Selling your house ...
Sale negotiated
If you would like us to recommend a good local
Estate Agent we can usually do so. Contact us as soon as you have a buyer.
We will need to obtain your
deeds, so please let us have your mortgage account number and lender's details.
If you do not have a mortgage, please let us know where your deeds are.
Draft Contract sent out
We have to prepare a draft of the
Contract (the legal agreement to sell) from the deeds and send this out to the
buyer's lawyers, together with copies of the most relevant deeds. If your
property is leased, we shall need to have copies of your last rent / service
charge receipts.
We will also let you have the
Property Information Form and Fixtures and Fittings List to complete for your
buyer. These are fairly standard forms, but you must remember that your replies
can be relied upon by the buyer as part of the contract.
You should bear in mind that
there is no legally binding agreement between you and your buyer until
contracts are exchanged. Please advise us in writing if any of the terms of the
contract change during the course of the transaction (the price, what is
included in the sale, etc.)
Searches and surveys
Your buyer will usually want to
have a survey. If there seems to be any delay in organising the survey then
please talk to your buyer to establish whether they have hit a problem or delay
at this stage. Whether or not your buyer is having a mortgage, they will usually
want to carry out a 'Local Search' with the Council and perhaps a mining report,
environmental search and water services report. The results of these can take up
to three weeks to come back. You will probably find things may go a little quiet
at this stage, while the buyer awaits searches and mortgage offer. Please do not
hesitate to contact us or your Estate Agent (if you have one) for a progress
report as necessary.
Signing your Contract
The buyers lawyer will approve
our draft Contract when they are ready to proceed. This is the time to discuss
when Completion of their purchase should take place. The Completion Date we
agree on will be made part of the legally binding agreement and you should be
sure that any date agreed gives you time to empty the property and arrange
somewhere else to live. Please avoid discussing completion dates until everyone
is almost ready to proceed, as this is one of the main causes of anxiety if any
unforeseen problem arises.
We shall ask you to sign your
contract at this stage so that we can make the agreement legally binding (called
'Exchanging Contracts') as soon as we hear the buyers can go ahead.
Exchange of Contracts
The buyer's lawyers will pay us a
deposit as part of the Contract. We cannot part with this until the sale is
completed, but as a result both you and your buyer are then committed to go
ahead. Neither of you can then pull out without serious legal and financial
consequences.
Pre-Completion
You should talk to your buyer to
make arrangements for you moving out and the buyer moving in on the Completion
Date. You have to make a key available (either direct or through the Estate
Agent) for them to collect by no later than lunchtime on the Completion Day. We
shall contact you before this day to get the final deeds signed. We shall get a
redemption figure from your lender (if you have one) and tell you how much we
will need to pay them. You should keep paying your mortgage and not cancel any
direct debit until we have completed the sale. We also obtain the Estate Agent's
account for you.
Completion and after
You will not need to see us on
the Completion Day, but please let us know if there are any problems. Even if
the buyer is not moving in until after Completion, you are obliged to be out of
the property and hand any keys over when they have paid us the sale money.
We shall account to you for any money due to
you after repayment of any mortgages, our fees and the Estate Agent's charges.
If you prefer, we can send this direct to your bank account for a small extra
charge.
For more information about moving house, or to
request a free written quotation of our charges, please contact us by
e-mail .
