House Sales

Having found a buyer, you will instruct us to send a draft contract to the buyer's solicitors. To do this we shall need the deeds, to check the nature of your ownership and the existence of any rights or burdens which must be revealed and passed on to the buyer.

If we have acted for you before, we shall know where the deeds are and shall send for them straight away; otherwise you will have to tell us ‑ the sooner the better.

When we have the deeds, we shall prepare a draft contract and send it to the buyer's solicitors, who will send us "preliminary enquiries" designed to discover from your own knowledge of the property whether any of a number of possible disadvantages actually affect this property.

The exchange of contracts marks the stage in the transaction at which a binding contract comes into existence.  Until exchange no contract exists between buyer and seller and either is free to change his mind about the transaction and withdraw from it.   

On exchange the buyer will normally pay a deposit.  This is customarily 10% of the purchase price and will be held by he sellers solicitor until completion.

Completion dates are also set upon exchange of contracts.

When the buyers Solicitor is satisfied with is search results, with the proof of the sellers ownership (title) and with the terms of the draft contract he will be ready to return the draft contract to the sellers solicitor telling him that the buyer has approved the terms and is now ready to enter the contract.  The contract is then prepared for the clients signatures.

The exchange of contracts marks the stage in the transaction at which a binding contract comes into existence.  Until exchange no contract exists between buyer and seller and either is free to change his mind about the transaction and withdraw from it.   

On exchange the buyer will normally pay a deposit.  This is customarily 10% of the purchase price and will be held by he sellers solicitor until completion.  Completion dates are also set upon exchange of contracts.

The Buyers solicitor sends the Purchase Deed, i.e. Transfer Deed.  In some cases the "transfer" or "conveyance" only has to be signed by the seller.

In others it must be signed by the buyer too, either because the buyer must "convenant" with the seller to observe the "restrictions" or because there is more than one buyer and the transfer document contains a declaration of trust.

A few days before completion, the buyers solicitor makes his pre-completion searches to ensure that no last minute problems have occurred with the title to the property.

A few days before completion the buyers solicitor makes his pre-completion searches to ensure that no last-minute problems have occurred with the title to the property.

At the same time as the buyers solicitor is preparing for completion, the sellers solicitor is also taking steps to ensure that completion will proceed smoothly and without delay.

The date fixed for transfer of ownership, on payment of the price.  Normally between two and four weeks after exchange of contracts

If we are acting for you as a buyer, there is rather more to be done. We shall send the transfer or conveyance to Inland Revenue for its details to be entered in their records and any necessary duty to be paid.

If a purchase price is in excess of £125,000.00, then stamp duty is payable by the buyer at the rate of 1% of that price. This is a government tax and should not be confused with our professional charges!

Inland Revenue return the document and we shall deliver to the Land Registry the transfer or conveyance with an application to register the title, and also with a cheque for the Land Registry fee.

On the return of the document we shall lodge the deeds with the lending institution. If there is no mortgage, we shall deal with the deeds as you wish.