Missives, conclusion and settlement: the legal timeline of a Scottish sale

An offer comes in on the Thursday. You accept it on the Friday. By Monday you are wondering why nobody will tell you the sale is definitely happening, and why your solicitor keeps using the word "yet". That gap, between agreeing a price and having a contract neither side can walk away from, is the part of the Scottish system most sellers have never had explained properly. It is also where almost all of the anxiety in a house sale lives.

So here is the legal timeline in the order it happens. Offer, qualified acceptance, conclusion of missives, date of entry, settlement. I chase this process for my sellers across Dumfries & Galloway every week, so this is written from the agent's side of the desk rather than the textbook.

What missives are

Missives are the letters that pass between the buyer's solicitor and the seller's solicitor. Each one is a formal document. Taken together, once both sides agree on every point, they form the contract for the sale of your house. There is no single document that gets signed in a room. The contract is built letter by letter.

The first thing to understand is that nothing said on the phone counts. When I ring with an offer you are happy with and you tell me to go ahead, that is an agreement between two people. It carries weight in practice and I expect people to stand by it, but it is not the contract. That starts when the buyer's solicitor puts a written offer in front of yours.

The offer, and why the first reply is rarely a simple yes

A formal offer is longer than most sellers expect. Alongside the price it sets out the proposed date of entry, what is included in the sale, and a list of conditions the buyer wants satisfied before they part with their money. Fixtures and fittings, carpets, blinds, the range cooker, the shed. Confirmation that the property matches what the Home Report said. Evidence of building warrants and completion certificates for anything structural. Electrical and gas paperwork.

Your solicitor almost never accepts all of that as written. Instead they issue a qualified acceptance, which agrees the price and the broad shape of the deal while amending the conditions that do not work. Maybe you do not have the paperwork for a conservatory the previous owner put up. Maybe you are not willing to guarantee a boiler you have never serviced. Each reply is a further missive, and the back and forth continues until there is nothing left to argue about.

This is normal, not a sign the sale is in trouble. A qualified acceptance is how Scottish solicitors do their job.

What usually holds things up

In my experience the delay is rarely the price. It is almost always paperwork. The usual culprits:

• Work done to the house without a building warrant, or with a warrant but no completion certificate
• A missing electrical installation certificate for a rewire, or no service record for the boiler
• Title questions: a shared access track, a septic tank sitting in a neighbour's field, a boundary that does not match the fence
• A buyer waiting on a formal mortgage offer rather than an agreement in principle
• The buyer's own sale, which has its own timeline running behind yours

Most of these are solvable. They just take weeks to solve if you go looking for the documents after an offer arrives rather than before you list. If you have had work done, dig out the folder now and send copies to your solicitor the day you instruct them. That single habit shortens more sales than anything else I could tell you.

Nothing is binding until missives conclude. Everything before that point is agreement in principle, however firm it feels.

Conclusion of missives: the moment it becomes real

When the last outstanding point is agreed, missives are concluded. At that moment you have a binding contract. The price is fixed. The date of entry is fixed. What is included is fixed. Neither you nor the buyer can walk away without facing a claim for the other side's losses, which can run well beyond wasted legal fees if the other party has to start again in a weaker market.

Before conclusion, either side can withdraw. That cuts both ways. A buyer who finds something they prefer can disappear, and a seller who receives a higher late offer can take it. I will always tell a seller their options, and I will also tell them what I think: walking away late usually costs more in delay than it gains in price, and this is a region where the same agents and solicitors deal with each other constantly. The better answer is to surface the best price before you accept anything, which is what a closing date and offers over pricing are designed to do.

Why missives now conclude so close to the keys

Years ago missives would conclude weeks ahead of the date of entry. That has changed. It is now common for missives to conclude days, and sometimes hours, before the keys are handed over, largely because lenders and solicitors are more cautious about committing until every last check is signed off. The Law Society of Scotland guidance is clear that solicitors should not allow undue delay, and good ones push hard, but the pattern across the industry has shifted.

For you as a seller that has one practical consequence. Do not spend money you cannot get back on the assumption that a date of entry is certain. Book the removal van, but check the cancellation terms. Keep your solicitor's direct line and use it. I would rather a seller rang me three times a week than sat at home assuming everything was fine.

Settlement day, and where your money goes

On the date of entry the buyer's solicitor transfers the purchase funds to your solicitor. Once those funds are confirmed as received, the keys are released. In most of my sales the keys sit with me and I hand them over the moment I get the call, which is why settlements often happen late morning or early afternoon rather than at nine o'clock.

Your solicitor then settles what is owed out of the proceeds. Any outstanding mortgage is redeemed, their own fees come off, the agency fee and marketing costs are paid, and the balance goes to you, usually the same day or the next working day. Land and Buildings Transaction Tax is the buyer's tax, not yours, and their solicitor deals with it after settlement. It still matters to you, because LBTT is part of what a buyer has to find in cash on top of their deposit, and it shapes what they can afford to bid.

If the timeline itself is the problem, because the house is empty, the chain has broken or an executry sale needs finished quickly, it is worth reading about the options for selling your house fast before you commit to a standard listing. The right route depends on whether speed or price matters more to you, and that is a decision worth making deliberately.

How to keep your own timeline tight

Five things, in the order I would do them:

1. Instruct your solicitor before the house goes on the market, not after an offer arrives
2. Have the Home Report done and read it yourself, so nothing in it catches you out later
3. Gather building warrants, completion certificates, electrical and gas paperwork, and any guarantees, and send them across early
4. Decide now what is staying and what is going, so the fixtures list is not a negotiation
5. Reply to your solicitor the same day, every time. Two days here and three days there is how a six week sale becomes a ten week one

None of that is difficult. It just has to happen before the pressure starts. For the fuller picture, from valuation through to settlement, I have set out how I handle a sale from start to finish, and also how long a sale typically takes in Dumfries & Galloway.

The legal process in Scotland is a good one. Once missives conclude, your sale is about as secure as a property transaction gets anywhere in the UK. The job is getting to that point without avoidable delay, and most of that work happens before anyone makes an offer at all.