A guide for property buyers
When you have agreed to purchase a property and have written confirmation that the property is withdrawn from the market, you will immediately need to contact a solicitor/conveyancer.
Once you have instructed a solicitor, there are four basic steps which are as follows;
Step one
- You need to complete your mortgage application as soon as possible.
- Your solicitor receives a contract for the purchase of the property in draft form from the sellers solicitors, together with copies of the title deeds.
- Your solicitor applies for a local search, drainage search and environmental search and the solicitor will advise you of the costs involved.
Step two
- Your solicitors will carry out a detailed investigation of the legal documents supplied to them by the sellers solicitors and where necessary, will raise further legal enquiries.
- When your solicitors investigations are complete and they have all the information, they will need to send you a legal report on the property.
- When your mortgage offer has been issued, your solicitor will write to you about any unusual terms of the mortgage offer and any applicable special conditions.
Step three
- Contracts are exchanged.
- From this moment you are legally committed to purchase this property.
- You do not move in on the date of exchange of contracts but a date for the move (completion) will be fixed on exchange in constitution with you.
- You should also arrange buildings insurance at this point.
- You will need to make your pre-completion arrangements (e.g. arrange removals, connection of services etc). Your solicitor will send you a note on exchange explaining what to do.
Step four
- Your purchase is completed on the completion date and you are able to move into the property.
- The purchase price and all legal fees and other costs (e.g. stamp duty, land tax etc) have to be paid on or before this date.
- Your solicitor will pay the necessary stamp duty and then register your ownership of the property at the Land Registry.