An offer on a property can be verbal or in writing. What is the difference? A verbal offer may come from either a potential buyer, a representative authorised by them or from that person’s solicitor. Of course, the old adage that a verbal offer isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on applies just as much to property as it does to most other things! It is, however, an indication that the potential buyer wants to open negotations on a purchase. Talk, however, is cheap and until the offer is in writing there is little legal consequence to having come to an agreement verbally. A written offer, to be legally binding, must come from a firm of solicitors. A written offer is the first letter that leads to the exchange of letters that constitutes the ‘missives’: the contract of purchase and sale.
