A BUYER’S GUIDE TO CONVEYANCING
You will have found the property you want to buy and the seller has accepted your offer.
A Purchase is what we call “Back loaded” because we cannot start work until we receive contracts from your sellers so even if you have made an offer and are keen to move matters along, we cannot proceed to stage 1 until the sellers have completed all their forms, instructed their solicitors and their solicitors have issued us with a contract pack, this normally takes a good couple of weeks or more.
Quite often clients will call and ask why their agents are telling them that the sellers have already signed up at the beginning and are worried because they have not, it is because the sale is “front loaded” do not worry if agents start to pressure you because your seller is “all signed up” this is normal and as a matter is “buyer driven” it will go at your speed not the sellers. You will sign at start of stage 2 (see below) the Seller at the start of stage 1
First Time Buyer Schemes
It is extremely important you let us know if you are a First Time Buyer and will be benefitting from any Help to Buy Schemes such as Stamp Duty Relief or Isa Bonus’ as this changes some of the documentation we need to prepare
Gifts
It is extremely important you let us and your lender know if you are a to obtain any help towards your purchase by a 3rd party and will be benefitting from any Gift as this changes some of the documentation we need to prepare
Valuation
It is your responsibility to discover whether the property has any physical defects. Your mortgage lender will often do what is known as a “mortgage valuation”, please remember that this is only a basic survey carried out for their information only.
It is often prudent to consider a more comprehensive “home buyers report and valuation” or even a full “structural survey”. Please remember buying a house may be the biggest investment you ever make.
Please be aware that we rarely see a copy of the valuation so if there is anything you believe we need to see please send us your copy
PRE-EXCHANGE
Stage 1
Once we receive Contract documentation from your Seller’s Solicitors, the first thing we will deal with is the submission of the various searches and preliminary enquiries.
The average transaction takes 6-8 weeks from this point (not the point of offer)
You will know when we have reached this point as we will send you a copy of the Title along with the Property Forms and any other important information we have received in the contract pack.
Firstly we order your searches:
Local Search - this consists of a large number of questions which are addressed to the Local Council, and we will summarise the information obtained from this and advise you of anything that may be onerous or unacceptable.
Drainage and Water Search – submitted to the Local Water Authority, this search is to make sure that the drains are maintained by the relevant authorities and will also reveal whether any public drains or sewers run under your land, again we will advise you of the result of this search.
Environmental Search – this reveals whether the property is affected by flooding, subsidence, radon, contamination or pollution. We are unable to comment on the result of this search, other than whether it has passed or failed. The search will be sent to you in its entirety for you to read through.
Additional searches may be carried out depending on the location of the property, ie. Coal Mining Searches, Brine Searches, etc.
We then check the Title, Contract Pack and raise any legal enquiries:
We, as your Solicitors also ensure at this stage that the Seller has right and title to sell the property to you. We do this by checking the Contract and the title to the property.
Then we check and confirm your mortgage offer
It is also our responsibility and duty to ensure that you have the money available to purchase the property and will liaise with your mortgage lender, if you have one. If not we will ask you to produce evidence you have the funds required.
Using the information we have gathered as above:
The Transfer Deed is now prepared by us, this is the document which transfers the ownership of the property to you.
We also prepare your SDLT (Stamp Duty Return) please note unless you are buying for less than £40,000 we must provide a return even If nil is payable.
Stage 2 SIGNING
Once all these elements have come together you will be invited to call at our offices to go through the necessary documentation. You will, at this stage, sign the Contract, the Transfer Deed, the Stamp Duty Land Tax Form (SDLT) and the Mortgage Deed, if you are taking out a mortgage. If you prefer, the documentation can be sent to you for signature We will also require confirmation of your building insurance arrangements at this stage.
You can close any Help to Buy Isa’s
We will now take your instructions regarding a completion date, in readiness for what is known as exchange.
Stage 3 EXCHANGING CONTRACTS
Exchange of Contracts is the point in time when you become legally bound to buy the property on the date stipulated in the Contract, ie. the completion date. Agents often tell clients to speak to us to fix a date for exchange, this date cannot be fixed, only a completion date (moving day) is fixed.
BETWEEN EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS AND COMPLETION
We will now raise further enquiries, known as Requisition on Title. As we approach the date for completion the financial details are worked out and a completion statement is sent to you for your approval.
COMPLETION/MOVING DAY
If you are buying and selling you must move in and out on the same day. Often clients will tell us they have arranged for moving later than the agreed completion date, please be aware: if anyone in the chain has a mortgage this course of action breaches their Mortgage and it could be revoked! Therefore, if you are intending to make private arrangements or are approached to do so we must strenuously suggest you do not agree to this.
We do understand that this puts pressure on parties to be in and out of their houses, but that is we are afraid the English and Welsh legal system!
Completion is the day when you pay for the property, receive the keys and are entitled to move in. We do not usually get involved in the process of handing over keys as this is normally dealt with by the Estate Agents.
Please note that if there is a chain of transactions, the keys to the property you are buying may not be available until late in the day.
This is no fault or responsibility of us your Solicitors as often the transfer of money is held up in the banking system.
POST COMPLETION
After completion, we will send the SDLT form to the Inland Revenue together with the payment of Stamp Duty if this is payable. Please do not confuse Stamp Duty, Land Registration fees or VAT as being our professional charges!
We will then register your title at H M Land Registry and pay the appropriate Land Registration fee. Upon completion of registration formalities, the Land Registry will supply us with an updated Title Information Document (TID) showing you as the proprietor of the property and a copy of this will be sent to you. Any Deeds required by your mortgage lender will be forwarded to them. If you do not have a mortgage, the whole of your title deeds can either be sent to you, or held by us in our strong room. This service is free of charge.
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