Residential Conveyancing – Buying & Selling

When you are buying and selling at the same time, it is common to hit problems along the way due to the amount of people, for example, builders, buyers, sellers, etc involved in the transactions and their differing priorities. It is very easy to get caught in the middle and consequently struggle with completion times.

Whilst we encourage clear and direct communications between you and the other parties involved, it is important you keep your solicitor informed along the way to protect you from problematic or illegal decisions that could cause you problems down the road.

Please see below the typical steps you will need to go through when going through a transaction of this kind. We are here to help so if you need advice on any aspect, please don’t hesitate to call our specialist solicitors.

Selling

1. We will initially need to prepare a "contract documentation pack" about your property to provide to the buyers solicitors. It will take us a little while to get hold of all of the information required in this process. However, the documentation pack will consist of:
   • the latest official copy of your Title Deeds
   • a Contract
   • a Sellers Property Information Form (and if it is leasehold an Additional Property Information Form)
   • and a Fixtures, Fittings and Contents Questionnaire

   The last two items above, Sellers Property Information Form, and Fixtures, Fittings and Contents Questionnaire, are required to be completed as fully as possible by you, the seller. They contain questions about the property that you are selling and if you are not sure about any of the questions therein or require assistance in completing them, then you should contact us immediately. In any event these forms should be returned to us as soon as possible.

2. If you have an existing mortgage your property, we will require your initial instructions in order to obtain the Title deeds which will be held by your bank or building society to draw up the contractual documentation; If you do not have a mortgage then you should know where the deeds are kept. Once we have the title deeds to hand and we have also received your buyers' details from their solicitors, we then proceed to prepare the Contract. This is an agreement setting out the main terms and special conditions of what you are agreeing and includes details such as your names, the buyers' names, description of the property and price that you have agreed to sell at.
3. The buyers solicitors then review the "contract documentation pack" that is sent to them and raise standard additional enquiries on your property depending on the results received on their local and other searches. We will forward a copy of these enquiries in order to obtain your response and subsequently forward these to your purchasers solicitors, on your behalf. They will also send us a draft Transfer Deed for approval.
4. Once the buyers solicitors have approved the contract and we have approved the Transfer Deed, we will then contact you to come in and sign all documentation in readiness. We will notify you of any outstanding mortgages and will provide you with a Completion Statement, We will also try to agree a Completion Date (or the 'moving date'). Thereafter if everything meets with your requirements, we will then formally proceed to exchange contracts simultaneously on your sale and purchase (this means swapping the contract signed by the purchasers for the one signed by you, the sellers - together with a deposit provided by the purchasers ALSO swapping the contract signed by the sellers for your new property that you are intending to purchase - your deposit in this case will be the amount that you receive on your sale). Once contracts are exchanged, this makes the transaction legal and binding and neither party can withdraw without incurring huge costs.
5. On the day of completion the purchasers solicitors will send us the balance of purchase monies in return for which we will hand over the title deeds to the property together with an undertaking to redeem the sellers mortgages (if any). Meanwhile, we will utilise the money to redeem any outstanding mortgages the sellers have on the property and will also settle the Estate Agent's account and our own fees. If there is any net proceeds of sale left over, then this will be utilised for your onward purchase. Once we receive confirmation from your mortgage lender acknowledging payment received, we will forward the notification to your purchasers solicitors in order to enable them to proceed with their clients registration of title. If there is still surplus money left over from your sale then this will be sent to you on the day of completion.

Buying

1. We will firstly contact the seller's solicitors and ask for the "information pack" mentioned above. In addition we will need to carry out local authority and (if the property is in a mining area) mining searches. Searches are simply a list of questions about the property that are sent to the local council and the Coal Authority.
2. The only other thing we will need before we can proceed is a copy of your mortgage offer (if applicable). Once we have all of the following documents:- Contract, Copy of the Title Deeds, Property Information Form, Fixtures Fittings and Contents Form, Local Authority Search, Mining Search (if applicable), and Mortgage Offer (if applicable) - We will ask you to sign the contract. If you are just buying then he will ask you to bring a deposit with you (you will be told how much is needed), but if you are buying and selling then this will generally not be needed.
3. We will go through all the above documents with you and explain any problems there may be with the property. Once you are satisfied that there are no major problems then you are ready to exchange contracts.
4. Once the buyer and the seller are ready, a Completion Date (the 'moving date') is agreed. We will then exchange contracts (this simply means swapping the contract signed by the seller for one signed by the buyers - together with a deposit provided by the buyers). After contracts are exchanged the contract is binding and neither party can withdraw without incurring massive expense.
5. On the Completion Date, the we hand over to the seller's solicitor the remainder of the purchase money and in return receive the transfer document and the title deeds.
6. We must then within twenty-eight days arrange for the payment of stamp duty (if appropriate) and, within two months of the completion date, apply to register the buyer's ownership at the local Land Registry.