Conveyancing is a crucial part of the buying and selling process. It involves legally transferring ownership of a property from a Seller to a Buyer. Invariably most people do both at sometime in their life. We will carry out the conveyancing on your behalf and here is a simple guide to the key stages .
THE SELLERS TIMETABLE & KEY STAGES
Once an offer is accepted – At this point, you should immediately contact us and give us your instruction
There are a number of matters that need to be addressed before any ‘Exchange of Contracts’ can proceed. There are four primary things which need to be done:
- We will obtain the property’s title deeds and prepare a draft contract. We will forward it to the buyer’s solicitor for approval. The seller (you) will complete standard property Information forms detailing things like fixtures and fittings and leasehold.
- Several searches will be carried out on the property by the buyers solicitors, including local, environmental, and water and drainage searches. This process is designed to reveal any information that might adversely affect the property.
- The buyer’s solicitor will send any Pre-Contract Enquiries they have to us. This is the ‘Title Pack’. These are designed to reveal more detail about any potential issues regarding, for example, unusual rights of way issues, or whether You (the seller) have carried out any structural alterations.
- The buyer may need to get a mortgage agreement with a written mortgage offer from a lender before they finally commit to the purchase.
Once the above have been carried out, the buyer will receive a written report from their solicitor explaining the contract, search results and the mortgage offer in detail if they require one.
During this part of the process, the buyer’s solicitor will draw their attention to any problems before an exchange of contracts. The buyer’s solicitor will usually also send the mortgage deed to the buyer for signature at this time.
Exchange of Contracts
Contracts will at this stage be signed by the respective parties in readiness for what is called ‘Exchange of Contracts‘. At this time, a deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price is paid to the buyer’s solicitor.
The contract is legally binding on both parties once exchange of contracts has taken place. The completion date will be agreed at this time. If either party refuses to proceed with the transaction or they delay and do not complete on the agreed completion date, then they will be liable to pay compensation to the other party.
Once ‘exchange’ has taken place, the buyer’s solicitor will apply to the mortgage lender for money to be released in time for the completion date. They will also carry out other searches to ensure that You (the seller) have not entered into any other contract or obtained another mortgage on the property. The solicitor will ask the buyer to settle his account prior to completion.
Completion
On the Completion date the buyer’s solicitor will ensure that the balance of the purchase price is paid to us as your solicitor as early as possible, so the keys are able to be released – usually early afternoon.
After Completion (known as Post Completion)
There will be some loose ends for the buyer’s solicitor to tie up, including paying Stamp Duty Land Tax (LTT in Wales), and arranging for the registration of the title at HM Land Registry. It may also be necessary to serve notices on a landlord or the bank or building society, to advise them about the completion.
The solicitor will send a copy of the registered title to the buyer and their mortgage lender. They will also notify the freeholder, if the property is leasehold.
Timescales
A simple transaction with no complications will generally take between 12-16 weeks. However, we do advise our clients that complications can arise that will be outside of your and our control. This could include complications such as:-
- Where there is a long chain and your completion depends on a long line of straightforward transactions and everyone having the same timescales in mind.
- If there is a property in probate within your chain.
- If there is an issue with searches or the official registration of land.
- Issues with planning permission.
- Incorrect information on mortgage applications, for you or anyone in your chain.
- Complications with searches.
We will always do our best to keep your transaction as close to the timetable as possible and moving forward. We will communicate with you at all times about any delays. Usually, these will be totally outside your or our control. This can be a difficult and stressful time and our advice is plan some flexibility on your moving date.
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THE BUYERS TIMETABLE & KEY STAGES
Once your offer has been accepted – At this point you should immediately contact us and give us your instruction.
There are a number of matters that need to be addressed before any exchange of contracts can go ahead. There are four key things which need to be done:
- The seller’s solicitors will obtain the property’s title deeds and prepare a draft contract. They will forward the contract to us for approval. The seller will complete standard Property Information forms detailing things like fixtures and fittings and leasehold information.
- Several searches will be carried out on the property, including local, environmental, and water and drainage searches. This process is designed to reveal any information that might adversely affect the property. You will be required to pay for the searches and these are explained in our section on Disbursements.
- We will send any Pre-Contract Enquiries they have to the seller’s solicitors once we have looked at the title pack. These are designed to reveal more detail about any potential issues with the property. For example, unusual rights of way issues, or whether the seller has carried out any structural alterations.
- If you are utilising finance as part of the purchase you may need to get a mortgage agreement in place. This will be a written mortgage offer from a lender before you finally commit to the purchase.
Once the above have been carried out, we will provide a written report. It will explain the contract, search results and the mortgage offer in detail if necessary.
During this part of the process, we will notify you of any problems before an exchange of contracts. We will usually also send the mortgage deed to you for signature at this time.
Exchange of Contracts
Contracts will now be signed by the respective parties in readiness for exchange of contracts. At this time, we will require a deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price to be paid to our Client Bank Account.
Please note the contract is legally binding on both parties once exchange of contracts has taken place. The completion date will be agreed at this time. If either party refuses to proceed with the transaction or they delay and do not complete on the agreed completion date, then they will be liable to pay compensation to the other party.
Once Exchange has taken place, the we will apply to the mortgage lender for money to be released in time for the completion date or the cash from you to our client account to secure the purchase. We will also carry out other searches to ensure the seller hasn’t entered into any other contract or obtained another mortgage on the property. We will ask You (the buyer) to settle your account prior to completion.
Completion
On the completion date we will ensure that the balance of the purchase price is paid to the seller’s solicitor as early as possible, so the keys are released – usually early afternoon.
After Completion (known as Post Completion)
There will be some loose ends for us to tie up, including paying Stamp Duty Land Tax (LTT in Wales), and arranging for the registration of the title at HM Land Registry. It may also be necessary to serve notices on a landlord or the bank or building society, to advise them about the completion.
We will send a copy of the registered title to the buyer and mortgage lender. We will also notify the freeholder, if the property is leasehold.
Timescales
A simple transaction with no complications will generally take between 12-16 weeks. However, we do advise our clients that complications can arise that will be outside of your and our control. This could include complications such as:-
- Where there is a long chain and your completion depends on a long line of straightforward transactions and everyone having the same timescales in mind.
- If there is a property in probate within your chain.
- If there is an issue with searches or the official registration of land.
- Issues with planning permission.
- Incorrect information on mortgage applications, for you or anyone in your chain.
- Complications with searches.
We will always do our best to keep your transaction to the timetable and will communicate with you if we can foresee that delays will occur. We advise our clients to allow some flexibility on completion and occupation dates in case of delay.