To not hand notice in until contract signed and references passed

Exactly, and it might nothing to do with referencing being truthful or not.

How quickly your references respond is out of your control really, and you could end up with a gap of a couple of weeks with no wages.

Yes, wait. For my last job I was given written confirmation from my new employer so I went ahead and handed in my notice as my manager-to-be asked me to. Two days later I got a letter from her HR department saying ‘Do not compromise your position by resigning from your current post until we have cleared your references.’ I was beside myself with worry and only actually got confirmation from the HR department two days before I started the new job!

Thank you! I always find adding "I'm sure you understand" to stuff is brilliantly polite professional code for

you are daft to even ask you fool

and usually works a treat

Excellent

Sorry AI but ‘feeling more comfortable’ is not strong enough. OP needs to say she’s not willing to resign without a signed contract. And the waffle about being excited just wastes time.

Don’t ask if it’s ok. Tell them thats what your notice is when you get a contract and start date

Or unless an applicant had been somewhat elastic with dates…

You’re probably right to be concerned with financial services. Although I wasn’t carrying out a regulated function, my employer to be used the same vetting agency for me as either they or the FSA (as it then was) did for Approved Persons!

I’ve just had a situation where I resigned on a verbal offer and the written one a week later came through with 2 pays grades lower, a lower title and fixed term.

Luckily old job just reversed the resignation with a load of smiley faces in the message and said it was wonderful news!

References these days are tombstone type

Sandra Bloggs worked at this company from [date] to [date] and her job title was [job title].

I don't imagine you'd have lied about that so nothing to worry about. Unless you said you were a VP when you were only a Senior Manager or something then should be no problem

Verbose and waffly!

No, you're not bound to it. You just have to inform your new employer quickly if the actual date will turn out to be a week later or whatever.

I have signed a new contract but not been able to resign until my boss returned from holiday before. I just made that clear when I returned the contract, no problems.

If you want to take a day to review the contract then that's ok. I would not take days on end reviewing the contract though.

I would reply:

"Hi etc etc..

I'm not prepared to resign from my current role until I have received a contract for my new role, which I am sure you understand.

I look forward to receiving updates in due course.

Kind regards,
Muffins"

(edited for typo)

This is far too nice.

"If possible"

"please"

sorry

"would it be ok"

The recruiter is trying to take advantage of you and is being unprofessional. I have never known anyone to resign from their current job before receiving a contract for their new one.

State your (very reasonable!) terms and don't apologise for them or ask very nice please if you wouldn't mind with a cherry on top rubbish.

Stand up for yourself

I would wait for the signed contract as then if they withdraw the offer you’d have a legal claim against them. However, I don’t think it’s practical to wait for references since at least one reference will have to be from your current employer!

You can say ‘I have a 4 week notice period. Subject to having signed a contract by the end of next week, I can start 1 September. If there are delays in getting me the contract, then I’d have to revise that.’

You need a proper job offer, not a contract (which needs a start date) before you resign. Job offers are legally binding once accepted. If they are withdrawn after acceptance when there aren't any caveats and you have relied on it to your detriment (e.g. by resigning your current job), you can sue for breach of contract.

The offer needs to include anything that you have agreed and are relying on to make the job work for you (salary, hours, WFH days, whatever) and to NOT say that it is subject to anything that you can't guarantee. Job offers often say subject to references because many people do not want their current employer tapped for a reference when they haven't told them they're leaving. If you aren't concerned about that and you think it's possible they won't want you after references, then tell the recruiter that you're happy for references to be taken before the offer is made, but you won't resign until you have an offer you can rely on.

Your wording is a bit obsequious. Leave out the "If it’s possible would it be okay for me to confirm " You aren't asking them for a favour. You are negotiating a mutually beneficial deal. You just need to tell them what you need. As InWalksBarberalla says, just tell them your notice period and any dates you need to keep clear.

Stop being so fluffy.

My notice period is 4 weeks. I will be able to confirm an exact date once contracts have been signed.

They are only asking you for the earliest date you could potentially start the new role, they are not asking you to hand in your notice on your current role.
They need to know a potential start date to put on your contract for you to be able to sign it. By all means confirm that you will not be resigning until you have received and reviewed the contract and build that into the timeframe for your earliest start date.
The referencing may be a little harder to overcome as some companies will not contact your referees until you have signed the contract, so I suppose it depends on how long they are potentially willing to wait for you to start. Is there any reason to believe you may not pass the reference stage?

Just tell them your notice period and let them know if you have any holidays or anything booked that would impact your start date. They would be used to this as it's the standard approach.

Don’t say the “if it’s ok but.” They’ve offered you a job! They want you!

just say:
My notice period is four weeks. I will be able to confirm start date once I have the signed contract and have had time to review it.

They can have the start date based on maths though. So you can receive your contract based on your notice period. This is what I've always done, I've never resigned a role without a contract. I'm shocked at some of the advice on here!

Just tell them what your notice period is and that you'll resign once you have a written contract. Simple.

Tell them to piss off. Of course it's normal to wait until you have a signed contract, unless you're a fool. I know many people who have been verbally offered a job and then for some reason or another it has fallen through. I'd be very wary of any recruiter doing this.