If you are buying or selling a property, you will need a Property Lawyer.
Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property ownership from one party to another, but when it comes time for you to move in or out. The work can be overwhelming and confusing. Commonly referred to as "the whole body" by both solicitors and licensed conveyancers are those involved with making sure any house sale/purchase goes through.
For homeowners about to move, conveyancing can be one of the most complicated parts of the moving process. M&P understands the frustration felt by homeowners trying to get their heads around conveyancing, so we have pulled together a panel of Brilliant Solicitors & Conveyancers to make sure you enjoy a smooth and cost-effective conveyancing process.
The guide below provides you with the “Legal Procedure” framework for buying and selling a property.
The sale of your property from Sale Agreed to Exchange of Contracts and Completion
We are often asked, “what is meant by conveyancing.”
It is the legal process of buying and selling a property, or its legal definition is “the act of transfer of title of property from one person to another”.
After the sale is agreed
We will send you a letter confirming the offer price and the names of the purchasers. In addition, the solicitors acting on behalf of yourself and the purchasers will both receive a copy of the signed property details, a full Energy Performance Certificate and a Memorandum of Sale containing the details necessary for them to correspond with each other. It is essential at this stage that you contact your solicitor directly and instruct them to act on your behalf.
- Once you have instructed your solicitor, they will send you a pack that includes a Property Information Form and a Fixtures & Fittings form. These forms provide your solicitor with the basic information that they require to draft the contract. As well as these forms, they will require other information from you, as follows:
- For your solicitor to comply with Money Laundering Regulations, they will require photo ID (a valid driving license or a valid passport) and a recent utility bill (gas, electric, and water or council tax bills) dated within the last three months. Please note that the solicitor will require seeing the original documents or have the original documents certificated by a professional person.
- If you have made significant alterations to your property, such as an extension, a loft conversion, a garage, a conservatory, please ensure you can provide any relevant documents such as planning consents or building regulation certificates. If you cannot find any of these documents, or if works were carried out by the previous owner, then please consult with your solicitor, who will advise you of the necessary course of action.
- Any guarantees, receipts or certificates relating to remedial work such as electric wiring, damp proofing, window replacement or timber treatment should be given to your solicitor.
Selling a Leasehold Property
If there is a management company, you will need to provide their name and contact details to your solicitor. All management companies charge for a Sellers Leasehold pack, and we advise all clients to contact their management company to find out the cost of this and to order it themselves and then send it on to their solicitors, as this can save time in the sales process. This can be a lengthy process, so we advise that this be ordered as soon as your solicitors have been instructed.
Once your Solicitor has received your documents
Once your solicitor receives all the necessary information, they are then able to create the draft contracts, as stated. These will then be sent across to the purchaser's solicitors. We recommend that once your property is placed on the market, you carry out the above as this will save two to three weeks on the sales process because when your property is sold, your solicitor will be in a position to issue draft contracts from day one.
Purchasers Mortgage / Survey
We aim to ensure that the purchaser is in a position to financially move forward with the transaction. We do this by the following:-
1) We ask to see a Mortgage in Principle certificate, which our own in-house mortgage broker will verify.
2) We ask for proof of deposit, photo ID, and address, which needs to be within the last three months.
Survey
The survey is our next stage in the sales progression process. We ask vendors to bear in mind that banks and building societies work differently and have different procedures. Some lenders will instruct the valuation/survey once the application has been lodged. In contrast, others will not instruct valuation/survey until all the references have been taken and the mortgage is approved, subject to the valuation.
Purchasers Solicitor
When your purchaser’s solicitor receives the draft papers, they apply for searches. The searches are Drainage, Local Authority and Environmental searches. Solicitors work in different ways, some solicitors will raise enquiries straight away while others will wait to submit enquiries until all of the searches have been received. Many of the enquiries can be answered by your solicitor as you have already provided important information in your Sellers Information Pack and fixtures and fittings list. If there are any other enquiries, your solicitor will contact you for further details. Sometimes there will be further enquiries on the information already been given. It is a good rule of thumb to bear in mind that the solicitor acting for the purchaser has never been to your property and likely never been to the area; this is mainly to have clarification on specific points.
Exchange of Contracts
Once the buyer’s solicitor has all their enquiries answered, they will approve the contract and forward a copy to your solicitors for you to sign. Solicitors can often send contracts for signing at different times during a transaction; it is not always at the end. The buyers will sign a further copy once all the legal checks have been completed and their mortgage offer is in place. At this point, the buyer will be asked to provide a deposit.
Deposit
The usual deposit is 10%, although some solicitors will ask to reduce this. In addition, we sometimes entertain simultaneous exchange and completion, so exchange and completion will take place on the same day. It is important to note that a completion date has to be agreed upon by all parties in the chain, and once exchange has taken place, the contract is binding between you and your buyer.
Exchange Process
If your property is in a chain, the exchange will always occur from the property at the bottom of the chain and works its way through to the top. We often refer to this as a release; this means that the solicitors at the bottom of the chain will release the contract for exchange to the solicitor above them and so on until it reaches the top. It would be best to remember that your solicitor will need to get your consent for exchange; without this, they cannot exchange on your behalf, nor can any of the other solicitors within the chain unless they get their clients consent. If the exchange does not reach the top by the close of business, it will have to start the following day again. Again your solicitor will contact you to obtain your consent. Our practice is to inform you to contact your solicitor first thing on the proceeding morning if this does happen.
The big day of completion arrives
On the day of completion, we suggest that you take all meter readings, including gas, electric and water. In addition that you ensure all rubbish has been removed from the property. Whilst we realise that some vendors wish to move themselves, this can cause a problem in the fact that once your purchasers' money has arrived in your solicitor's account, you no longer own that property and, therefore, they have a right to keys and access. We have seen many vendors try to move themselves only wishing that they had hired a removal company because, on the day of completion, a removal company will turn up at the property and move all your belongings onto their lorry ready for your onward purchase.
The keys to your home
It is usual practice for our clients to drop all keys off at our office either before but no later than the day of completion. We will not release these keys until we have confirmation from the solicitors that we are in a legal position. When collecting keys from our office, a photo ID, such as a photo driving license or passport, must be presented and all keys signed for.
We hope that this guide provides you with more insight into the moving process but don’t forget that at M & P Estates, you will be appointed with a sales progressor who will deal with your sale from start to finish. Again you are always free to contact and speak to the sales negotiator who sold your property at any stage of the process.
