conveyancing and property services
(a) selling your house - the process
MARKETING: you will probably use an estate agent to market your house.
HOME INFORMATION PACKS: these were suspended by the Government in May 2010, so you no longer need to worry about them, but you will still need an Energy Performance Certificate.
ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATES: these are still required, so you will need to have one when you market your property for sale. I am able to arrange an EPC for you - please call me for more details about this.
INSTRUCTING YOUR CONVEYANCER: once you have accepted an offer from your buyer, which is 'subject to contract' (meaning that you are not yet legally bound to proceed with the sale), you need to instruct me officially to act on your behalf in the transaction if you have not already done so. If you are using a sale agent, the agent will let me have details of the provisional sale agreement at this stage.
I will send you official terms and conditions for the conveyancing, which I will need you to sign and return to me. This will tell you what I will be doing on your behalf during the conveyancing and gives me the necessary authorisation to act on your behalf.
I will need to get the basic details from you about yourself, your buyer and the property, though some of this may well have come from the sale agent. I also have to check your personal identity officially, unless I have done legal work for you in the past five years and have that information already.
PREPARING THE CONTRACT: I will send you a questionnaire about the property for you to complete. We will agree a list of fixtures and fittings that you are leaving in the property, and this becomes part of the contract.
I will send a draft contract, along with other relevant deeds and documents, to the buyer's conveyancer. I will answer any queries raised by the buyer's conveyancers.
I will arrange a meeting with you, so that you can sign the contract, once it has been approved by the buyer's conveyancer.
EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS: the contract becomes binding at this point, so I will only exchange when I have your agreement to do so. The deposit (usually 10%) is received from the buyer and a completion date is agreed.
COMPLETION OF THE SALE: the balance of money is received from the buyer, you hand over the keys (usually via the Estate Agent). You should not hand over the keys until I have confirmed that the monies have been received. I repay any outstanding mortgage for you and, after paying the relevant costs including the estate agent's fee, send any balance of money to you.
Please remember that your moving day is not definitely fixed until contracts have actually been exchanged. Unfortunately there are all too often unexpected last-minute delays, so you should not book removals or make other arrangements for moving before you know that there is a definite completion date.
If you are also buying a property, the buying process will take place alongside the selling process.
As a Notary, I am committed to helping you achieve a successful outcome to your transaction, and to making the process as smooth and trouble-free for you as possible.