My offer on a house was accepted - what next?

Ailsa Meiklejohn, Head of Property at Drummond Miller, looks at what happens after your offer has been accepted on a property.

You instruct your solicitor to submit an offer, the estate agent confirms it is verbally accepted and congratulations! You’ve bought a property… nearly.

A gentleman’s agreement

When your offer is verbally accepted, the estate agent will usually mark the property as “under offer” and cancel further viewings.

However, at this stage you only have a gentleman’s agreement with the seller – you are not legally bound to purchase the property (and the seller is not legally bound to sell the property to you) until missives are concluded. Missives is the name given to the contract between the buyer and the seller.

Ensuring your funding is in place

It is not appropriate for either party to commit to the transaction until the purchaser is confident on a number of matters, in particular, that they have the funding in place to complete the purchase.

If your purchase is dependent on you securing a mortgage, following the offer being verbally accepted, you should progress your mortgage application as soon as possible. It is only once your solicitor receives your mortgage offer that they will be confident that this aspect of your funding is in place – this can take a number of weeks.

Buying a house subject to sale

Furthermore, if your purchase is subject to sale, you will also need your own sale missives to be concluded before you conclude missives on your purchase, in order to ensure you have the funding available.

You may also wish to try and conclude both your purchase and sale simultaneously to ensure you are not left in a situation where you sell without buying, and that can be a bit of a juggle!

Avoiding potential penalties

While we appreciate that uncertainty of not being legally bound to the transaction is unsettling (particularly when you are trying to organise a house move!), it is in your best interests to ensure your funding is in place before committing yourself to the transaction and potentially incurring penalties for breach of contract if your funding is not secured!

Drummond Miller

Find out more about Drummond Miller by contacting them on reception@drummondmiller.co.uk or 0131 226 5151.

ESPC magazine

This article originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of the ESPC magazine. Find out more about the ESPC magazine and read the full issue online.