ORJ Solicitors - A Brief Guide to Moving House

We have all heard it said that moving house is up there in the top three most stressful experiences of your life. Although the reasons for moving are often positive, these reasons can often be forgotten and what should be an exciting new start can rapidly turn into a difficult and bewildering trial.

Remember that your conveyancer is there to help; not just with the technical legal work to ensure that you don’t acquire a property with a problem, but also to ensure that the transaction is as swift and smooth as possible, and to iron out any issues that arise during the course of it. It helps to know what happens during the transaction and set out below is a brief guide outlining the key steps:

Selling a residential property

1. Once a buyer is found and the price agreed, the estate agents will provide a sales memorandum to all the parties giving details of the transaction, i.e. buyers, sellers, their conveyancers, price and situation of the parties.
2. The estate agents will also provide an Energy Performance Certificate for your property that they probably commissioned on your behalf when the property was being marketed
3. Your solicitors will draw up the draft contract and ask you to complete several property information forms, which will all be sent to the buyers’ conveyancers together with any other relevant paperwork you have pertaining to your property, e.g. guarantees, planning permissions.
4. Your solicitors will ask you to provide details of your existing mortgage if you have one so that they can apply for any title deeds your lender might be holding and a note of the amount outstanding on your mortgage.
5. The buyers’ conveyancers may request further information and your solicitors should will liaise with you to deal with their queries.
6. Once the buyers are ready, a completion date will be negotiated. Your solicitors will ask you to sign the documentation in readiness for exchange of contracts, which is the point at which the deal becomes legally binding. Until exchange of contracts either party is free to withdraw from the transaction for any (or no) reason. Your solicitors can try and work towards a completion date, but cannot guarantee this will happen until contracts have been exchanged, nor can your solicitors be responsible if the buyer fails to complete in breach of contract
7. On the day of completion, you will move out if you have not already done so, the buyer’s conveyancers will send your solicitors the sale price, and ownership of the property passes to the buyer.
8. Out of the sale proceeds we will repay your mortgages (if you have any), legal costs and disbursements, and the estate agent’s bill. The net proceeds will either be sent to you or, if you have a related purchase, put towards that transaction.
9. On average, a transaction will take 6 weeks to complete from the date we receive the sales memorandum.  However, this cannot be guaranteed because your solicitors do not know how quickly the buyers' conveyancers will deal with maters or whether any complications will be encountered along the way.

Buying a residential property

1. As with a sale, the first step is to negotiate the price and then the estate agents will circulate details of the deal to all the parties involved.
2. Your solicitors will liaise with the seller’s conveyancers who will provide your solicitors with the draft contract and property information forms filled in by the seller.

3.    There are three main elements that your solicitors need to have in place before exchanging contracts:

a.    The searches – these will need to be applied for once your solicitors have received payment from you as set out in our initial letter to you.

b.    The finance – if you are having a mortgage, your solicitors will need to have the offer in their hands and check for any special conditions that need to be complied with. Please note that your lender will also require your solicitors to act for them and they may request more information than you want yourself

c.    The title – this will cover not only matters relating to ownership of the property but also general information such as boundaries, restrictive covenants, guarantees, planning. If necessary, further enquiries will be asked of the seller.

4. Once all these are in place, your solicitors will invite you to sign all the documentation and discuss completion dates. It is common practice now for exchange of contracts and completion to take place within a short space of time, and sometimes even on the same day. Your solicitors will provide you with a financial statement at the earliest opportunity to enable you to put your solicitors in funds to complete the purchase. Until exchange of contracts either party is free to withdraw from the transaction for any (or no) reason. Your solicitors can try and work towards a completion date, but cannot guarantee this will happen until contracts have been exchanged nor can your solicitors be responsible if the seller fails to complete in breach of contract
5. Once all the above has been dealt with the completion date is agreed and your solicitors have funds, contracts will be exchanged.
6. Your solicitors will apply to your lender for the mortgage advance and carry out the pre-completion searches and formalities to gear up for completion.
7. On the day of completion, your solicitors will send the purchase price to the seller’s conveyancers and the property becomes yours once they receive it.
8. Your solicitors will deal with submission of the stamp duty land tax return to HMRC, register your ownership (and any mortgage) at the Land Registry, and send you and your lender a copy of the title information document to conclude matters.

On average, a transaction will take 6 weeks to complete through ORJ from the date we receive the contract pack from the sellers' conveyancers. However, this cannot be guaranteed because we do not know how quickly the sellers' conveyancers will deal with any issues raised or whether any complications will be encountered along the way.

For any more information on the conveyancing process, or ORJ Solicitors, feel free to contact us on 01785 223440 or to view our website www.orj.co.uk/residential-conveyancing.php