Buying and selling your home

It is hoped that this will take some of the mystique and uncertainty out of the legal aspects of moving home but we will naturally gladly deal with any specific queries, which may arise.

We are here to help you and to ensure that your move goes as smoothly as possible, as we share your objective of achieving a satisfactory exchange of Contracts and to see you move into your new home with the minimum of fuss.

Our current fees for HIPs are shown below:

Home Improvement Packs (HIP) price list

Freehold
£303

If your house is in mortgage we will ask you for the name and address of the Mortgage Lender and your Roll or Account number. This information is required so that we can immediately apply to your Mortgage Lender for any deeds or documents they hold, as we may need to prepare draft Contracts. We also need this information to get a redemption statement upon completion.

If your house is not in mortgage we will ask you to arrange for your deeds and other documents to be sent to us whether you hold them yourself at home or whether they are in a Bank in safe custody.

Whilst we are waiting for these to arrive, we will send you a Sellers Property Information Form and Fixtures Fittings & Contents Form (and additional forms if you are selling a leasehold flat) and ask you to complete these and return them to us. These forms are intended to gather some preliminary information for the benefit of your Buyers and their Solicitors and they will be sent out with the Contract. There are additional forms for leasehold flats.

Meanwhile, we will obtain Office Copies from the Land Registry which provide evidence of your ownership of the property and entitlement to sell it. We prepare Contracts based on the Office Copies and we send to your Buyers' Solicitors the Contract in duplicate for approval together with the Office Copies and any other documents referred to therein which we may need in support of your Title and the forms mentioned above, including your HIP.

In many cases this is all the information that the Buyers' Solicitors will require but occasionally they will wish to raise specific enquiries which we will attempt to answer from the Title Deeds and documents but upon which we may need to seek your help.

Effectively, once we have answered any specific enquiries arising we are ready to proceed to exchange of Contracts but can only do so when your Buyers are ready to proceed.

Whilst the Contract was being prepared your Buyers' Solicitors should have submitted their initial Searches and be awaiting confirmation of mortgage finance (see details of purchase below). We can either send the Contracts to you for signature or we can accept your authority to sign the Contracts as your Agent. We prefer this latter route, as it saves time and anything which can speed the process is to be favored. The Buyers' Solicitors will have returned one part of the Contract we sent them approved, and this is the Contract we will ask you to sign or seek your authority to sign.

When the Buyers' Solicitors are ready to exchange Contracts the two Solicitors will go through a formula by telephone in accordance with a procedure laid down by the Law Society which will effect the exchange of Contracts. The Solicitors then literally exchange the relevant parts of the Contract which their Clients have signed and the Buyers' Solicitors will send us a deposit, normally 10% of the purchase price but sometimes a lesser figure.

A completion date, which we will agree with you in advance, is specified in the Contract and this is the day when the Buyers' Solicitors will pay the balance of the purchase monies to us, and when you will move out and allow the Buyers vacant possession. A number of tasks need to be undertaken between exchange of Contracts and completion.

We will write to your Mortgage Lender (if appropriate) to request a redemption statement showing the total amount due to repay your mortgage on the agreed date. We will also receive a copy of your Estate Agents' Account and send it to you for your approval. The Buyers' Solicitors will send a form of Transfer to us for approval, and subject to our approval, we will send this to you for signature in readiness for completion.

On the completion date we will receive the balance of the purchase monies, repay your mortgage, pay your Estate Agents fees, settle our own pre-agreed charges and disbursements and either send the balance to you if you are just selling, or we will transfer the balance towards your new property if you are purchasing simultaneously.

A Mining Search is required in most Counties by most Mortgage Lenders. This will give an indication as to whether there have been any past workings in the area or whether any workings are anticipated in the future. Other searches may be necessary depending upon where the property you are purchasing is situated.

We will also contact the Estate Agents and the Seller's Solicitors to advise them of our interest and asking them to send us the relevant documentation.

We will receive contract documentation (and HIP if required) from your seller's Solicitors, which will provide all the information we need to send a detailed report to you so that you know every aspect of the property you are purchasing, and will give you details of the Contract you will be asked to sign. This report will give you the option of further searches, which you may wish us to carry out on your behalf.

Provided we and you are happy with the results of the Searches and the report, then we will be in a position to proceed to exchange of Contracts, as soon as you have received a satisfactory Mortgage Offer and we have received instructions from your Lender.

If there is no dependent sale we can proceed to exchange of Contracts at this point, which is identical in content to the procedure mentioned for exchange of Contracts in connection with a sale.

If you do have a dependent sale, however, we can only exchange Contracts on your purchase when your own Buyers are ready to exchange Contracts on your sale. It is our job to ensure that the Contracts are exchanged simultaneously using a Law Society's Formula to ensure that the transactions are tied and that you will be able to move on the same agreed date.

At the time of exchange of Contracts, we will agree a completion date with you prior to exchanging and will ask you for a deposit if you are just purchasing, or we may be able to use the deposit we receive on your sale if you are selling as well. Between exchange of Contracts and completion we have a number of tasks to undertake.

We undertake Final Searches to ensure that the Office Copies we have received have not altered so that we are aware of any mortgages, which may be on the Title, which we must clear on your behalf. We will also send a Certificate of Title to your Mortgage Lender (if appropriate) to confirm that the Title is in order and to request the mortgage advance in time for the agreed completion date.

We will write to you with the form of Transfer and with the Mortgage Deed (if appropriate), so that you can sign these in readiness for completion and return them to us.

We will also prepare a set of accounts and write to you to request any balance we may need from you to complete the purchase and pay costs and disbursements such as Stamp Duty and Land Registry fees.

On the day of completion we will receive the sale proceeds from the sale of your property by way of telegraphic transfer from your buyer's Solicitors, and will then telegraph the balance of the monies due to your seller's Solicitors to purchase the new property.

We will then send the Stamp Duty Land Tax Form to the Inland Revenue, and pay any duty (assuming you are purchasing above£125,000). Your Title will then be registered, and any mortgage you are taking at the Land Registry, before sending the Title Deeds and documents to you or to your Mortgage Lender if you are having a Mortgage.

You may, for example, have taken a fixed interest deal for a given period and at the end of the period interest rates may have risen or fallen significantly and you may wish to obtain a lower rate, than offered when your fixed rate comes to an end.

The re-mortgaging process is an amalgamation of the work we do in connection with sale and the purchase. For most lenders we will still need to undertake the searches referred to in our guide.

We have to obtain your existing deeds from your existing lender and office copies of the title to your existing property from the Land Registry. When we have our satisfactory searches and your new mortgage offer we then agree a date to complete the re-mortgage. We apply for a redemption statement (the amount required to repay your existing mortgage) and we do our final searches and request the new funds from your new lender.

On the day of completion we effectively pay off the old loan and register the change of lender at the Land Registry before eventually sending the title deeds and documents to the new lender for safe custody.

Our fees are based on the Law Society recommended guidelines and typically will involve a value element based upon the purchase price or rental passing and the time spent. Please contact us and we will be happy to provide a quotation.