exchange contracts

Verb

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

1. (England, Northern Ireland, Wales, 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. (England, Northern Ireland, Wales, chiefly by legal practitioners) To create a contract for the disposition of an estate in land between negotiating parties, by a process which is immediately followed by the exchange of executed counterparts of the contract between each party's legal representative.