Buying your home can be a long and confusing process but it doesn’t need to be! Below is a breakdown of the purchase process to help you understand the stages throughout the transaction.
Once you have found the property you wish to purchase, let us know by formally instructing us as your solicitors. This can be done by a quick phone call or an email to the firm.
We await the receipt of a contract pack from the seller’s solicitors. This pack includes draft contracts, property information forms, any certificates relating to the property and the title documents from the land registry.
We then review the above information and raise any enquiries on the land and title. At the same time, searches are instructed. These include a Local Authority Search, Drainage and Water Search, Environmental Search and sometimes a Mining Search. Searches are compulsory if you are obtaining a mortgage on the property. This is because we act for your mortgage lender as well as you and therefore need to find out as much information as possible before instructing them to release funds to us for completion. If you are not obtaining a mortgage, these searches are optional however we always recommend obtaining the same to give you the most informed advice on your purchase as we can.
Once responses to these enquiries have been received by the seller, we are then able to review them alongside the search results. Additional enquiries are often raised at this point as we have a more well-rounded view of the property. If the searches have revealed that the property benefits from any certificates that we have not already received, we will also ask for these.
Whilst we wait for the responses to the final few enquiries, we are able to report to you on all of the information that has been received so far. These reports contain the title information and documents relating to the property, an explanation of the enquiries raised and any other documentation that is relevant to the transaction. They also contain any contracts and other forms which need signing for completion. These reports contain vast amounts of information which your solicitor would have reviewed in order to prepare the report and therefore they take around 7-10 days to complete. Once you receive this report, we believe that you are in a very informed position to make the final decision on purchasing the property. You will then be able to ask us any further questions you may have and arrange to sign the documentation as instructed within the report.
On receipt of your signed documents, we will them be in a position to discuss exchange and completion.
Exchange must happen prior to the completion of the purchase of your property. On exchange, we confirm the date in which you would like to complete the purchase and move into your new property and this date is then set as legally binding. We will need your 10% deposit to exchange. It is important to note that once you have exchanged, the completion date cannot be changed and any failure to complete on the set day will result in legal action being taken against you for the failed completion. Although it sounds scary, the exchange process is a fun process and something which you should enjoy as it means that you are officially moving house!
Then finally we can go ahead and complete the purchase on the date specified at exchange! We will require the remainder of your purchase funds to be transferred over to us the day before completion, this includes our fees and any other disbursements that you have permitted us to pay. We would have also applied for your mortgage funds to be released to us on the day before completion. We shall give you a call on the day once we have had confirmation that the seller’s solicitors have received the purchase funds to inform you that the purchase has completed and that you can collect the keys to your new home.
Moving is an extremely exciting and fun process. Ensuring that you are up to date with the transaction process can help you work with your solicitor to make the transaction run as smoothly as possible.
At Battrick Clark, we have a team of dedicated property conveyancing solicitors who are eager to help you navigate the legal aspects of the process of purchasing your home as smoothly and safely as possible. For more details or to receive a call back, please contact Amy Jones at [email protected].