Selling And Buying Property
We understand that moving house is not something you do every day and it can be very stressful.
A large part of the stress is caused by not knowing how the whole process works and what parts various people play in the process. To help we have prepared these notes with indicative timescales. Please note the conveyancing process involves a number of third parties outside of our control, and the timescales quoted are very general estimates which can, in practice, vary widely.
Initial Stage – 1 week
Your Sale
- You need to obtain an energy performance certificate and usually the estate agent will arrange this, but if they don’t we can sort this out for you
- As soon as you instruct an estate agent to sell your property you need to contact us so that we can send you the property information form and a fittings & contents form to complete. These are then sent out with the contract once you have found a buyer. We will also need to know the whereabouts of the deeds
- If you have a mortgage on the property we will need to know the lender and your mortgage account number
- We will give you an estimate of our fees and disbursements
- Contact us again as soon as you have found a buyer
Your Purchase
- Contact us once you have found a property to purchase
- We will give you an estimate for our fees and disbursements
Your Sale and/or Purchase
- We will write to you confirming instructions, requesting proof of identification and enclosing terms of business & confirming estimates
- You will need to give our details to the estate agents
Before Contracts are Exchanged – 5-6 weeks
Your Sale
- We will send out the contract, property information form, and fittings & contents form and other relevant paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors
- We will answer any enquiries the buyer’s solicitors may have. We may need your assistance in replying to these questions
- Once the contract has been approved by the buyer’s solicitors we will let you have this for signature
Your Purchase
- We receive the contract and other paperwork from the seller’s solicitors
- We will send you copies of the property information form, fittings & contents form, a plan of the property and any other relevant paperwork to check
- We will apply for the searches
- We will raise necessary enquiries with the seller’s solicitors once we have checked through the contract paperwork
- Once we have received all our searches back and replies to enquiries, we will prepare a property report to send to you with the contract to sign. At this we point we will ask you to transfer us funds for the deposit monies
- We will also send you a stamp duty land tax return for signature. This document has to be sent to HM Revenue & Customs on completion and consists of details of the property, the parties to the transaction, the purchase price and tax payable
- If you are obtaining a mortgage we will prepare a mortgage report and send this to you along with the mortgage deed for signature
Exchange of Contracts
Your Sale
- Once we have received the signed contract back from you and we have replied to the buyer’s solicitor’s enquiries we will be ready to exchange contracts
Your Purchase
- Once we have received the contract, signed mortgage deed (if applicable), stamp duty land tax return and deposit monies from you we will be ready to exchange contracts
- You need to put your buildings insurance in place once contracts are exchanged
Your Sale and/or Purchase
- Everyone in the ‘chain’ needs to be ready and have signed contracts
- A completion date needs to be agreed with everyone in the ‘chain’
- It is normal for a completion date to be agreed between 5 and 10 working dates after contracts are exchanged
- Once everyone has agreed a completion date and confirmed that they hold a signed contract contracts can be exchanged
- Once contracts are exchanged you are legally committed to the transaction and you must complete on the agreed completion date
After Exchange of Contracts – 1-2 weeks
Your Sale
- If you have a mortgage on the property we will apply to your mortgage company for a settlement figure
- We will ask the estate agents to let us have their commission account
- We will ask you to sign the transfer deed which transfers the property from you to the buyer
Your Purchase
- We will request the mortgage company to send us the mortgage monies in time for completion
- We will ask you to sign the transfer deed which transfers the property from the seller to you
- We will carry out completion searches at the Land Registry
Your Sale and/or Purchase
- We will send you draft invoices and a statement of account showing any balance due to you or from you on completion. If there are monies due to us to enable us to complete we require these monies as cleared funds by the day before completion
Completion
Your Sale
- We will receive the balance sale monies from the buyer’s solicitors
- We will pay off your existing mortgage and settle the estate agent’s commission account
- Any balance will be sent to you via your preferred method i.e. cheque, or bank transfer or BACS payment
Your Purchase
- We will send the balance purchase monies to the seller’s solicitors.
- We will send the stamp duty land tax return and any tax payable to HM Revenue & Customs
- You will be able to pick up the keys from the estate agents
Post-Completion – 1-2 months
Your Purchase
- We will attend to the Land Registry application to register you as the new owner of the property and to register the mortgage (if applicable)
Your Sale and/or Purchase
- We will send you receipted invoice(s) and final statement of account