CONVEYANCING GUIDE

No two conveyancing matters ever proceed in exactly the same manner but set out below are the various stages of a sale and purchase transaction. These may provide you with a guide as your own matter progresses.
Whatever the nature of the transaction we are dealing with for you, the very first stage is for you to formally instruct us. Once you have made contact with us, we will write to you and confirm the instructions and send to you a Questionnaire for you to complete which will provide us with your personal details and enable the matter to proceed.

For a Sale
 

• Obtain details of the legal title to your property
  If the legal title to your property is registered with H M Land Registry then we will immediately obtain copies of the title documents from the land registry. These will enable us to begin the preparation of the draft contract papers immediately.
  If the legal title is unregistered then we will need to obtain the original title documents from your mortgage lender or whoever holds the deeds.
  If you hold the deeds yourself or were handed copies when you purchased the property it is always worthwhile forwarding any such documentation to us immediately you decide to instruct us to proceed with your sale.
  If your property has not yet been marketed and you require us to prepare a Home Information Pack; we can prepare that for you. If you already have a Home Information Pack (HIP) then we will obtain a copy from the agents.

• Prepare the draft contract and supporting documentation and send to the buyer’s lawyer
  This is a complete set of documentation which will enable the other lawyer to proceed with the matter on behalf of the buyer. The package of documentation we provide includes the draft contract which we will have prepared on your behalf together with copies of the legal title to your property and completed Property Information and Fixtures and Fittings Forms which you will have completed at our request. The buyer’s lawyer will consider the documentation and information provided and raise any additional enquiries or matters that they feel relevant or which your buyer wishes to make. If these additional enquiries are raised which require your assistance then we will contact you with them. The replies will then be forwarded to them. At the same time the buyers lawyer will be carrying out any additional searches not contained in your HIP and your buyer will be making his mortgage arrangements. At this time, you are likely to hear that the buyer’s surveyor needs access to your property in order to carry out the survey or valuation.

• Receive the approved Contract
  Once your buyer and their lawyer are satisfied on all matters, have the results of their searches and their mortgage offer they will confirm their approval to our draft Contract. At that stage you will be asked to sign it in readiness for exchange of contracts.

• Exchange Contracts
  When all parties are ready to proceed then the individual lawyers will agree the exchange of contracts on your behalf. Prior to exchange, a completion date will have been discussed and agreed by all parties and that date inserted in the contract. The completion date is the date on which you must vacate the property and ensure that it has been completely cleared of your belongings. Anything not included in the sale or not required by the buyers (including all rubbish and items in the loft space and any garage or shed or outbuildings) must be cleared on or before that date. Once contracts have been exchanged the parties become legally bound to proceed with the matter. On exchange of contracts a deposit is paid by your buyers. It is normally possible to use that deposit on a purchase which is proceeding at the same time. If you are not purchasing an alternative property then the buyer’s lawyer will insist that the deposit is retained by ourselves until completion of your sale has taken place. Between exchange of contracts and completion the responsibility for the property remains with you and you must therefore ensure that your insurance remains in place since the property must be in the same physical condition on completion that it was on exchange of contracts.

• Completion
  This is the date on which you must vacate the property. You should ensure that the property is completely clear by 2pm. The keys should be handed to the estate agents once you have moved out. We will arrange for your mortgage to be repaid on this date. You should arrange for all meters to be read and service providers notified of your change of address prior to moving out of the property. We will send any proceeds of sale due to you on this date.
  
   

For a Purchase

 

• We will receive from the buyer’s lawyer the draft contract together with copies of the legal title and the completed Property Information and Fixtures and Fittings Forms and any available HIP. We will consider these and raise any enquiries which we feel appropriate. We will also submit any additional searches you require or we consider prudent. We will send you copies of the draft documentation and search results for you to look through at your leisure and you can tell us if there are any specific matters you wish us to raise on your behalf. At this stage, and if required, you should have made your mortgage application and applied for your survey to be carried out. The surveyor may raise matters which need to be checked from a legal aspect and you should make us aware of any observations he makes which you require us to investigate further.

• Once we have received satisfactory replies to our enquiries and results of our searches and you have your mortgage offer and satisfactory survey then we will approve the contract on your behalf. At that time you will be asked to attend our offices to sign the contract in readiness for exchange of contracts. At that time, we will also ask you to sign the Deed of Transfer, Mortgage Deed and Stamp Duty Land Tax form and we will retain those on your file in readiness for completion of your purchase. You will need to provide us with your deposit at this stage. If you have a related sale and are intending to use the deposit paid by your own buyers to finance the deposit on your purchase then you will not need to take any further action regarding the deposit. We will discuss completion dates with you and once those have been agreed by yourselves and the other parties in the chain then we will proceed to exchange of contracts. On the completion date the seller must vacate the property and allow you to take up occupation.

• Following exchange of contracts we will provide you with a Completion Statement which will provide the financial details of your purchase. If you are providing further funds towards your purchase then you will need to arrange to send them to us. We will request your mortgage advance and carry out our final searches. You will need to arrange your buildings insurance cover and we will need details of this cover in order to satisfy your mortgage lender that the property is adequately insured. The lender will not allow the use of the mortgage funds unless these details are confirmed by us and you should therefore ensure that they are made available just as soon as we have advised you that exchange of contracts has taken place. You will need to notify the service providers at the property of the completion date.

• On the Completion Date we will ensure that the funds are transferred to the seller’s lawyers as early as possible. Once the receipt of them is confirmed by those lawyers, we will telephone you and the keys to the property may then be collected by you from the estate agents. If we are holding surplus funds on your behalf then we will pay them to you. Your mortgage lender will be in touch with you direct following completion to confirm details of your new mortgage.

• Following completion, we will deal with the payment of stamp duty land tax and arrange for the registration of the transfer of the property to you to be registered at H M Land Registry. The registry will issue an updated copy of the registers of title showing you as the new owner and also details of your new mortgage if appropriate. We will send you a copy of that document as soon as it is available together with any other documentation that may be of assistance to you in the future and which your mortgage lender does not require – for example guarantees and planning documents. The registration process with the land registry can take some weeks to complete and you should not be concerned if there is a delay in sending those documents to you. Your mortgage lender will also require a copy of the new land registry entries and we will send that to them in order to conclude the matter.

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