Conveyancing FAQs
How can we help?
I’ve seen a house I want to buy – what do I do first?
Contact us as soon as you contemplate a purchase. At that early stage we will explain the procedures and what you will need to pay by way of Land Registry fees, our fees, Stamp Duty Land Tax etc, in a detailed estimate.
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I will need a mortgage – how do I go about getting one?
If you need a mortgage in order to purchase a property, you should investigate how much you can borrow before you make an offer to purchase. This is particularly important if you plan to buy a property at an auction.Find out what you can borrow by visiting different lenders – or we can refer you to an independent financial advisor who can help you. You will need details of your salary and any additional income for both you and your partner if you are buying together.
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Do I have to get the property valued?
If you are buying the property by way of a mortgage, the lender will insist upon their own valuation being carried out before they will agree to any advance. This will establish the market value of the property and should highlight any major issues but will not be a detailed or structural survey.
You should consider paying to have a more detailed survey carried out, for your own peace of mind. We can introduce you to a RICS surveyor for this purpose.
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I’ve made an offer to buy a property and the seller has accepted my offer.
At this stage, you need to tell us the details of the property, how much you have agreed to pay and how you are planning to fund the purchase.
We will ask you to provide us with funds for essential searches. We will receive a contract from the seller’s solicitors together with a list of the fixtures and fittings supplied.
We will raise any additional enquiries we believe are required and once we have:
- satisfactory replies;
- the results of the searches carried out on the property;
- and your mortgage offer (if applicable).
We will prepare a written report for you, answer any questions you may have arising from that report or see you to go through all the paperwork with you.
Once you are satisfied with our report and both you and the seller have agreed a moving date (the completion date), the contracts will be signed and then exchanged with the seller’s solicitor.
This exchange of contracts makes both you and the seller legally bound to the transaction.
At this time we will also provide you with a detailed financial statement of the transaction, setting out the sums we will receive and spend on your behalf and confirming the balance that is to be paid by you. (This will include the agreed deposit – usually 10% of the purchase price – that is to be paid to the seller’s solicitors upon the exchange of contracts.
We will arrange to obtain your mortgage in time for completion and will ask you to let us have the balance due from you in plenty of time.
On the agreed completion date, we will send the balance of the payment to the seller’s solicitors and once they have received the funds, you can get the keys and move in.
After completion, we will pay any Stamp Duty which is due, register your ownership of the property with the Land Registry and then report to you and your mortgage lender with the paperwork and deeds that you will both require.
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How much will it cost me and do I have to pay anything up front?
Once your offer has been accepted and you have arranged your funding, we will ask you for £250 on account of our costs and to enable us to carry out the necessary local searches, plus environmental and any other essential searches.
Based on the purchase price, we will give you a detailed quote in advance so that you know what searches and other payments we will need to make on your behalf; what our costs are for the work and what other payments will be required such as Stamp Duty and Land Registry fees. You will have all this information from us at the outset, before the transaction commences.
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What do I do about selling my property?
Contact us as soon as you contemplate selling your property – at that early stage we will explain the procedures and what you will need to pay by way of fees in a detailed estimate. All homes sold on the open market now must have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) before your chosen estate agent can first market the property.
Once you have agreed a sale of your property, and we receive details of the sale from the estate agent, we will contact you regarding the completion of information forms about your property and will prepare the contract and supporting documents.
We will deal with any enquiries raised by your buyer’s solicitors, and once a moving date (completion date) is agreed between you and the buyer we will (if necessary) obtain a redemption figure from your mortgage lender.
Once you are satisfied with the position we will ask you to sign the contract. Contracts can then be exchanged with the buyer’s solicitors and at that stage both you and the buyer are legally bound to the transaction.
At this time we will also provide you with a detailed financial statement of the transaction, setting out the sums we will receive and spend on your behalf and will confirm the balance (if any) that is to be paid to you.
On the completion date, once we receive the money from your buyer’s solicitors, we will notify you and you can complete your move out of the property and we will authorise the estate agent to release the keys to your buyers.
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What happens about paying off my mortgage?
Once we have received the purchase money from your buyer’s solicitors, we will pay off your mortgage, pay your estate agent and send you any balance remaining of the sale price after deducting the agreed fees as detailed in the financial statement sent to you previously.
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Do I need to have a Home Information Pack (HIP)?
From 21st May 2010 the requirement for a Home Information Pack (HIP) has been suspended for homes marketed for sale on or after 21 May 2010. The requirement for an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) remains in force and this must have been commissioned before your chosen estate agent can first market your property.
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