Moving House
Moving home is always exciting. It is a huge financial and emotional investment but is described as one of the most stressful life events.
Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest deals most of us ever make. Without professional help the conveyancing process can be a legal minefield. Our specialist property team has bought and sold thousands of homes and moved thousands of people. We will make your move as hassle and stress free as possible; we want the process of moving to your new home to be a happy one.
Take the first step to moving into a new and happy home. Call a FIRSTPROPERTY team member. We can help.
We make sure that you avoid potential problems and we protect your interests at every stage, from making an offer to stepping over the threshold.
We work with you to meet your timescales. If you find yourself in a chain we will do whatever we can to drive the process forward on your behalf.
We pride ourselves on giving a knowledgeable, efficient and cost-effective service. We carry out the legal work swiftly, thoroughly and accurately and keep you in touch with progress throughout. We know from experience that communication is the key to a successful process.
In order to take the myth out of conveyancing please read the basic information provided.
Take the first step to moving into a new and happy home. Call a FIRSTPROPERTY team member. We can help.
Buying a home
What we need from you
To speed things along we will need a number of details and documents. These include:
- Some personal identification;
- The price of the property;
- A copy of the energy performance certificate (EPC) for the property if there is one;
- Any particular timescales
- How you are planning to pay for the property. We will also need to know whether:
- You have applied for a mortgage;
- You are buying with someone else;
- The seller is buying another property; and
- You have a property to sell.
In some cases we may need to have more information.
Energy performance certificates (EPC)
When the house or flat is put on the market the seller (or the estate agent selling it) must have arranged for someone to prepare an EPC unless one already exists.
Survey
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, and you will have to pay for it. This is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You should consider appointing your own surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a Home Buyers Report on the property. You need to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed you may wish to renegotiate the price.
Contacting the seller's solicitor
We will contact the seller's solicitor. They will prepare a draft contract. A list of the fittings and contents which will be included when you buy the property will be provided at this stage. You will need to check this list carefully.
Searches
We will make various searches, including enquiries of the Local Authority, flooding, mining and contaminated-land searches if necessary. These can help to reveal any planning issues affecting the property, road improvements and details of any planning permission granted on the property. These searches will only provide information about the property itself and not generally about any neighbouring properties. If any of these searches show matters of concern, we will let you know.
Leasehold properties
If the property is leasehold (particularly common when buying a flat), there will be detailed lease terms and conditions. We will check these carefully and will also make enquiries with the seller's solicitor or the managing agents of the property about what service charges and management costs you will have to pay.
Mortgage offer and terms
If you are taking out a mortgage to buy a property you will usually need a satisfactory offer of a mortgage before exchanging contracts. You should be sure that you can meet any conditions in the offer. You should read the offer letter and mortgage conditions very carefully. We will explain them to you.
Signing the contract
Once we are satisfied that we have all the information we need, we will report back to you on all the investigations we have made. 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% and 10% of the purchase price.
Exchanging contracts
This is the crucial moment of the agreement between you and the seller. Once this stage has taken place the sale is binding. We 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 land tax (if any). We will carry out some 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. We hand over the money to the seller and the keys are released to you. We will pay the Stamp Duty and Land Registry fees from the money we are holding on your behalf. We will register the interest of your mortgage lender and record you as the new legal owner of the property.
You are now the owners of your new home. We hope that you will have many happy and contented years living at the address which we have helped to move you into.
