 Purchasing a property can be a long and laborious task as there are many steps involved. First thing you need to do is find the property of your dreams and when you are ready for the conveyancing process to begin, you must ponder on whether to make use of your own solicitor, in which case you need to find one that is not only suitable but within your price range. The purchasing of a property can be complicated business, both in the legal and administrative sense and some take a number of detours along the journey but in general there are three main stages.
The stages of conveyancing
The first stage is before the contracts have been exchanged; draft versions of the contract are drawn up and sent out to the necessary parties following which negotiations begin. Various enquiries are made and hopefully, if all is well the buying party receives a formal offer of a mortgage, enabling them to purchase the property. The second stage includes the contract being signed and the handing over of the deposit, at this point accounts are going through their final checks and are being prepared, similarly the mortgage deed is provided for the buying party to sign and final searches are carried out.
The final stage is the blessed one, it is the point at which you collect the keys to your new property and take a hold of you title deeds, at this point a deep breath is taken as you realise just how close you are to owning you prized property. Following that the stamp duty is paid and arrangements to transfer the property over to your name is at the registry are made; finally the conveyancing is complete and you now own your new home.
Before the contracts are exchanged
If your offer to the sellers has been accepted then you need to exchange solicitors details, your lawyer should then contact their lawyer and a drawn up draft contract should be made available to the necessary parties. The draft contract houses a number of key pieces of information some as the details of the prices to be paid to the various recipients as well as other transaction information. Some of these could be the details relating to the deposits, how much needs to be paid and to whom should it be made payable?
Similarly at this point, both parties and their necessary affiliates should be made aware of the seller’s title deeds and any key features of it. With your instruction being key at this stage, your lawyer should be looking to negotiate a contract that best represents your interests (this is true of both parties)and finally a draft contract is drawn up for you to check.
Things that need checking
When the conveyancing stage reaches this point, lawyers should be considering a number of potential creases that need to be ironed out prior to the final draft of the contract being drawn up and signed. The first of which relates to disputes, are there any disputes regarding the property, namely with neighbours? Another subject could be relating to boundaries; are there any areas where the boundaries are uncertain, posing a potential hiccup in the future, if so where and can it be rectified now?
If the client is looking to purchase the property hoping to build an extension but there are planning restrictions, what are they, can they be negotiated? These are only some of the questions that a buyer’s lawyer needs to be asking. Similarly are there any guarantees on the property and its fixtures, such as the NHBC guarantee of woodrot or the woodrot treatment guarantee? It is vital that a list of exactly what will be included in the sale is written up so no disappointments are encountered at a later date.
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