Is your farm sale on 'schedule'?
Keeping your farm sale on schedule and managing it competently is an effective way of keeping costs and stress levels down. Many farm sales are agreed on the basis of exchange of contracts as soon as possible or within 7 days. The expression "as soon as possible" is uncertain and roughly translates into the well-known legal expression “when the buyer’s solicitor gets back from holiday”. A short, unrealistic deadline is often not taken seriously by the buyer either, especially if a proper pack (containing things like Local and Commons Search, Chancel Repair information, Single Farm Payment details etc) has not been provided by the seller and his solicitors. Indeed, the absence of a proper farm sales pack kills off in the mind of many buyers and their teams the ability to move to a quick exchange.
If you prepare a comprehensive seller's pack you can set a realistic timetable and it should be S.M.A.R.T. - Specific, Manageable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.
A S.M.A.R.T. timetable might look like this:-
- Day 1 Farm sales pack despatched to the buyer's solicitors.
- Day 6 Buyer's solicitors respond with approved or amended contract and raise any further questions arising from their investigations of the document.
- Day 10 Buyer's solicitors and the seller's solicitors meet (preferably at the farm) to inspect and discuss what items (if any) cannot be agreed and need to be referred to the client for discussion at a “round table” meeting.
- Day 14 Buyer’s/seller’s/agent/solicitors meet to discuss and resolve outstanding issues.
- Day 17 Contracts exchanged or farm re-marketed.
This timetable should be agreed at the outset and attached to the Memorandum of Sale. It helps if the solicitors are involved in the timetable discussion and much will depend on what is in the farm sales pack.
Ensure the meeting at Day 10 is diarised by the solicitors and the meeting at Day 14 by all the parties. These proposed meetings will facilitate settlement, even if they do not take place!
If you are the seller, you have to review the timetable for the sale and agree what degree of latitude any buyer should be allowed. Very often, the seller's team of professionals will know whether the reasons being put forward by the buyer are genuine – after all, they act for the buyer's too!
For more information contact Robert Swift on 01722 427601 or rs@wilsonslaw.com