Guide to buying your home

• Once you have confirmed you wish us to represent you we will open a file and send out initial papers to you. We will need you to accept  our Terms of Business, let us have evidence of your ID, a payment on account and evidence of your funding. Once we have all of these to hand we will request a contract pack from the Sellers Solicitors.

• Upon receipt of the Contract pack from the seller’s solicitors we will raise enquiries with the solicitors based on the information provided. We will also let you have a report on our findings on the property to date and let you have the Contract and other supporting papers for your signature. Please do not worry about signing so early, it doesn’t commit you to the purchase which comes later when we ask for your authority to exchange contracts.

• We will also submit searches to the local authority and other relevant bodies which would reveal any matters affecting the property. Once the search results are with us we will let you have a further report detailing our findings, advice and any further steps which are needed.

• In the meantime you will make your mortgage application (if applicable). Once we receive the mortgage offer we will advise you of any special conditions which affect the offer and any further steps you may need to take. At this time we will also let you have the Mortgage Deed for you to sign in readiness.

• Once the Sellers Solicitors reply to our enquiries satisfactorily we will prepare our final report to you detailing our findings together  with any final documentation for you to sign. If you would prefer to call in to discuss the documentation an appointment may be arranged with the person handling your case.

• At this stage we will prepare a completion statement showing all financial aspects of the transaction and request a deposit from you to enable us to exchange Contracts at this stage we may need further or updated supporting documentation in relation to your deposit monies.

• You are now in a position to discuss completion dates which is either via ourselves, your estate agent or between yourself and the Seller directly. Once this is agreed and the Sellers Solicitors are ready to exchange contracts we would speak with you and obtain your  authority to exchange contracts. Once that happens the transaction is legally binding upon both parties and the completion date is fixed.

• We will then request the monies to be received from your mortgage lender in time for completion, this is usually the working day before completion to avoid any issues and ensure we are ready to complete for you as early on the day of completion as possible. We will also carry out the final pre completion HMLR searches.

• On completion, we will transfer the purchase monies to your seller’s solicitors and let you know once we are informed they have received them. Once that has happened the property is legally yours and you will be able to collect your keys from either the estate agent or the seller directly, depending upon the arrangements you have made.

• We will then carry out the notification to HMRC of your purchase and pay any stamp duty due. We will also settle our own fees and arrange to register you as the new owner of the property at the Land Registry. If the property is Leasehold we will also advise your new Landlord of your purchase and deal with any other post completion formalities they may have. Finally, we will let you have a copy of  the title to your new home once HM Land Register have updated it and it shows you as the new registered owner.