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Conveyancing Guide
We have prepared this guide to assist you in understanding the processes involved
in buying and selling your house or flat. From July 2007 and the introduction
of the Home Information Pack there will be some changes to the procedures - please
ask us about the preparation or examination of a Home Information Pack.
Initial Steps
Selling
After obtaining your title deeds, or getting copies of your registered title
from the Land Registry, we will assemble a complete package of information and
documents to send to your buyers' Solicitors. These will include the following:
- a Contract, based on the information we have taken from your title deeds
- copies of parts of your deeds, so that the buyers' Solicitors can see that you own the property, and see what rights or obligations are attached to the property
- a Property Information Form which you will have completed
- a Contents Form which you will have completed
- any guarantees, permissions or similar documents
If your property is leasehold (usually a flat), other documents will be needed
to cover such things as insurance, service charges, ground rent and shared facilities.
The buyers may raise other queries and then it will be for them to place themselves
in a position to proceed.
Buying
We will ask the sellers' Solicitors for a contract and supporting documents which
we will check in detail, report any relevant information to you with copies of
the appropriate documents and, on receipt from you of the fee, apply electronically
for searches - these include a Local Authority search, a contaminated land search,
a plan search, enquiries of the local Water Company and sometimes further specialised
searches depending on the locality and other factors surrounding your new property.
Our enquiries do not relate to the physical condition of the property - this
area should be dealt with by your own inspection and survey. Be aware of the limitations
of certain types of surveys. We would advise you to consider a more detailed type
of survey than the basic mortgage valuation.
If defects become apparent which were not clear when you made your offer for
the property, it may sometimes be possible to re-negotiate the price.
Until these stages have been completed satisfactorily, neither seller nor buyer
is legally bound to go ahead, and there is no penalty or compensation if either
pulls out.
Exchanging Contracts
Exchanging contracts is the stage where both buyers and sellers become legally
bound - and, if you are buying and selling at the same time, we will make sure
that you do not become bound on one transaction without a binding agreement on
the other. You should note that it is exchanging contracts, and not the physical
signing of the contract, which is the binding act. You may, therefore, sign the contract some time before we exchange it.
If you are buying, you will need to pay a deposit of up to ten per cent of the
price at exchange of contracts. We will need to have cleared funds - usually a
bank draft or building society cheque - before we can pay over the deposit. If
you are selling, the deposit received on your sale can usually be used as all
or part of the deposit on your purchase.
At exchange of contracts, a completion date is fixed. This is the date upon which the actual sale or purchase will take
place. The completion date is fixed by mutual agreement and this will be your
moving day. When buying, you must have the property insured from exchange of contracts,
and any life policies must be in force from then.
Preparing for Completion
By the completion date all the final documents will already have been prepared and signed and all the
financial aspects finalised. We will need to have all the necessary money, including
our charges and expenses, and again in cleared funds, before completion.
If you are selling, you should have booked your removals, arranged all meter readings and notified
all the proper authorities.
If you are buying, you should arrange to take over of the gas, electricity, telephone and other
such supplies from exchange of contracts.
Completion
If you are selling, you must leave and empty your property by or on the day of completion. This
is what "vacant possession" means. Your buyers' Solicitors will not normally be
able to pay the purchase money to us until your property is empty. Since the purchase
will usually take place in the morning of the day of completion, you should try
to be out early. If your buyers do not already have keys, these should be left
with your estate agent, or be handed over directly to the buyers. We will see
to paying off your mortgage and, with your authority, pay your estate agent.
If you are buying, you will not normally be able to collect the keys until completion has taken
place. If you are buying only, we will try and arrange for completion as early
as possible on the day of completion. If you are selling and buying, we will need
to have received your sale money from your buyers' Solicitors before we can complete
the purchase with your sellers' Solicitors. This can cause delays in the release
of keys; we will do all we can to minimise these.
After Completion
After completion we will see to payment of stamp duty land tax, registration
of your ownership and to other formalities. When the Land Registry has returned
our completed application we will send a copy to your mortgage lender (if any)
and will usually send the original deeds and documents to you. Evidence of your
legal title is now stored electronically at the Land Registry and you have no
title deeds as such, but we recommend that you keep the documents we send you
safely as they may contain planning permissions, copies of old deeds and guarantees
and so on which may well be needed on a future sale and which can cause a delay
and expense if lost.