Under Offer vs Sold STC in Scotland (2026)
- The short answer
- What Under Offer means
- What Sold STC means
- Side by side
- Why Scotland is different
- How long does each stage last?
- Can you still offer on a property that is Under Offer or Sold STC?
- What actually goes wrong in this window
- How to protect yourself at this stage
- Avoiding the limbo altogether
- Related terms
The short answer
If you only read one paragraph: the two labels describe the same fragile period from different ends of it. Under Offer says an offer is on the table and being worked through. Sold STC says the offer has been accepted and solicitors are now doing the legal work. Neither creates a contract. In Scotland the contract forms at the conclusion of missives, and every risk that people associate with either label exists purely because that moment has not yet arrived.
The complication is that agents do not use the terms consistently. Some Scottish agents flip a listing to Under Offer the day an offer is verbally accepted. Others use Under Offer for a note of interest that has firmed up. Some use Sold STC, which is imported English terminology, simply because the portal software offers it. You should treat both as signals rather than as legal statements, and if the stage genuinely matters to you, ask the agent one question: have missives concluded?
Key takeaways
- Under Offer and Sold STC both mean an accepted offer that is not legally binding yet.
- Under Offer is generally the earlier stage; Sold STC generally means conveyancing has begun.
- Sold STC is English terminology, from a system where exchange of contracts is the binding point.
- Scotland has no exchange stage: the binding point is conclusion of missives.
- Until missives conclude, either party can normally walk away without legal penalty.
- Agents apply the labels inconsistently, so ask directly whether missives have concluded.
What Under Offer means
Under Offer is the more common label in Scotland, partly because it fits the Scottish process better. A Scottish sale typically begins with a buyer noting interest through a solicitor, then either offering directly or bidding at a closing date if the seller sets one. When the seller says yes, the property goes Under Offer. At that instant almost nothing has been agreed beyond price and a rough date of entry.
What has not happened yet at this stage is substantial. The buyer's solicitor has not examined the title. The lender has not issued a formal offer. Nobody has agreed what happens about the fitted appliances, or the missing building warrant for the extension, or the date-of-entry penalty if settlement slips. All of that is negotiated through the missives, and all of it can still break the deal.
Sellers should also understand what Under Offer does not do: it does not oblige the agent to withdraw the property from the market, and it does not stop another buyer offering. In practice most Scottish agents do withdraw active marketing at this point as a matter of courtesy, but that is convention, not obligation.
What Sold STC means
Sold STC belongs to England and Wales, where the sale becomes binding at exchange of contracts. The gap between acceptance and exchange there can run to many weeks, which is why the label needed to exist at all: it tells the market a property is spoken for while making clear that it is not sold.
In Scotland the equivalent gap is usually shorter, because missives are negotiated by solicitors in a formal exchange of letters and there is no separate exchange event to schedule. Scottish agents who use Sold STC generally mean the same thing an English agent means: acceptance has happened, solicitors are working, nothing is final. Our longer treatment of the term is at what Sold STC means in the Scottish property market.
There is also Sold STCM, which you will see on modern-method auction listings. STCM means subject to contract on the modern method of auction, and it signals something meaningfully different: a buyer has paid a non-refundable reservation fee and holds exclusivity for a fixed period. It is still not a binding sale, but the buyer has real money at risk, which makes it a stronger signal than either plain label.
Side by side
| Under Offer | Sold STC | Sold STCM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical stage | Offer accepted in principle, terms still moving | Offer formally accepted, conveyancing under way | Auction bid won, reservation fee paid |
| Legally binding | No | No | No, but a fee is at risk |
| Still technically on the market | Usually yes | Usually withdrawn from active marketing | No, exclusivity granted |
| Where the term comes from | Used across the UK, dominant in Scotland | English and Welsh system | Modern method of auction platforms |
| What has happened legally | Little or nothing | Title being examined, missives opening | Reservation agreement signed |
| Can another buyer offer | Yes | Sometimes, before missives conclude | No, during the reservation period |
| How likely to complete | Least certain of the three | More certain than Under Offer | Most certain of the three |
The last row is a judgement about direction of travel, not a statistic. What actually drives completion is how far the legal work has progressed and whether the buyer's finance is solid, and neither of those is visible from a portal label.
Why Scotland is different
Everything above sits on top of one structural difference. English conveyancing has two events: exchange of contracts, then completion. Scottish conveyancing has one binding event, the conclusion of missives, followed by settlement on the date of entry.
| Stage | England and Wales | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
| Offer accepted, nothing binding | Under Offer or Sold STC | Under Offer |
| Legal work under way | Pre-exchange conveyancing | Missives being negotiated, qualified acceptances exchanged |
| The binding moment | Exchange of contracts | Conclusion of missives |
| Deposit at the binding moment | Usually 10% on exchange | No standard deposit, though missives may require one |
| Moving day | Completion | Date of entry, settlement |
| Gazumping possible | Yes, until exchange | Possible until missives conclude, but far rarer |
Two Scottish features compress the risky window. The Home Report means a survey and valuation already exist before an offer is made, so the single most common cause of an English sale collapsing, a bad survey after acceptance, is largely designed out. And because offers in Scotland are usually submitted by a solicitor in formal terms rather than verbally through an agent, the paperwork starts from a stronger position.
The window is compressed, not closed. Missives commonly take two to six weeks to conclude, and everything can still fall over inside that period.
