Subscribe Feed (RSS)Instructing your conveyancing solicitor should be a top priority once you’ve decided to buy or sell.
If you’re selling then this will give your solicitor the chance to draft the contract of sale and prepare the documentation that will be required to complete the transaction.
If you’re buying it means that you can have your solicitor ready to move as soon as you find a property so that you don’t lose out if you find yourself in a race against other buyers.
You should also get a fixed fee quote. This is very important as fees can quickly mount up, particularly if there are unexpected complications – solicitors’ time does not come cheap.
Make sure that expenses (also known as disbursements) are included in you quote. Since these are largely known in advance there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be.
From offer to exchange:
Having a basic understanding of what happens during a conveyancing transaction is useful so that you’re not completely reliant on what your solicitor tells you and so that you have an idea of what questions to ask.
Below is the broad outline of what happens once an offer has been made up until completion.
1. Seller’s solicitor sends the draft contract to buyer’s solicitor
2. The seller’s solicitor sends a copy of the Home Information Pack to the buyer’s solicitor (who passes it on to the buyer).
3. Buyer’s solicitor reviews the HIP, carries out property searches and looks for information affecting the property
4. The buyer’s bank (if they are buying with a mortgage) will value the property.
5. The buyer may decide to have their own survey done, though this is optional.
6. Preliminary Enquiries are sent to the seller. These questions have to be answered honestly, but if the answers are not known the seller can simply state that they don’t know.
7. As soon as searches are completed and enquiries answered, and once the contract has been agreed, the parties are ready to exchange.
8. Both buyer and seller sign a copy of the contract. These are then swapped (exchanged) by the solicitors and exchange has taken place.
9. At this stage the buyer will also pay the deposit.
The contract is now binding and if the buyer pulls out they will lose their deposit (unless they were misled into signing the contract).
Completion
This is when the property finally changes hands. Through their solicitors the buyer pays off the remainder of the purchase price and the seller hands over the keys.
The buyer’s solicitor will arrange for the payment of and Stamp Duty (SDLT) and will register the transfer of the property with the Land Registry.
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Tags: conveyancing, conveyancing solicitors, finance, legal, property, real estate
