Sale Guide

Congratulations you have sold your home, so what’s next?

1. Initial Steps

As your appointed Solicitors, we will send you a client care letter and terms of business.  You should sign and return this to us promptly so that we can start working on your behalf.

We shall ask you to come and see us with proof of your identity this is in order to comply with Anti-Money Laundering Regulations.  If you reside abroad or are unable to see us, we shall ask you to verify your identity with a firm of Solicitors local to you.

We shall obtain your Title Deeds from either yourself or your Mortgage Lender if there is a legal charge secured against your property.

We shall send you the Property Information Form and Fittings and Contents Form to complete and return.  If you are selling a Leasehold property, we will also send you a Leasehold Information Form to complete. These forms should be completed as fully as possible.  We will of course assist you with any queries you may have when completing the forms. You must also let us have copies all relevant documents referred to in the form. Sellers are required to disclose all pertinent information about the property that could influence a prospective purchaser’s decision.  Providing misleading information or failing to disclose relevant information could result in legal action against you (if discovered (completion) or if this is discovered prior to exchange this could cause a buyer to withdraw from the transaction or could cause further negotiations. 

If you are also purchasing a property, you will need to inform us at the outset so that we can tie in the sale and purchase.

Remember to let your estate agent know that we are instructed so that they can send a memorandum of sale to all the parties.

2. Next Steps

We prepare a draft Contract and supporting documentation and send the same to the Buyers Solicitors for their review.

The Buyers are entitled to raise pre-contract enquiries.  We review their questions with you and then we reply to their enquiries.

If the property that you are selling is Leasehold, we will send a standard management questionnaire to your Landlord/Managing Agents and send the same to the Buyers Solicitors once the replies are received from the Landlord/Managing Agent.  The Buyer is entitled to rely on any information that is supplied on your behalf. 

It is imperative that the information you supply is accurate and that you make a full disclosure of any relevant facts about your property.

You should provide us with details of any loans or mortgages secured against your property as these will need to be repaid on completion of the sale.  Your lender will provide us with a redemption statement detailing the amount required to repay your mortgage.

The Buyers will approve the Contract provided by us.  Once we have received it, we shall review it and prepare a clean copy of the Contract for you to sign.

3. Signing the Contract

Once the contract is in an approved form a clean copy will be provided to the Buyer’s solicitor and at the same time we will arrange for you to sign the Contract.  You will also be required to sign the Transfer Deed in readiness for completion.

4. Exchange of Contracts

Once the Buyer and their solicitor have completed their enquiries and searches and all parties have agreed to a completion date, exchange can take place.

Once Contracts are exchanged, you are legally bound to sell and your Buyer is legally bound to buy.  If either of you decided to pull out the other party would be entitled to bring a claim against the other for Breach of Contract and claim compensation for losses arising.

5. Completion

Once we have received the sale proceeds, we shall contact both you and the Buyer‘s Solicitors to confirm completion.  You must vacate the property at a time to be agreed and hand over the keys to the Buyer. The keys are usually left with the Estate Agents on the completion day for them to release to the Buyer once we have confirmed completion has taken place and monies have been received.

We shall pay off your mortgage and any other expenses for example estate agents fees.  We shall then account to you with the net proceeds of sale, unless you have a related purchase which is completing on the same day in which case the funds will be used on your onward purchase. 

We shall send your signed Transfer Deed and the Title deeds to the Buyer’s Solicitors.