Legals

What Happens now!

SELLER - Your solicitor will apply to your building society/lender for your property deeds. It may take several weeks for the lender to return these so you need to provide your solicitor with your mortgage account number as soon as possible as a delay may affect your sale.

Mortgage Valuation - A basic inspection carried out by the Mortgage Lender to ensure that the property you wish to buy is correctly priced and therefore suitable collateral for your mortgage loan. This is conducted by a Chartered Valuer or Surveyor on behalf of the Mortgage Lender.

Homebuyers Report - A more advanced inspection than a Mortgage Valuation, the Homebuyers Report looks in more depth at the condition and structure of the property you are looking to purchase, and checks for key risks such as damage by flood or subsidence, whether or not the building is in good condition etc. Again, this is carried out by a Chartered Surveyor.

Full Structural Survey - This is the most thorough form of check on a property, and you can expect to receive a full and in-depth report from your Surveyor which will detail everything including the state of the roof and all external walls, the state of the internal structure and all the component parts of the property. This sort of survey is very valuable for those people who are looking to buy an older property which requires modernisation or renovation.

Once the deeds are to hand, your solicitor will be able to send a draft contract and Land Registry plan to your buyer's solicitor (your buyer's solicitor cannot apply for the search until he receives this).

You must complete and return any forms sent to you by your solicitor regarding fixtures and fittings etc as soon as possible so that he can provide the buyer's solicitor with answers to any queries that may have been raised.

Once the draft contract has been agreed by both sides, you can then start thinking about an exchange of contracts. This is when your sale becomes legally binding and your purchaser will pay over his deposit to his solicitor - usually 10% but quite often 5% is now accepted. You will also at this time have agreed a completion date - the day you actually move out.

If you have a related purchase, you will have to provide cleared funds (a personal cheque will delay an exchange of contracts) for the deposit on your new home (unless your solicitor intends to use your buyer's deposit).

Your solicitor should also advise you to put into place buildings insurance on your new home.

You should let Kings have a set of keys prior to completion. These will not be released until we hear from your solicitor that he has received the completion monies from your buyer's solicitor.

BUYER - You should approach your lender as quickly as possible and provide them with the necessary fee to enable a valuation to be carried out on the property. Your lender will not instruct the valuer until you have paid this fee.

The speed with which the valuation is carried out will also depend on the surveyor's diary!

Your solicitor will ask you to provide him with a cheque for the search fee. He will not instigate this until he receives your cheque! Local searches usually take two or three weeks but you can authorise your solicitor to do an 'expedited' search which will cost you a little more but will be returned within forty-eight hours.

Once your solicitor has agreed the draft contract and sent you the completed property questionnaire and fixtures and fittings form, you will be in a position to exchange contracts.

You will be expected to provide your solicitor with a deposit - usually up to 10% of the purchase price. You must provide 'cleared' funds or this will delay contracts being exchanged. Your solicitor should also advise you to insure the property from exchange of contracts.

Completion date is the day you pay over the balance of the monies and take possession of the property. You should be aware that keys will not be released until we hear from the sellers solicitors that they have received the funds.

Welcome to your new home!

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