exchange contracts

exchange contracts (third-person singular simple present exchanges contracts, present participle exchanging contracts, simple past and past participle exchanged contracts)

1. (law, England & Wales, Northern Ireland, idiomatic) To formally contract to purchase, sell, or otherwise be party to a disposition of an estate in land; usually requiring the payment of a deposit by one of the parties.
2. (law, England & Wales, Northern Ireland, chiefly by legal practitioners) To create a conveyancing contract between negotiating parties by a process which is immediately followed by the exchange of signed counterparts of the contract between each party's legal representative.

• exchange of contracts