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| Buying property

Our property solicitors deal with all types of residential property purchase, including leasehold purchases, unregistered land newbuild purchases and shared ownership.

The main stages in the conveyancing process for buying a property are as follows:

Choose a mortgage lender

Finding the right lender before you need to make an offer on a property can be advantageous. You can find out how much your chosen lender is likely to approve you for and it will also show estate agents and sellers that you have started work and are likely to be ready to proceed promptly.

Find an experienced conveyancing solicitor

You can also put a solicitor in place early on. If you would like us to represent you, we will start by opening a file, verifying your identity and letting you have the initial paperwork. We will then be able to start work on searches and enquiries as soon as you find a property to buy and we receive the contract package from the seller’s solicitor.

Request a survey

You will usually be advised to have a professional survey carried out. The lender’s valuation is not generally sufficient as it is frequently only a cursory examination. A surveyor should highlight any issues with the property and any major repairs or maintenance that may be needed in the near future. They can also let you have approximate costs for work that is needed.

Where major repairs are needed that were not anticipated, you can ask the seller if they are prepared to make an allowance in respect of the price.

Solicitor carries out searches and makes enquiries

As soon as the seller sends us the contract package, we will start work. We will go through the legal title and the documents to which it refers as well as the property information form. We will send a list of enquiries to the seller’s solicitor and apply for a range of searches, as needed.

During this period, your lender will generally send out the mortgage offer. Once we have satisfactory responses, plus your mortgage offer, we will go through all of the property information with you and you can sign the contract and mortgage deed.

We will need a cleared deposit from you, usually 10% of the purchase price and this is paid once you exchange contracts.

Exchange of contracts and completion

Once everyone in the chain is ready to proceed, we will discuss completion dates with you and exchange contracts. Once the contract has been exchanged, everyone will be legally bound to complete and the date for this will be set.

We will order your mortgage advance and let you know how much we need from you in cleared funds to complete your purchase.

On the completion day, we will let you know once the seller’s solicitor confirms that they have received the balance of money from us, and you can contact the estate agent to arrange to pick up the keys to your new property.

| Selling property

It is often important to complete a property sale quickly, particularly if you have a dependent purchase. We are always proactive in dealing with conveyancing, ensuring that a transaction is moved on without avoidable delays.

If you ask us to represent you as soon as you decide to market your property, we can get a head start by putting a file in place and letting you have the initial paperwork for completion. You will need to fill in a property information form and a fixtures and fittings list and you may need to find documents to accompany these, such as guarantees, planning consents and building regulations approval.

Once we hear from you with the information we need, we can ensure that we are ready to issue the contract package to your buyer’s solicitor as soon as you receive the right offer.

We will stay in touch with the buyer’s solicitor throughout and respond promptly to their enquiries.

When we receive a redemption statement from your lender, we will make sure that you have a copy so that you can see how much they will need and how much will be available to you on completion.

| Transferring property

When a property is transferred into joint names or from joint names into a sole name, it is essential to have independent legal advice. This is so that you are aware of your rights and your interest in a property is adequately protected.

There are two different ways of jointly owning a property and it is important to choose the right option for your situation. If you have put more capital into buying a property, this can be protected for the future. We can discuss your circumstances and advise you of the best choice.

If you are simultaneously remortgaging or you need your lender’s consent for the transfer, we will also deal with this aspect of the transaction.

| Remortgaging property

When a property is remortgaged, the new lender will require the legal title and other aspects of the property to be investigated in the same way as if you were buying the property. This includes applying for searches or putting search indemnity insurance in place.

We are approved by all major high street lenders to represent them in mortgage and remortgage transactions, meaning that we can act for both them and you.

We understand that it is often desirable to complete a remortgage as quickly as possible, particularly if you need the funds for work on your property or you want to move to a more beneficial rate. We always deal with matters promptly so that we are ready to complete at the earliest opportunity.

| Equity release

Equity release involves signing over a share of your property to a lender who will pay for this by giving you a lump sum. You are required by law to have independent legal advice before you sign an equity release agreement as they are generally both onerous and complex.

We have experience in explaining the terms and conditions of equity release clearly and without the use of legal jargon, so that you can be sure exactly what you are agreeing to.

We will go through what the policy will mean for you and your estate and also highlight any options for paying interest each month, to prevent it from being added to the capital sum.

For more information about our services, see our residential conveyancing solicitors page.