Property Guides

Buying:

  1. General Buying Tips
  2. The Buying Process
  3. Getting a Survey
  4. Conveyancing
  5. The Legal Stages
  6. Completion & Moving
  7. First Time Buyers

Selling:

  1. General Selling Tips
  2. Moving Check-List

Renting:

  1. General Renting Tips
  2. Your Responsibilities

Letting:

  1. General Landlord Tips
  2. Tenants & Property
  3. Buying to Let

Overseas:

  1. Country Guides

Investment Property

  1. Investment Property 1
  2. Investment Property 2
  3. Investment Property 3
  4. Choices Acquisitions
  5. Free Tutorial

The Legal Stages of Buying Property

England and Wales:

  1. Stage 1 - Sale agreed
  2. Stage 2 - Exchange of contracts
  3. Stage 3 - Completion

Scotland:

  1. Stage 1 - Before an offer
  2. Stage 2 - Making an offer
  3. Stage 3 - Concluding an offer

England and Wales

This section explains the legal process involved in buying a property in England and Wales. It explains the role of both the buyers and sellers conveyancer (solicitor) in the process.

Stage 1 - Sale Agreed

Seller's Conveyancer:

  1. Obtains your title deeds and asks you to fill in a detailed questionnaire
  2. Prepares and sends out a package of legal information and a contract for sale
  3. Requests a settlement figure for your mortgage and any other secured loans
  4. Liases with all relevant parties and negotiates a date for moving ('completion')

Buyer's Conveyancer:

  1. Organises searches at the local authority on your behalf and asks you for a sum on account of such expenses
  2. Receives replies to questions raised and reports to you with the contract for signing. Requests your deposit
  3. Receives mortgage offer and deals with all the conditions on your behalf
  4. Receives search results and deals with any problems revealed

Stage 2 - Exchange of Contracts

Seller's Conveyancer:

  1. Receives the deposit as a down payment
  2. Organises final accounts and prepares a final settlement for your approval. Collects in any balance of funds required
  3. Approves the deed of transfer and arranges for you to sign it

Buyer's Conveyancer:

  1. Hands over the deposit to the seller's conveyancers
  2. Prepares a final completion statement for your approval. Collects in any balance of funds required
  3. Prepares the deed of transfer and mortgage deed and arranges for you to sign them.
  4. Organises final searches to check for debts and bankruptcy

State 3 - Completion

Seller's Conveyancer:

  1. Pays off the mortgage and notifies HM Land Registry
  2. Hands over the deeds and sends balance of money to you

Buyer's Conveyancer:

  1. Receives and arranges for payment of any stamp duty to the HM Revenue & Customs
  2. Prepares and sends off application to HM Land Registry to register your ownership
  3. If the property is mortgaged, sends deeds to the lender

Scotland

Sellers in Scotland may have an estate agent or developer market the property and a solicitor to effect the transaction. To make matters simpler, sometimes the agent is also the solicitor. Where we have used the term solicitor below, this can in some cases also mean the agent.

Stage 1 - Before an offer

Seller's Solicitor:

  1. Obtains title deeds from the bank or building society whose loan the house is secured on
  2. Requests a settlement figure for your mortgage and any other secured loans
  3. Receives and processes any formal notifications of interest and passes relevant details on to you

Buyer's Solicitor:

  1. Contacts the seller's agent notifying your interest in the property. They may try to obtain an assurance that the property will not be sold once you have put in an offer
  2. Confirms you have a loan in place sufficient to cover the expected offer
  3. Arranges survey for you if necessary and reports contents back to you

Stage 2 - Making an offer

Seller's Solicitor:

  1. Receives formal legal offers from the agent marketing the property, summarises them and asks you what you want to do
  2. Confirms with you that the contents of any offers are acceptable. He recommends changes to offers where necessary and forwards alterations to the buyer's solicitor in writing. This process may be repeated a number of times

Buyer's Solicitor:

  1. Writes an official letter, with the details of your offer and any conditions you have attached, for example a time limit. Submits it to the agent marketing the property.
  2. Receives written confirmation from the seller's solicitor as to the acceptance or not of your offer. Acts on your instructions as to accepting any of the alterations proposed and returns a letter to the buyer's solicitor. This process may be repeated a number of times.

Stage 3 - Concluding an offer:

Sellers Solicitor:

  1. Seller will have accepted one offer and instructs their solicitor to complete the missives. Once all parties are agreed on the final terms of the offer, including any amendments, a final letter concluding the purchase is sent to the buyer's solicitor. This is called concluding missives, and is legally binding.
  2. Receives full payment for the property on the agreed date of entry from the buyer's solicitor.
  3. Passes over title deeds and any other relevant paperwork to the buyer's solicitor
  4. Repays mortgage/secured loans (if applicable)

Buyer's Solicitor:

  1. Acknowledges conclusion of the offer (Missives)
  2. Performs any necessary searches with relation to the property for sale
  3. Prepares and sends off application to HM Land Registry to register your ownership
  4. If property is mortgaged, sends the title deeds to the building society or bank
  5. On the agreed date of entry, receives and arranges for payment for the property to be sent to the seller's solicitor and any stamp duty to the HM Revenue & Customs.