Once the parties have informed us of the transaction details, we will confirm the instructions in our Client Care letter which includes details of our costs with two copies of our full Terms and Conditions, one to be signed and returned to us.
We will also ask for identification by means of a face to face meeting with original documentation to confirm your identity and your residential address. If purchasing, evidence of where the funds to purchase are coming from.
Money will be requested on account payable to our firm’s Client Account to cover the cost of any third-party disbursements and on account of our firm’s fees. These will include ordering property searches on the purchase and title documentation for a sale.
Sale Procedure
If you are selling a property we will ask you to complete a property information form, fittings and contents form and if the property is leasehold, a leasehold information form. These form part of the documentation to be sent to the purchasers solicitors with draft contract. Other documentation will include Office Copy Entries from Land Registry and if applicable a copy of the Lease (we will have obtained these from the Land Registry and make up part of the ‘disbursement costs’.
A draft contract will be prepared detailing the terms and conditions of the sale and forwarded at the same time.
Following receipt of the documentation, the buyer's conveyancer will raise any enquiries through ourselves prior to exchange of contract. These may include enquiries on the contract, title, and property. You, as the seller must provide accurate replies to these enquiries.
The buyer’s conveyancer will also request property searches from the Local Authority, Drainage and Environmental Agency. Further enquiries may then have to be raised following the receipt of these.
The buyer may arrange a survey of the property by a qualified surveyor and raise any issues that arise from the report as further enquiries. You, as the seller must provide accurate replies to these additional enquiries.
Once the buyer's conveyancer is satisfied that the above matters have been dealt with, their conveyancer can report to the buyer. The buyer will need to ensure they are happy with the report and raise any further enquiries they may have following receipt of this.
Both conveyancers will then arrange for the buyer and seller to sign their contract and agree on an exchange and completion date.
Upon receipt of the signed contracts and the buyer supplying their deposit, the contracts will be formally exchanged to complete on the agreed date.
We will send you a Form of Transfer for signature and you will need to return this to us before completion. If you have a mortgage we will obtain details as to the amount required to redeem this on the day of completion and, once we have this will forward a Completion Statement to you showing the balance of monies due to you on the date of completion.
At completion monies will be transferred from the buyers conveyancer to us into our Client Account and we will then repay any mortgage monies, pay the Estate Agents and our fees and forward to you the net sale proceeds.
Purchase Procedure
If you are buying a property we will receive from the vendors solicitors a completed property information form, fittings and contents form and if the property is leasehold, a leasehold information form. These form part of the documentation received from the vendors solicitors to ourselves with the draft contract. Other documentation will include Office Copy Entries from Land Registry and if applicable a copy of the Lease.
Following receipt of the documentation, we will raise any enquiries, these may include enquiries on the contract, title, and property. We will submit Local Authority, Environmental and Drainage Searches.
As the buyer you may arrange a survey of the property by a qualified surveyor. You should forward a copy of the Survey to us so that we can consider the same and raise any further enquiries.
Once we are satisfied that the above matters have been dealt with, we will prepare our report for you. If you are happy with the report and other documentation included you will need to return to us the Contract signed and transferred to our Client Account 10% of the purchase price in respect of the deposit payable when we exchange contracts.
Upon receipt of the signed contracts and the deposit, the contracts will be formally exchanged to complete on the agreed date.
Prior to completion we will apply to your mortgage company (if any) for the mortgage monies to be sent to us and we will send you a Completion Statement showing the amount we need to complete. We will need to receive this a few days before completion.
At completion we will transfer the purchase monies to the sellers solicitors and they will forward to us the Transfer and any other relevant documents. We will then register the Transfer at HM Land Registry and advise you once registration has been completed.
