Step by step guide

1The Estate Agents will forward details of your proposed purchase both to us and to the sellers legal representative.
2On receipt of those details we will notify you and ask you to let us have a preliminary deposit of £450 to enable me to carry out the local, water and environmental searches.

3The sellers legal representatives have to obtain the sellers up to date title register and plan and receive formal instructions from the sellers so that they can prepare a contract to send to us. They will also get the seller to fill in certain forms known as Protocol Forms which will include a list of fixtures and fittings.  These will be sent to us with the contract.


4Once the sellers legal representatives have up to date title register and plan they will prepare and send to us a contract with supporting documentation and any supporting documents relating to the property.


5Whilst we await the draft contract and supporting papers from the sellers legal representative you should put in hand your survey and organise your mortgage (if you have not already done so).


6This part of the transaction can take between 3-4 weeks so you will probably not hear anything from us but rest assured as soon as we hear anything we will let you know.


7When we receive the contract and the results of your searches we will satisfy ourselves that we are happy with the legal position and raise any additional enquiries about the property and information provided.


8On receipt of your mortgage offer we will then contact you and send you the contract and supporting documentation together with a written report on the property. You should read through all the documentation and the Report and if you have any queries whatsoever please raise them with us at the earliest opportunity so we can endeavour to clarify the position.


9At this time you should let me have your deposit which is usually 10% of the purchase price. If you are paying a lesser amount please let us know how much you will have available for your deposit. The deposit (which in accordance with Council of Licensed Conveyancers and Law Society rules) must be “cleared funds”. This means the deposit should be in the form of a direct bank transfer.


10When we receive your signed contract and deposit we will ask you to tell us the date on which you want to complete your purchase (i.e. the date you move into the property).


11We will then proceed to exchange of contracts and agree the completion date with the sellers legal representative. We will telephone you before exchanging contracts to check with you that you still wish to proceed as this is “the point of no return” i.e. once you are exchanged you will have to go ahead with your purchase so you cannot change your mind or the date of completion.


12ONLY when exchange of contracts has taken place can you safely proceed to make all your removal arrangements and to advise all the service providers, i.e. the gas, electricity, council, water board, etc that you will be moving in on the completion date so that they can amend their records. YOU MUST ALSO ENSURE THAT YOUR BUILDINGS INSURANCE IS IN PLACE FROM EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS if you are responsible for insuring the property.


13After exchange of contracts we will proceed with all the post exchange preparations such as searches which are required to be carried out at the Land Registry and Land Charges offices and requesting your mortgage monies. We will also prepare a Completion Statement showing how all the monies in the transaction are to be expended and showing the balance we will require from you in order to conclude matters on completion.


14On the completion day we will send the balance of your purchase monies to the sellers legal representative and, all being well, these should be received by about 1 pm on that date. When the sellers legal representative have received the monies they will telephone the Estate Agent and authorise the release of the keys to the property to you and you can then move in to your new home. We would therefore recommend that on the date of completion you telephone the agents to find out when you can collect the keys.


15After completion we will attend to all the legal formalities of registering you as the new owner of the property and when all those formalities are complied with we will forward your title deeds to your mortgage company who will retain them for the duration of your loan with them.