Conveyancing

Sale

Stages of the Sale Transaction

• Once you have accepted an offer on your property, drop us a line. We will provide a clear breakdown of our fees, specific to your case and provide contact details for your conveyancer.
• Once we have opened a file for you, there will be some initial forms for you to compete for us.
• We will obtain copies of the Deeds from the land registry and request a redemption statement
• Your estate agents will provide us with the Particulars of Sale and we then prepare a contact package to send to your buyers solicitors
• The buyers solicitors will check through all the paperwork, apply for searches and raise any enquiries that they may have with us. We may contact you for more information once enquiries have been received
• If your buyer is purchasing with the aid of a mortgage the solicitor will be awaiting a mortgage offer. This can take a few weeks depending on the bank/building society and how quickly they carry out their survey or valuation report.
• When we have replied to enquiries we will ask you to sign a Contract and a Transfer Deed in readiness for exchange of contracts. We like to get you signed up early so there is nothing to hold up the transaction from our side. We will also send you a draft Financial Statement at this stage so you have an idea of what monies will be paid out on completion.
• When the buyers solicitor has received search results, a mortgage offer and satisfactory replies to enquiries, they will also ask the buyers to sign documents and provide deposit funds.
• We will contact you to agree a mutually acceptable completion date, this is the date on which money changes hands between solicitors and the keys are handed in to the estate agents. Once a date is agreed, contracts can be exchanged and the agreement is now legally binding. The buyer will insure the property from the date of exchange.
• Between exchange of contracts and completion, we will obtain a final redemption figure on your mortgage and obtain the estate agents account. Our final account will then be drawn up.
• On the completion day, we will receive the sale price form the buyers solicitors via Bank Transfer. At this stage we will call you to confirm that completion has taken place and that they keys can be handed in to the estate agents. We will then redeem your mortgage, pay the estate agents, deduct our fees and send any balance to you as per your instructions

Purchase

Stages of the Purchase Transaction

• Once you have had an offer accepted on a property, drop us a line. We will provide a clear breakdown of our fees, specific to your case and provide contact details for your conveyancer.
• Once we have opened a file for you, there will be some initial forms for you to compete for us.
• Your estate agents will provide us with the Particulars of Sale and we will then await a contact package from the sellers solicitors
• On receipt of a contract pack we will check through all the paperwork and raise any enquiries that we may have with the seller’s solicitors.
• We will also at this stage apply for searches, which take approx. 3 weeks to complete depending on the area, and we will report to you on the results.
• If you are purchasing with the aid of a mortgage, you should have already instructed a broker / mortgage advisor now and we will be awaiting a solicitor’s copy of your mortgage offer. On receipt of this we will check all the details and ask you to sign a Mortgage Deed.
• When we are happy with the seller’s replies to enquiries, the search results and the mortgage offer, we will report out to you with all the property information and ask you to sign a Contract and a Transfer Deed in readiness for exchange of contracts.
• We will also send you a draft Financial Statement at this stage and ask you to provide a deposit for exchange of contracts. If you are selling a property as well as purchasing, the deposit we receive on the sale transaction will be used on this purchase and so no funds will be due from you until just before completion.
• We will contact you to agree a mutually acceptable completion date, this is the date on which money changes hands between solicitors and the keys are handed over via the estate agents. Once a date is agreed, contracts can be exchanged and the agreement is now legally binding. At this stage you must insure the property (unless it is a Leasehold property).
• Between exchange of contracts and completion, we will request mortgage completion funds from your mortgage lender and carry out our final searches. Our final account will also be drawn up.
• On the completion day, we will receive the mortgage advance and send the full purchase price (less any deposit paid) to the seller’s solicitors via Bank Transfer. When they receive the funds they will call us to confirm that completion has taken place and we will let you know that keys can be collected from the estate agents.
• After completion we will pay any stamp duty that is applicable and register your ownership at the Land Registry. Registration can take between 3-6 months depending on the transaction and area, however when we receive the updated Deeds we will send confirmation out to you.

Conveyancing Frequently asked questions

Q. What happens if things go wrong prior to exchange of contracts, can I claim reimbursement of my costs from the other party?

A. Until exchange of contracts there is no legally enforceable agreement, you will not be able to claim your costs from the other party.

Q. Do I need a Survey?

A. When buying a property, the old adage of ‘caveat emptor’ applies. This literally means ‘let the buyer beware’. The seller is not obliged to advise a buyer of any defects in the property. No warranties are given about the state or condition of the property or any of the fixtures or fittings.  We would always therefore recommend that you have a survey carried out on the property. If you are buying with the aid of a mortgage, your mortgage lender will carry out a basic valuation but this does not negate the need for a survey and it is not unusual for these valuations to be ‘drive by’. Even if the valuer enters the property, the inspection will be basic.  A home buyer’s report is a more detailed and a full structural survey is even more in depth. Price can vary. Let us know if you would like us to give you some contact details for a local surveyor.

Q. I live in rented accommodation. When should I hand in my notice?

A. Unless you have actually exchanged contracts, neither you or the sellers of your new property are legally bound to complete. If you hand in your notice before exchange of contracts and the sale collapsed then you could end up homeless. Sometimes a seller may insist that you hand in your notice to keep the purchase process going. We would never recommend this but if you do agree, you must ensure that you have alternative accommodation in place just in case.

Q. What are the searches?

A. If you are purchasing with the aid of a mortgage, we are obliged to carry out a number of searches on the property as follows:

Q. How long will it take?

A. Unfortunately there is not a simple answer to this question as every transaction is different. Our normal estimate is six to eight weeks, however we have known transactions take from 48 hours to several months.

Q. Does there have to be a gap between exchange and completion?

A. In most cases yes as we will need time to obtain funds from a mortgage lender and deal with formalities. Exchange of contracts is the first time there is actually a binding contract for you to buy or sell a property

Q. When I buy my house when do you need my deposit and how much do you need?

A. We will need your deposit funds in our client account to be able to exchange, preferably by telegraphic transfer. If you give us a cheque seven working days clearance is required. On exchange we will need 10% of the purchase price unless you are borrowing more than 90% of the value of the property, and ay balance will be due from you prior to completion