SELLING YOUR HOME - Guide to the Legal Proccess

We have set out blow a brief outline of a typical sale process.  However, not all property sales are straight forward and there are a number of special circumstances which will differ, such as:

• Leasehold properties
• Second Mortgages/Loans  
• Transfer of equity

 Information gathering

• Throughout the transaction, estate agents will ask us for information about progress and we will deal with them on your behalf. 
• Having received your instructions, we obtain your deeds and initial repayment figure from your lender for information purposes if you have one.
• We will also obtain the Official Copy of Register Entries (your deeds where registered) from the Land Registry. 
• On receipt of the Official Copy of Register Entries or, where unregistered, the deeds we prepare a draft contract which is submitted to your buyer's solicitors.
• With the draft contract we send evidence that you own the property and details of any obligations, called covenants, such as “to maintain a common area with a neighbour”.
• The buyers’ solicitors will raise enquiries about the contract and your property. We will need to take your instructions to be able to answer the questions they raise - all matters affecting the property have to be disclosed.  We want to avoid your being liable for any mis-representation after the sale has been completed. Our seller’s Property Information Form is very comprehensive in the hope that this will prevent any being raised and speed up your transaction.
• We will then agree the terms of the contract.

Exchange of contracts

• Until contracts are exchanged, you or the buyer may withdraw without penalty.
• Contracts will be exchanged once you are ready to be committed to the sale and the buyer can be committed to the purchase.  Before they do so, the buyer will want to have completed their enquiries and arranged their mortgage or lined up their sale.
• We will ask you to sign the contract, which will authorise us to exchange contracts on your behalf. 
• The mere signing of the contract does not bind parties. The contract will become a binding contract once all parties are ready to proceed and a completion date is agreed and a formal exchange takes place between the parties’ solicitors.
• We will agree the completion date with you before we formally exchange.   When agreeing a completion date it is best to be as flexible and accommodating as possible as the whole of the chain will have to be in agreement with the chosen date.
• At exchange of contracts your buyer will be required to pay a deposit. This is normally 10% of the sale price, but this may be reduced.
• Neither side can withdraw from the transaction once contracts are exchanged without incurring substantial financial penalties.
• After exchange of contracts, the final documentation will have to be approved and agreed on your behalf.  If appropriate, we will obtain details of any person holding a mortgage over the property so that we can make sure they can be paid off on completion.

Completion

Where there is a chain, progress is dependant upon the actions of others and there are numerous circumstances which can make setting a time for completion difficult or even impossible to predict. 

It is usually between one and four weeks from the date of exchange, but is subject to negotiation and can take place a very short time after exchange of contracts or even on the day contracts are exchanged, if this is desired by both parties.

Where your buyer or a party in any chain requires a mortgage, a minimum of five to seven days are required to ensure adequate notice is given to request the mortgage advance.

On the day of completion you must give vacant possession of the property you are selling, which includes all belongings, people and rubbish that may have been at the property. Normally the contract provides that subject to receipt of funds from the buyer’s solicitors you should be able to vacate by 12.00 noon. If you are not buying another property we suggest wherever possible you try and vacate a day or so before to ensure there are no difficulties or unpredicted problems. 

We will make arrangements for completion to ensure that your move goes as smoothly as possible on the day.  On the day of completion, the day upon which you have to move out, we will:

• receive the money from the buyer's solicitors
• pass over the deeds
• pay off any mortgage(s) and arrange for their formal discharge
• Send documentation to the buyer's solicitors

You should ensure keys are deposited with the estate agents in time, so they can be released as soon as we receive the monies from the buyer’s solicitors. If there are no estate agents, you should make arrangements directly with the buyer for hand over of keys.

Finally, we will arrange to pay to you any funds due to you, after deduction of legal fees and disbursements.  We will pay any commission out of the net proceeds of sale to any estate agents.

Return to list of fact sheets.