Your 12-step Guide To A Simple House Purchase
Buying a new home can be a stressful time
Buying a new home can be a stressful time. However, this step-by-step guide will tell you what to expect at each stage of the process, helping you to be more prepared so that the transaction goes as smoothly as possible.
Step 1
Prior to placing an offer on a property you must check your finances and ensure that your mortgage offer covers the amount your are proposing to pay. You then go ahead and place an offer on the property and it is accepted by the other side.
Step 2
Your solicitor will request a home information pack and any other contractual information from the seller's solicitors. The seller will inform your solicitor of any fixtures or fittings that are to be left within the property and thus form part of the purchase price.
Step 3
Your conveyancing solicitors will proceed to complete all pre-contractual searches for the property, such as a Local Authority Search and Official Copies search at the Land Registry. These can take up to 3 weeks to be returned, any problems raised by these searches will then be reported back to you with solutions proposed by your solicitor. In the meanwhile, an independent survey of the property should also be conducted.
Step 4
A copy of your formal mortgage offer should be sent through from the bank/building society to your solicitors. The solicitor will then receive a draft copy of the contract of sale from the other side. Any prior negotiations on price in respect of fixtures, chattels and search results will be reflected in any changes made to this first draft of the contract.
Step 5
Your solicitor will show you the final version of the contract and ensure that you are happy with all the provisions. Once this is decided, a date for the exchange of contracts can be arranged; exchange is a process where the contract for the sale of the property is agreed upon and signed by your solicitor and the seller's solicitor.
Step 6
Insurance should be sought by you to cover the property between exchange and completion (as risk passes from the seller to the buyer upon exchange). Exchange of contracts will then take place between the two solicitors and the deposit money (which should be held by your solicitor on your behalf) is paid over to the seller. The contact is now legally binding and if you pull out of the sale you will more than likely loose the amount of the deposit.
Step 7
Both parties should agree upon a date for completion of the sale. Your conveyancing solicitors will request the remaining mortgage monies from your lender and hold these in the firm's client account ready for transfer. Whilst this is occurring your solicitor will draft the TR1 form (purchase deed) for the property and will send this across to the seller's solicitor for checking.
Step 8
At this point it is important for your solicitor to do some pre-completion searches and lodge a freeze on the official copies for the property. Your solicitor will also submit some requisitions on title to the seller's solicitor in order to confirm information such as; how and where you pick up the keys to the property. They will receive answers to these requisitions along with a completion statement from the seller's solicitor to indicate how much money is outstanding on the sale.
Step 9
Your solicitor will forward you a completion statement indicating how much money you owe before the sale can be completed. This financial statement will take into consideration any costs incurred by the solicitor (disbursements), the solicitor's fees, any deposit money paid, mortgage money received, stamp duty land tax owed and registration fee. You will then have a set period of time to pay the outstanding costs in order for completion to take place.
Step 10
Completion takes place between the solicitors and the keys are handed over. Your solicitor undertakes to send across the funds needed to complete the purchase and the seller's solicitor undertakes to discharge any outstanding mortgage owed on the property with the money received. This will prevent you from taking the property subject to a legal mortgage.
Step 11
The home is now yours. In order to legalise the purchase, your conveyancing solicitors will pay any SDLT owed and register the transfer with the Land Registry. The mortgage deed will be dated accordingly.
Step 12
Move in!
Whether you are buying a house or a leasehold flat, make sure that you appoint specialist conveyancing solicitors.
by: Tim Bishop
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