1. Starting the conveyancing process
As soon as your offer has been accepted, you will need to let us have details of the estate agents where you found the house you wish to purchase. They will give us contact information for the seller's solicitors. We will ask the seller's solicitors to send us what is called a Contract Pack.
The Contract Pack contains various documents relating to the house-buying process, such as a Fixtures, Fittings and Content Form showing what will or won't be left at the property and a Seller's Property Information Form giving further details about boundaries, disputes, guarantees and whether the property has been altered in the past.
2. Checking the property details
Our helpful and experienced residential property solicitors will check through the paperwork for you, and ask the seller's solicitors to provide any missing information, or other details which we think are important such as copy planning permissions, guarantees etc.
3. Checking whether anything in the locality affects the house - the Local Search
We then send off a number of searches to find out more about the property you are buying. The Local Search for example raises enquiries about planning history of the property, and other matters such as road widening, tree preservation orders and so on. The Environmental Search tells us about the premises use of the land on which the property is built, and whether there is any risk of contamination to the property. The Drainage Search tells us whether the property is connected to the mains drains and water supply. There are other searches we would carry out for you.
4. Money needed to pay for the house
In the meantime, you need to make sure that your financial arrangements are in place and that, if you are borrowing money for buying the house, you have submitted your mortgage application. If you need any help with raising the money you need, our residential conveyancing team can recommend a number of Independent Financial Advisors whom we know well and who can help - even if you just want a price comparison.
5. Time to give you an overview
As soon as we have all of the information we need, we will send you a report explaining everything to do with the property and land and letting you know whether in our opinion it is safe for you to proceed with your purchase. We know how confusing buying a house can be which is why we will explain everything to you in detail, in this report, in plain English.
6. Getting ready for to make the purchase
When you are satisfied with everything, have all your financial arrangements in place and are ready to proceed we will be at the stage of what is called "exchanging contracts”. In preparation for this, we will ask you to sign the contract and your mortgage deed (if applicable) which we will then keep on file for you until you are ready to commit to buying the house. You will receive these documents by post or email and you sign and send them back to us.
7. The deposit for your new house to be paid by you to the seller
If things are proceeding well and no problems remain unsolved, then when you sign the contract we will also ask you to let us have the deposit that will have to be given to the seller when you exchange contracts - the amount depends on what was agreed with the seller, but the deposit is typically between 5% and 10% of the purchase price of the house.
8. When do you want to move in?
The next step is to agree a move-in date (the completion date). We liaise between you and the seller to agree a date on which the house will become yours and you can move in.
9. Making the deal legally-binding
Up until this point, you or the seller can walk away at any time. However, if both you and your seller wish to proceed and a completion date has been agreed, we send the contract for the purchase of the house and the deposit over to the seller's solicitors. In return we get a copy of the contract signed by the seller. This is called the exchange of contracts, and it makes the deal legally binding. No one can walk away now without paying a potentially hefty price.
10. Gathering all the money in
As the completion date approaches, our conveyancing lawyer will ask your mortgage company to send the loan monies to us. We will also send you a statement setting out the balance that you need to send to us to cover the price of the house, stamp duty, search fees, and legal fees.
11. The Big Day arrives...
On the move-in day we electronically transfer the purchase monies that are still owed after the deposit is deducted, to the seller's solicitors. Once they have received the money (it usually takes less than an hour) they will tell the seller's estate agents to hand over the keys - the house is then yours and you can begin to move in.
12. Behind the scenes
After you have moved in, we will carry on working for you in the background by paying any stamp duty and by formally registering your ownership at the Land Registry. Once this has been done, we will send you a copy of the title deeds for safekeeping. Everything will then have been done and dusted and the conveyancing process will be complete.
As we say, we are always there for people and families who are in our PURPLE LEGAL scheme. We invite you to join PURPLE LEGAL now. By joining PURPLE LEGAL, you can have all your legal enquiries answered free of charge by simply booking a SolicitorSlot for a time and date that suits you. Alternatively if you wish to speak to us now, please click on "Please Contact Me Now” or call us on 0845 567 5000. We look forward to always being there for you.
