I’m in need of some rather urgent advice. I’m in the late stages of selling a second home. The cash buyer’s solicitors questions have all been answered and there were no surprises (and no survey asked for) and their solicitor will now be writing a report for the buyer. My solicitor thinks completing before they close for Christmas on 22nd December is realistic.
However, my buyer has just announced that she’s going abroad for three months on Friday. My solicitor says that she needs to sign the contract, TR1 transfer form and stamp duty land tax return before she goes, which I’ve asked her to do.
Her circumstances mean that she’s not is such a hurry to complete as we are though (we’ve just lost substantial rental income when our tenant left), so she’s probably more concerned with finishing work and getting ready for her trip and I’m worried she just may not have time to ask her solicitors to prepare the documents or go into their offices to sign them.
I’ve looked into this scenario and (on an MSE forum) it looks like she can give authority for her solicitor to sign at exchange of contract on her behalf, and then completion is automatic after that.
There is also the Mercury signing system which allows for remote parties to exchange, but I’ve read that all parties involved need to agree this system will be used before the process starts, so I’m not sure if it’s appropriate at this stage.
Can anyone advise as to what my options are?