How long does each stage last?
| Phase | Typical duration in Scotland | What slows it down |
|---|---|---|
| Note of interest to offer | Days to weeks | Whether the seller sets a closing date, and how many parties are interested |
| Offer accepted to solicitors instructed | 1-3 days | How quickly both sides confirm their solicitor |
| Instruction to first qualified acceptance | 1-2 weeks | Title examination, and requests for missing paperwork |
| Qualified acceptances to conclusion of missives | 2-6 weeks overall | Mortgage offer, missing warrants or completion certificates, title burdens, chain positions |
| Missives to settlement | Whatever date of entry was agreed, often 2-8 weeks | Funds release, and any chain the buyer is in |
If a listing has sat Under Offer for three months, something is wrong. The usual culprits are a mortgage that has not been approved, a title defect that needs an indemnity policy or a retrospective consent, or a buyer in a chain that has stalled. It is a fair question to ask the agent.
Can you still offer on a property that is Under Offer or Sold STC?
Yes, in principle, right up until missives conclude. Whether you should is a different question.
In England, submitting a higher offer at this stage is gazumping, and it is common enough to have its own vocabulary. In Scotland it is much rarer, for three reasons: missives usually conclude faster, offers are made formally through solicitors rather than casually through agents, and the professional conduct expected of Scottish solicitors makes running two live negotiations awkward. It happens, but it is not routine.
If you want to try, note your interest with the selling agent through your own solicitor, make clear you are ready to move quickly, and be realistic: a seller who has already spent three weeks on missives with someone else has an incentive not to start again. Sellers who want to shut this down entirely can use an exclusivity agreement, which contractually stops the seller negotiating with anyone else for a set period.
What actually goes wrong in this window
Nearly every collapsed Scottish sale happens between acceptance and conclusion of missives. The causes cluster:
- Mortgage refusal or a down valuation. The lender's own valuer comes in below the offer and the buyer cannot bridge the shortfall.
- Title problems. A missing building warrant or completion certificate, an unregistered alteration, a burden nobody expected, a boundary that does not match the deeds.
- Chain failure. The buyer's own sale collapses. See what to do when a house chain collapses.
- Disclosure issues surfacing late. Damp, knotweed, a neighbour dispute or works without consent emerging in the Property Questionnaire or solicitor enquiries.
- Missives deadlock. The parties simply cannot agree a term, most often the date of entry, moveables, or who pays for a defect that has been discovered.
- A change of mind. Legal until missives conclude, and free of consequence for the party who walks. See a seller pulling out and can I pull out of a house sale.
TwentyEA's Q1 2026 Property & Homemover Report put the UK fall-through rate at 23.7% - roughly one agreed sale in four. That headline is UK-wide, but the same report breaks the movement down by region, and Scotland recorded the second-largest improvement of any region that quarter. No published figure gives a clean Scotland-only level, so read 23.7% as an upper bound for a Scottish sale rather than a precise local rate. Be wary of the looser “one in three” line quoted across the industry: it is usually unsourced, and it is higher than the best measured figure.
How to protect yourself at this stage
For sellers:
- Instruct your solicitor the day the offer is accepted, not the week after. The clock on missives only starts when they do.
- Have the paperwork ready before you market: title, warrants, completion certificates, guarantees. See what paperwork you need to sell your house.
- Ask about the buyer's position in writing: is finance agreed in principle, is there a chain, when do they need entry?
- Push for a short missives timetable and be willing to compromise on small points to get there.
- Consider an exclusivity agreement if you are worried about being gazumped.
For buyers:
- Get a mortgage agreement in principle before you offer, not after.
- Instruct a Scottish solicitor before you offer, so the offer itself is properly framed.
- Read the Home Report properly, including the Property Questionnaire, not just the valuation figure.
- Ask what stage missives are at before you spend money on anything non-refundable.
- Do not give notice on a tenancy or book removals until missives have concluded.
Avoiding the limbo altogether
The whole Under Offer and Sold STC problem exists because there is a gap between agreeing and being bound. Selling at auction removes the gap rather than managing it. In an unconditional auction the successful bidder is committed at the close of bidding and pays a non-refundable deposit immediately, so there is no window in which either side can reconsider, and no gazumping.
| Route | When the buyer is committed | Gazumping risk | Typical time to money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open market via an estate agent | At conclusion of missives, weeks after acceptance | Present until missives conclude | Months, and unpredictable |
| Modern method of auction | At conclusion of missives, but with a fee at risk from day one | None during the reservation period | Around 8-14 weeks |
| Unconditional auction | At the close of bidding | None | Around 28 days |
| Cash house-buying company | On acceptance of their formal offer, if they follow through | None | Days to weeks, at a reduced price |
With our SaleLock Guarantee the buyer commits with a 10% non-refundable deposit and completion follows in around 28 days, drawing on a base of around 11,000 registered buyers weighted towards cash purchasers, landlords and developers. There is no fee to the seller: if it does not sell, you pay nothing. That is a different trade-off from the open market rather than a strictly better one, and if your property is likely to attract competing owner-occupiers, the open market may still produce the higher number. Read the pros and cons of selling at auction before deciding.
If your sale has just collapsed at the Under Offer stage and you want a figure to compare against, a free valuation takes about 60 seconds, or read how selling at auction works first.
Related terms
The rest of the vocabulary is covered in what Under Offer means, what offers over means in Scotland, what cash buyers only means, and the full Scottish property terms glossary. If you are earlier in the process, the guide to buying a house in Scotland and how long it takes to sell set the wider context.
Founder & Director of Scotland Property Auction. Julie has spent over a decade helping Scottish homeowners, landlords and executors sell property quickly at auction — covering Home Reports, missives, repossession and the modern method of auction.
More about Julie →✔ Last reviewed June 2026 by Julie McAndrews. We keep our guides current with Scottish property law and market conditions.