The Process Explained

Contacting the Seller's Solicitor

Once you have appointed us as your legal conveyancing lawyer, we will contact the seller's solicitor, who provides us with a draft contract and any other items they have asked for. A form listing the fittings and contents which will be included when you buy the property will either be given to you or us at this stage. You will need to check this list carefully.

Searches

We will make various searches, including enquiries with the local authority. These can help to reveal any planning issues affecting the property, such as road improvements and details of any planning permission granted on the property. We will also carry out flooding, mining and contaminated-land searches if necessary. If any of these searches show matters of concern, we will let you know. The HIP should contain the searches.

Leasehold Properties

If the property is leasehold (particularly common when buying a flat), there will be detailed lease terms and conditions. We will need to check these carefully and will also make enquiries with the seller's lawyer or the managing agents of the property about what service charges and management costs you will have to pay.

Survey Advice

If you are applying for a mortgage, your mortgage lender will need an independent valuation of the property. Usually they will appoint their own surveyor to do this, but you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation and not a survey.

You should consider appointing your own surveyor (possibly the same person as the valuer) to carry out a survey on the property as it is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey reveals that building work is needed, you should tell us as this may allow you to renegotiate the price.

Mortgage Deed and Terms

Your mortgage lender will also need a mortgage deed. You should read the mortgage deed, offer letter and mortgage conditions very carefully. We will explain them to you.

Signing the Contract

We will then report back to you on all the investigations we have made for you so far. If you are still happy to go ahead, we will finalise the terms of the contract and explain it to you. You then need to sign the contract and provide the deposit money - usually between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the purchase price.

Exchanging Contracts

This is the crucial moment of the agreement between you and the seller. We will exchange contracts with the seller's solicitor so that you have the contract the seller has signed and the seller has the contract you have signed. If you want to withdraw from buying the property after this stage, you may have to pay financial penalties. We will also liaise with the seller's solicitors to set the date for completing the sale at this stage.

Final Balance

Between exchanging contracts and completion, we will take the mortgage money from your lender and the rest of the money from you. This will include costs, VAT, Land Registry fees and stamp duty (if any). At this stage we will carry out final searches and make arrangements with the seller's solicitor for paying off any existing mortgages on the property. We will also prepare the transfer deed and send it to the seller's solicitor for signing.

Completion

This is the final stage in the conveyancing process when we transfer your money to the seller and the keys are released to you. Your solicitor will pay the stamp duty and Land Registry fees for you and register your ownership at the Land Registry. This registers the interest of your mortgage lender and records you as the new legal owner of the property.

Related Legal Matters

Buying a property may introduce other related legal matters. For example:

	if you are buying a home with someone you are not married to, you may need to enter into a 'deed of trust' to set out what share of the property each person owns
	if you do not have a will, you should consider making one
	if you do have a will, you may need to update it

In all these cases Ward & Rider Solicitors can offer you legal advice as part of a complete professional service. We offer a complete package that incorporates these additional services.