a brand new contract would have to be drawn up and the whole process takes even longer to finish.

I plan to rent a house for a year but I dont know wheter I should start looking yet. I hate been in this limbo situation. At least if I knew that the June 19th date was ok with the solicitors I could start looking for a new place to rent. I rang my solictor today and she said that she had no news yet.
 
In my opinion the closing date is something that should have been agreed between the parties with the auctioneers help prior to sale instructions going to the solicitor. This is because the auctioneer has access to both parties and should have tied this down.

However inevitably sales instructions do go to solicitors without a closing date. When this happens to me I usually go directly to the auctioneer and my client and ask them to agree a closing date with the purchasers precisely to prevent tooing and frooing once contracts are issued.

However new contracts do not have to be drawn up, the ones already issued can be amended. Go talk to hte auctioneer now and ask her/him to get on to the purchasers about the closing date- then you will at least know immediately when you need to prepare to rent.
 
@ Vanilla. Thanks for the advice. I will give the auctioneers a call on Monday morning. To be honest I never thought of ringing them due to the fact that the solicitor had drawn up the contract so I presumed that all my dealings should just be with her.

I dont mind if the sellers cant move into the house on June 19th as I know they are currently renting and may need to give sufficient notice etc.. I just want to know one way or another though so as to give me time to look at some places to rent.

Thanks again.
 
I plan to rent a house for a year but I dont know wheter I should start looking yet. I hate been in this limbo situation. At least if I knew that the June 19th date was ok with the solicitors I could start looking for a new place to rent. I rang my solictor today and she said that she had no news yet
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Regarding that last line, in my experience, the two solicitors generally only make contact through fax or letter which can slow down the whole communication process. Vanilla is right your best bet is to get the auctioneer to tie down a date. I'm not sure if its standard practice not to ring each other, but I have on many occasions has calls like this from clients 'my solicitor faxed the other solicitor and hasn't had a reply yet can you ring them' I don't agree that the auctioneer should be a middle man in the simpler dealings between solicitors but it has been the case more often than not.
 
Personally have no objection to telephoning other solicitor. Who may or may not be available. Who then has to ring his client. Who may or may not be available. Then they have to ring me back, I may or may not be available, then I have to ring my client...think the picture is clear at this point. Closing date should be agreed by the auctioneer when tying down the sales instructions at the outset.
 
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