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| Buying a property

The conveyancing process for buying a property involves the following main steps:

Arranging a mortgage

Having a mortgage offer arranged early on will give you an advantage as a buyer. Sellers who are hoping to move quickly will be more likely to choose a buyer who has taken some of the preliminary steps and who is organised and ready to move.

Once you have decided which lender to use, you can approach them and ask for a mortgage decision in principle. They will carry out some of the initial work and give you an idea of the amount they are prepared to lend.

Instructing a solicitor

Similarly, instructing property solicitors early on can reduce the time taken to start moving on a transaction and also means that as soon as your offer is accepted, details can be passed to the seller’s solicitor so that the initial paperwork can be sent.

If you ask us to represent you, we can start work now, opening a file and verifying your identity in readiness.

Having a survey carried out

It is always advisable to have a survey carried out to ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises awaiting you. There are different levels of survey, depending on the type of property you are buying. For example, a modern home in good condition might only need a Level 2 homebuyer report. If you are buying an older property or a property in poor condition or you intend to make major alterations, a surveyor may recommend a more in-depth Level 3 building survey.

Once your offer has been accepted and you are ready to go ahead, you can speak to a surveyor to discuss the best option.

Searches and enquiries

The seller’s solicitor will send us the initial contract package, which will include details of the property and a range of other information. We will go through this in detail and return to them with a list of enquiries.

At the same time, we will also apply for the necessary searches, such as a local search, drainage enquiries and an environmental search.

When we have all of the responses, we will report to you on the property, highlighting any unusual issues or potential areas of concern.

Signing the paperwork and paying the deposit

Once we have satisfactory replies to all of our enquiries and we have received your mortgage offer, you can sign the contract and the mortgage deed in readiness for exchange. The contract is not legally binding until the exchange takes place.

You will need to let us have cleared funds for the deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price, unless you are also selling a property. If you are, we can usually use the deposit from your sale.

Exchanging contracts

We will agree on a completion date with you and the rest of the chain, then contracts can be exchanged. If you are tying in a sale, you need to check that removals will be available on the suggested date.

On exchange of contracts, the date for completion is set and the deposit is paid to the seller’s solicitor.

We can then carry out the final pre-completion checks and order your mortgage advance. You will need to let us have the balance of money, if applicable, in cleared funds.

Completing your purchase

On the completion day, we will send the purchase money to the seller’s solicitor. If you are also selling a property, we will send the money as soon as it is received from your buyer’s solicitor.

Once the seller’s solicitor receives the money, they will let the estate agent know that the keys can be released to you once the seller has dropped them off.

Following completion, we will arrange for registration of your ownership at the Land Registry as well as registration of your mortgage.

| Selling a property

It can be helpful to instruct a solicitor early on if you are selling a property. If you would like us to represent you, we will send you a range of property information forms to be completed. It can be helpful to have these in plenty of time, as you may need to find documents to accompany the forms, such as guarantees and planning consent.

We can also verify your identity and open a file at this stage. As soon as you accept an offer, we will then be in a position to start work straight away, which can reduce the time taken to reach an exchange of contracts.

We will send the buyer’s solicitor the sale contract, the property information and fixtures and fittings forms. If they raise any enquiries, we will liaise with you to answer them.

We always keep in close touch with the other side to make sure that they have what they need from us and that the transaction does not stall.

Once they are ready to exchange contracts, we will liaise with you to agree on a completion date. If you have a mortgage, we will obtain a redemption statement so that you know how much you will be receiving on completion.

We will let you have the transfer document to be signed as soon as the buyer provides this. On the day of completion, we will let you know as soon as we have the sale money in and we will also redeem your mortgage.

| Property remortgage

If you are remortgaging, you will generally need a solicitor to deal with the transaction, as the lender will want the title and other issues checked in a similar way to a property purchase. The only exception is if you are staying with the same lender.

We know that it is often important to complete a remortgage quickly and we always work to avoid delays.

We may need to carry out searches. Alternatively, your new lender may be happy with search insurance, which is a quicker option and avoids potential hold-ups with search results. We will let you have a property information form for completion as well as a copy of the redemption statement from your existing lender so that you can see how much they will want on completion.

Once your new lender has all of the information they need, we can arrange completion. On the completion day, we will discharge your existing mortgage and arrange for registration of the new charge at the Land Registry.

| Equity release

If you are taking out an equity release policy, we can advise you of the implications and provide the representation you need. The process is similar to a remortgage, but you will need independent legal advice to ensure that you are aware of the effect the transaction will have.

To find out more about our services, see our residential conveyancing solicitors page.