As a specialist conveyancing solicitor it is our job, not just to ensure that your property purchase and/or sale transaction is completed with the due diligence, professionalism and attention to detail you would expect of a conveyancing professional, but to protect your interests and offer advice to you throughout.
To give you a little background into the various stages of an average conveyancing transaction, we have compiled the following summary :
Sale Agreed –
Once an offer is accepted the Buyer and Seller need to instruct Solicitors and let the Estate Agents know who they are. The Estate Agents will send the memorandum of sale to each Solicitor.
The Solicitors will send each party paperwork to complete. Return this as quickly as possible with your ID and payment on account. Solicitors use this towards items such as ID checks, office copies of title deeds (sale) and searches (purchase).
Buyer – Apply for your mortgage – Complete your mortgage application form, with the help of a Financial Adviser. At this stage you should also apply for any protection plans you will need to cover your mortgage e.g. life assurance, income protection etc. Also book any survey you wish to have carried out.
Seller – locate your Deeds and send these to your Solicitor as soon as possible, with the completed Protocol forms and any documents relating to the property. The more you provide the less enquiries will be asked from the Buyers Solicitors, making for a smoother transaction.
The Sellers Solicitor will obtain office copies from the Land Registry and draft the contracts for sending to the Buyers Solicitors with any accompanying documents. This is known as the contract package.
Draft contracts –
The Buyers Solicitor will apply for searches when they receive the contract package. These can take 2-4 weeks to be returned. Meanwhile, they can be investigating the title and reviewing the information provided by the Seller. They will enquire about title issues, boundaries, disputes, alterations, and then information returned from the search results.
When the enquiries are received the Seller will answer (these with the help of their Solicitor) and return the replies. The Buyers Solicitor checks the replies and may raise more. The process repeats until they are satisfied. Enquiries can be raised at any time up to the exchange of contracts.
Funding / Survey
The mortgage offer will be sent to the Solicitor and they will review to confirm the details are correct and there are no special conditions to comply with. If there are they will tell you. If you receive a copy of the valuation report you should send it to your Solicitor.
If you chose to have a survey you should send a copy of this to your Solicitor because the surveyor won’t. If you wish to raise any issues from it you should point them out directly to the Solicitor.
Signing up
Buyers – Once the above stages are complete we will formally report to you telling you what we have found out about the property and enclosing all the relevant documentation. At the same time, we will send you all the legal documents you need to sign. We will also ask you to tell us when you would like to complete.
Sellers – We will send you the legal documents to sign and ask you to tell us when you would like to complete.
Agreeing dates
When we receive the signed documents back from you, Solicitors for both parties will agree a date for Completion. At this stage, it is an idea to obtain quotes from removal companies. You should not give notice on any current rental property or commit to any further plans before contracts have been exchanged.
Buyers – you should arrange insurance quotes now; insurance needs to be in place for the exchange.
Preparing for exchange
Once a date is agreed between the Solicitors they will communicate this to you and they will prepare for exchange, requesting mortgage funds, or mortgage redemptions, completing searches, obtaining estate agent fees etc depending on whether you are buying or selling.
Buyers – your Solicitor will ask you to transfer the deposit to them and put your insurance in place.
Exchange of Contracts
When the Solicitors are ready, there will be a telephone conversation between the solicitors, confirming the details of the transaction. They each agree to post their part of the contract to the other and make provision for payment of the deposit (normally between 5-10% of the purchase price). You are now legally bound to complete the sale / purchase and cannot withdraw without suffering a loss.
Completion
The Sellers Solicitors pay the balance of the purchase price, by CHAPs payment, to the Seller’s Solicitor. When this is received completion takes place. The Sellers Solicitor informs the estate agent that the keys to the property can be released. You can now move. If the keys are not already with the agents the Seller will be advised to drop them off as soon as possible.
The Sellers Solicitor repays the mortgage and any other payments due out and then send the balance by CHAPs payment to the Seller.
After completion
We will write to you at your forwarding address to confirm completion and provide a copy of your final completion statement. We will invite you to provide any feedback on your experience with Exclusive Law.
Sellers – We will forward the signed TR1 and any deeds and documents to the Buyers Solicitors to allow them to register the Buyers title at Land Registry. We will take out any indemnity policies that were agreed and ensure the mortgage has been removed from the title. We will then archive your file as set out in our Client Care letter.
Buyers – Following completion we will await submit the SDLT form and any necessary payment to HMRC (within 14 days). We will then await the signed Transfer deed from the Sellers and any deeds and documents. Upon receipt of this we will prepare and submit the application to HM Land Registry to register your ownership. We will deal with any queries they may have, and when the Application is successfully registered we will send the deeds to you and your lender. After registration we will archive your file as explained in our Client Care letter.