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Selling your property

Just deciding to sell your home can be a very stressful time. Once you have decided to take that step you need to consider whether it is a buyer's market or seller's market. If properties are selling quickly you will need to find somewhere to either buy or move to straightaway.

Going with an Estate Agent

The majority of people put their property on the market with an estate agent. It is important to consider not only the reputation and strength of the estate agent in the local market but also what their charges and the terms of the contract you will be required to sign. You will need to consider whether or not this ties you in to an extended period and to ensure that they are operating a "no sale, no fee" arrangement so that you do not have to pay any fees if they are unable to sell your house. Find out from them if the cost of advertising your property is included in the price or is there an additional sum to pay.

Make sure that the estate agent does not tie you in to using their own solicitors. They are probably being paid to pass the work to their preferred solicitor. This will unnecessarily increase the cost of doing the legal work. You should be advised by both the estate agent and the lawyer if a referral fee is being paid.

Home Information Packs

If you are to market the property on the open market with or without an Estate Agent, you must obtain a Home Information Pack ("HIP") containing the following :

• Index
• Sales Statement
• Official registered entries and filed plan
• Local Search
• Drainage Search
• Energy Performance Certificate

If you use an Estate Agent, your Agent will either advise that that Agent can supply a HIP, or if you prefer to have an independent HIP, the Agent will require confirmation that the HIP has been ordered.

Instructing a Conveyancing Solicitor

Make sure that you have a full and detailed quote with no hidden charges. Find out from your solicitor before agreeing to instruct them whether or not they propose to charge you if the sale falls through. Many solicitors tend to keep their initial quote low but "add on extras" to the unsuspective. Examples of these are fees to arrange for indemnity insurance to avoid any problem regarding your title (whether there is one or not) or a separate fee to redeem your mortgage.

Once you have instructed a solicitor the solicitor will need to prepare a contract. To enable a solicitor to do this he will need:-

1. The Title Deeds for the property
2. Information from the Land Registry
3. Full details of your existing mortgage
4. Details of fixtures and fittings
5. Copies of any planning permission relating to any works undertaken
6. A seller's property information form completed by you

When the contract papers have been sent to the buyer's solicitors they will need to do searches on the property which take approximately 1-2 weeks to obtain. The buyer's solicitor may also ask various questions relating to the property which will need to be answered by you to the best of your knowledge.

The buyer will also at this time be ensuring that the finance is available to buy the property and also instruct a surveyor to carry out an inspection of your property on behalf of the buyer.

Subject to everything being in order your solicitor will ask you to sign a contract and when the Buyer has signed an identical contract these will be exchanged which is when a formal commitment for you to sell and the buyer to buy the property is made on the terms agreed. At this stage a completion date will be agreed which is the date that you will have to leave the property.

Completion will only formally take place when the sale proceeds have been received by the Sellers Solicitors on the Completion Day. At this point the property belongs to the buyer and the Title Deeds to the property will be passed over and any mortgage repaid out of the monies received, along with the estate agent's fees.

The balance of the money, sometimes referred to as the equity, will be sent to you unless this is being used to buy another property.

No legal fees will be charged if a matter aborts but responsibility for payments made to third parties will remain payable.

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Buying a property

Buying a property for most us is the largest investment you will ever make in your lifetime. It is important for a buyer to make sure, therefore, that the property is structurally sound and that you have made an offer that you are happy with.

Purchase price

When you have found a property that you want and carefully considered the price you are willing to pay, you will usually contact the estate agents and make them an offer for the property. If this is accepted you should contact your solicitor straightway as well as those who are arranging your mortgage.

Searches

The first step to be taken by your lawyer is to submit searches to various authorities and you will be required to pay for these before they are undertaken. Your solicitor will ask the seller's solicitor for the contract which will also contain the seller's property information form and Title Deeds.

Survey

Once your solicitor has had a chance to look through the documents, dealt with any issues and are in receipt of your mortgage offer they will contact you with a title report for the property and advise you at that stage if there are any issues. When you are happy, you will need to sign the contract, at which stage you will usually be asked for a 10% deposit of the purchase price.

Exchange contracts

At the time contracts are exchanged you will need to have decided on a date you want to move on and when contracts are exchanged you are then legally bound to purchase the property or at the very least you will lose your deposit.

Completion

Before the completion date your solicitors will need to obtain funds for the purchase from either yourself, a linked sale and/or your lender which will be transferred to the seller's solicitors on completion.

After completion your solicitors will need to pay the stamp duty on the property, register your ownership and any mortgage with the Land Registry and either forward the Deeds to you or your mortgage provider.

No legal fees will be charged if a matter aborts but responsibility for payments made to third parties will remain payable.

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Re-mortgaging a property

Re-mortgaging is now very common for a variety of reasons. Before re-mortgaging you should ensure that there will be no penalty charges payable to your existing mortgage company and that you are not tied into them.

Once you have agreed to remortgage your property, your solicitors will need to obtain the Title Deeds to the property and carry out any searches required by your new lender.

A surveyor may also be appointed to carry out a survey on your property depending upon the amount you propose to remortgage for.

When this has been done a mortgage offer should be received, at which stage a mortgage deed will need to be signed and a completion date decided upon. On completion, existing mortgages will need to be paid off by the new mortgage funds and various documents have to be filed with the Land Registry, to remove any previous mortgages that have been repaid and add on your new mortgage.

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