Question 4
What are missives?
The contract for the purchase or sale of a property is often referred to as the missives. The missives comprise a series of letters exchanged between the solicitors acting for the buyer and the seller.
The missives start with an offer usually made by the buyer to buy the property from the seller. An example of a typical form of offer can be seen here. This offer contains Clauses that are needed to make sure that the buyer receives a proper title to the property in exchange for payment of the price. Besides this, the offer gives the buyer the right to get hold of the proper documents relating to alterations, timber guarantees and so on, that may be necessary as a result of works that have taken place to the property.
The seller’s solicitor would normally then send a qualified acceptance to the buyer’s solicitor. These qualifications can relate to changes in the price, changes in the date of entry, changes in the moveable items to be included in the sale and changes relating to the more technical Clauses or the documents or lack of them for the alteration works and so on, that may have been carried out by the seller or the seller’s predecessors.
Missives would normally be made up of a series of three to five letters and end with a letter from one solicitor to the other confirming that all matters have now been agreed and the bargain is now concluded. Missives can be made up by many more letters; however, they always end with a letter that says that the bargain is now concluded.
This series of letters make up the missives and is the formal contract between the buyer and seller. If a dispute arises between the buyer and seller before or, in some cases after, the date of entry then the matter would normally be sorted out by referring to the missives.
Until the missives are concluded there is no contract between the parties and either party can normally withdraw from the contract without liability. As a result it is important that missives are concluded as quickly as possible. There can, however, be delays if information is not available to the seller that would allow the seller to deal with the buyer’s needs in the missives. If you are selling it is important that we are aware of the sale if possible before the property goes on the market so that we can try and make sure that all proper documents are available. It is helpful if you are able to send to us Local Authority documents relating to alterations, timber guarantee documents, any notification that you have received from neighbouring or adjoining proprietors relating to extensions or developments on their property and any notices from the Local Authority. If we do not already have the information, it is also helpful to have a note of your mortgage lender and the Building Society or Bank Account Number for the loan so the titles can be ordered in advance of an offer being received.
We will copy all stages of the missive to you. Since we sign the missive letters on your behalf, it is important that you are satisfied that these letters accurately reflect your instructions to us.
Time Limits
Most missive letters will contain a time limit. If the time limit expires without an unqualified acceptance of the terms of that letter being received from the other side, then the qualified acceptance is not capable of being accepted without a further qualification from the other side at least to extend or withdraw the time limit. It is unfortunately fairly common nowadays for time limits to be exceeded. This does not mean that the bargain will not go ahead as in most cases the time limit has not been met merely as a result of information not being available or delay in instructions being received by the other side. It is important however to be aware if a time limit has not been met as it can be an indication of the buyer having difficulty with funding, or the buyer getting worried about the sale of their own property, or in the case of a sale the seller not managing to find another suitable property. While the other side cannot be compelled to conclude a bargain, it is important to find out if there something that may pose a problem or whether it is merely an administrative matter that is likely to be resolved.
