Conveyancing is the legal process of buying and selling property. We list below the stages you will go through from agreeing a sale on your property right up to the day you move.
1) Preparation
It’s beneficial to gather any information together that your solicitor may require to enable them to send out a contract. This will prevent any delays in the transaction.
- In order to comply with current money laundering regulations you will need to supply means of identification in the form of a passport, driving licence or recent utility bill.
- Copies of guarantees, certificates, warranties for any alterations or improvements to your property such as extensions, planning consents, building regulations or to remedial work such as electrical rewiring, damp proofing, window replacement or timber treatment.
Note: when selling a leasehold property, if there is a management company, it is useful to provide their name and contact details along with any block insurance policies and copies of recent management company accounts.
2) After the sale is agreed
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Your solicitor will then send you:
- Property Information Form and Fixtures & Fittings form for your completion to enable draft contracts to be drawn up and sent to your buyers. These should be returned with any of the relevant paperwork above.
- Your solicitor will then issue a draft contract.
- Whilst the legal documents are being drawn up, your buyer will be arranging finance for the purchase of your property. If this involves a mortgage their lender will instruct a surveyor to carry out a valuation of your property.
- When your buyer’s solicitor has received the contract they will then apply for searches i.e., water and drainage, local authority and environmental searches and may possibly raise enquires resulting from these searches. Your solicitor can answer many of the questions on your behalf; however, some may require further input from you.
3) Exchange of Contracts
Once your buyer’s solicitor is satisfied all their enquiries have been answered, they will approve the contract and send a copy to your solicitor for you to sign. A further copy will be signed by the buyer once all legal checks have been completed and their mortgage offer is in place. At this stage the buyer will be asked to provide a 10% deposit, however this can vary.
Once contracts have been exchanged, this is legally binding between you and your buyer and a completion date will be set. If you are in a property chain, the process for exchange of contracts starts at the bottom of the chain with solicitors “releasing” contracts upwards until the top of the chain is reached, this happens on the same working day.
4) Completion (Moving House Day)
This is the day monies are transferred between the parties and the keys are handed over and you move house!!
The time of day that completion takes place is generally dictated by the length of the chain and the speed with which each solicitor transfers the monies.
Keys cannot be released until the vendor's solicitor contacts us to confirm that the transaction has been completed.