Buy property in Scotland

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Can anyone talk me through how property buying goes here now?

Like an idiots guide, from when you first see a house you like...

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You might be best asking @mnhq to move this to Scotsnet where you will get more replies.

But here is what you do.

Get a Scottish solicitor

When you see a house you like ask your solicitor to put in a 'note of interest'. This means that if someone else puts in an offer, before you, the seller is obliged to let you know.

If the seller receives more than one note of interest they will put a 'closing date' on the property. What that means is that all interested parties put in a sealed and best bid by the closing date and the best offer wins.

Alternatively you can put in an offer straight away. Houses in Scotland are usually put up for sale as 'offers over'. You have to decide how much to offer over by. Your solicitor or estate agent will be able to advise on the going rate for the area. e.g. 5% or 10% over. So the House Report might value it at one price and the seller might ask for offers over another price. You need to decide what you are willing to pay.

The House Report is paid for by the seller. Its a legal requirement and gives you things like a valuation, condition report, eco friendly stats etc. There really is no need to commission another survey. This will do the job.

All offers are made via your solicitor.

Once you make an offer and it is accepted you are legally bound to buy that house. There's no gazumping etc in Scotland. If you pull out you will be liable for considerable legal costs.

Think those are the main things.

Thank you so much

Do you have any idea what extra costs are involved eg. The solicitors costs, moving costs, any other costs?

Or how much the solicitor would cost?

So you put in a note if interest once you've seen the home report, but this isnt the same as putting in an offer?

A note of interest does not commit you to making an offer. It’s basically putting you on the list of potential buyers who will be contacted if the seller sets a closing date for sealed bids. From bitter experience I can say that nowadays you can pull out after having an offer accepted up until missives are exchanged. After that it is more punishing. There is no room for negotiation after this, the date of completion will be set, so best to sell first. Both of our most recent purchases and sale were from initial offers and subsequent negotiation rather than a closing date, but this will depend on how lively the local market is. A good solicitor is very useful in helping to negotiate the process. You can expect the purchase to take two to three months, one of ours took six weeks a couple of years ago.

It's not quite true that once you have an offer accepted you're legally bound to buy the house, the completion of missives is the point at which that happens. That happens pretty quickly though, your solicitor should be able to give you an idea of the possible timescale

Hi OP. I've recently purchased in scotland (already had a property in Scotland prior to this). Fees for the solicitor vary depending on the price you are paying for the property. I would recommend contacting a few who are local to the area you are buying in.

Moving costs will vary depending on how much stuff you are moving and distance involved. I can't help too much as we hired a van and moved ourselves, but you should be able to get a few ballpark figures.

In terms of other fees, depending on the cost there will be LBTT to pay. If you search LBTT calculator this will tell you how much you'll need to pay based on value

Missives are usually concluded in advance, but for our recent sale and purchase they weren't completed until the day of the move (issue with our buyer). I've heard of the same happening to a few people causing chains to collapse, but for the most part they're concluded well in advance

Thanks all, very useful information.

To act for you in a sale solicitors usually take between £1000 - £1500 plus registration fees with registers of scotland this is based on the value of your property and if you have a mortgage to be registered the fees are on their website.
You also have to pay LLBT (stamp duty) you can find out how much on revenue scotland website.
You should go see a financial adviser or a bank to get a decision in principle any offer you put in will be stronger with this.
Also don't be noting interest on properties unless they are in a high demand area as a buyer you want to avoid closing dates.

You can also make a verbal offer - either to the vendor themselves or to the estate agent. This has often been my own experience, both selling and buying. If that is accepted then get, and pay, your solicitor to make formal offer in writing.

This doesn't work if a closing date has been set - in that case a formal offer must be made by the solicitor.

As others have said, conclusion of missives is the point where the sale becomes binding and there's the option to put in a verbal offer (if no closing date set) without a lawyer.

Both local lawyers we got quotes from were v similar pricing and was based on sale/purchase price of house.

Are you looking at a specific area? Some locations the trend is for properties to go just over home report to maybe 10% over, whereas in other areas 15% over isn't uncommon. Can vary depending on type/cost of property too. Mortgages will only be given based on home report valuation.

You can ask for home reports for any property you're interested in without committing to viewing it.

Possibly around Haymarket in Edinburgh

You first need to talk to a mortgage lender to get an idea of how much you might be able to borrow and if you're looking seriously it's useful to have a mortgage agreement in principle when you submit an offer (unless you're a cash buyer). Note that what they'll lend you is often far more than many people would be comfortable paying back each month so factor that into your affordability calcs.
A solicitor should be able to advise on the costs of moving and stamp duty rates can be found online.

Thanks

In my own experience and from reading that of others, missives are rarely done in advance now. They are done around the date of handover, or on the actual day the transaction goes ahead. This means chains can and do collapse as people can legally pull out any time up until moving day. It has happened to me twice in 5 years, the last time a couple pulled out with two weeks to go; basically because a bigger house came up on my street and they'd sold their own house for more than they thought they would so could afford the bigger one instead of mine. It was brutal, but I don't think it happens frequently.

That's awful.

Do estate agents not take a dim view of that though?

And also the solicitors?

I last bought and sold a few years ago, but from the minute the offers were accepted, it all seemed very much like a done deal, and everybody (solicitors, estate agents) were cracking on with their parts of it.

I can't imagine any of them would have been pleased if I'd suddenly pulled out just because a better option came along.

@plainjayne8282 yeah I imagine they do, but it seemed cutthroat to me. The house they ended up buying was being marketed by the same estate agent who sold their own house, so I imagine they were rubbing their hands.
My estate agent was furious for me, but couldn't do anything. The worst part was the buyers had been realty high maintenance, I bent over backwards to accommodate them. They asked to for several viewings (4), in hindsight probably a warning sign. A lot of tears were cried and I felt stupid for being "hurt" by the way they treated me. A reminder that it is a transaction, and people owe you nothing I guess.

The other time the transaction fell apart was simply that the folks for my onwards purchase didn't have their ducks in a row legally on time for move day. It ended up going through a week later, but I lost out on removal costs as I was only told I couldn't move on the morning of the original "move day". It was logically stressful for everyone, and that's when I became acutely aware that the missives weren't finalised anywhere in the chain until the last days/moments.

@blueeyes12 that's awful. So sorry you went through that.

I suspect things may have been different if the bigger house was being sold by your agent? They would not like that level of messing about. But who knows.

So stressful.

Bear in mind that offers over can be a lot over. When we were looking, it was 10-20%.

We have also been burnt by missives not being concluded until day of exchange. Such a shame that we now have the worst bit of the English system plus the offers over which is the worst bit of the Scottish system.

It used to be so much less stressful when missives were concluded well before exchange.

When we bought seven years ago the missives were concluded about two days beforehand!!