Conveyancing explained
Conveyancing explained – NW Evening Mail
WHAT happens when you accept an offer from a buyer for the sale of your house?
Step 1: Your conveyancer, whether they are a solicitor, licensed conveyancer or other conveyancing professional, provides a contract and a copy of your title deeds to the buyer’s conveyancer.
Step 2: You are asked to complete Law Society forms giving information on your use and occupation of the property. The Property Information Form asks questions about boundaries, disputes with neighbours, work on the house, central heating, flooding etc, while the Fittings and Contents Form asks for a detailed inventory of items you will be leaving behind.
Step 3: The buyer’s conveyancer considers this information and advises the buyer accordingly. They lodge searches against the property, usually a local search with the local authority and a drainage search with, for this area, United Utilities. The local search reveals information held by the local authority relating to your home, including planning, environmental health, road maintenance, tree preservation orders etc. An environmental search may also be lodged where the history of the site on which the house stands is not known.
Step 4: The buyer’s conveyancer may raise queries about the title and the other information provided which the seller’s representative, with the assistance of the seller, answers as quickly as possible. Meanwhile the buyer is progressing their mortgage application which is hopefully received around this time. In general, the reason for any delay in a conveyancing transaction is the issue of the buyer’s mortgage offer. Banks and building societies have become much more controlled as to their lending policies and investigate potential borrowers very closely.
Step 5: Once all of the buyer’s queries have been satisfactorily answered and the mortgage offer is in place, both parties sign the contract and the buyer pays a 10 per cent deposit. A completion or moving date is agreed and only now are the conveyancers of the seller and buyer able to exchange contracts – it is now legally binding for the seller and the buyer to proceed with the house sale and purchase. Up to this point, either the seller or the buyer could have withdrawn from the transaction.
Next week: Susan explains the final stages following exchange of contracts.
If you are buying/ selling property, turn to Poole Townsend to guide you every step of the way.
Visit www.pooletownsend.co.uk/conveypart1.
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