Are you selling a property? If so, take a look at our 6-step guide to selling a residential property in England and Wales.
Conveyancing process for sellers
Every conveyancing process is a little different. Generally, the following 6 steps must be carried out.
1. Instruct a conveyancing solicitor
When you accept an offer on your property, instruct a conveyancing solicitor straightaway. You do not have to choose a conveyancing solicitor in your local area – however, sometimes this can be advantageous. Rather you should select someone with the skill and expertise to handle your transaction. You might also want to find a conveyancing solicitor who offers a fixed fee (like we do), as this ensures you know how much the legal fees will be. Also, it is important to do your due diligence on your chosen firm as you will be working closely together for some time.
2. Fill in the relevant forms
At the beginning of the transaction, your solicitor will provide you with a client care pack to complete. This pack contains forms which your solicitor will need to ensure that they have all the relevant information to hand, for example, mortgage accounts numbers (if you have a mortgage to redeem), confirmation of the title numbers to your property (if known) and array of other information that your solicitor may need. This is also when your ID checks are completed, and your proof of address checks completed.
You will also receive a property information form (TA6), fixtures and fittings form (TA10), and for leasehold and share of freehold properties the leasehold information form (TA7) to complete. This is for the benefit of the buyer, and contains a lot of information about the property itself and the fixtures and contents you will be leaving or removing from the property. It is important that these are completed as honestly as possible and never be afraid of stating “not known” to any of the questions. Don’t worry though, if you do not understand certain aspects of the forms or have queries, these forms should be checked over by your solicitor.
3. Issuing Contracts
After such checks have been done, your solicitor will draw up the contract before sending an identical contract to the buyer’s solicitor, along with copies of the title deeds and your completed forms for them to review. A good bit of advice here is to note is that there will be a small gap where it may appear nothing is happening, but this is when the buyers solicitors will start all their checks based on the information your solicitor has provided to the buyers solicitors.
4. Answering enquires
After the buyer’s solicitor has reviewed the contracts that have been sent to them, and after they have carried out any necessary searches and surveys on the property, they may want to raise some enquiries. Your solicitor will aim to answer these enquiries as clearly, concisely and quickly as possible. At this stage the buyers solicitor will be provided a draft transfer for approval. Once this process is over, the contracts are signed, at which stage the buyer hands over the deposit to the solicitors. At Cooklaw Solicitors we will review all the paperwork you send in ourselves and will often pre-empt enquiries in a bid to speed the process up.
5. Exchanging contracts
The next step is the exchange of contracts. Before this happens however, as mentioned previously, the buyer will have to transfer the deposit to their solicitor’s bank account and sign the contract. When everything is in place, your solicitor and the buyer’s solicitor will formally exchange contracts. Often this occurs via telephone. At this point, neither side can withdraw from the transaction without losing money.
6. Completion of the sale
On completion day, the buyer’s solicitor transfers the outstanding funds to your solicitor. Once the money has been received, the keys can be released and any existing mortgage redeemed. At this point the buyers can move into their property and it is sold, any proceeds will then be sent to you. If you are part of a chain, all these payments will be made one after the other in the sequence.
Conveyancing solicitors
This is a brief overview of the conveyancing process for sellers. If you would like a professional to carry out all the work for you, please contact our conveyancing solicitors in Sunderland.
We offer a transparent, fixed fee service with no hidden charges. This means that you can budget effectively, and ensures there are no nasty surprises. This starts with a free quotation.
If you would like a free, no obligation discussion with us then please call us on 0191 567 7244 and we’ll be happy to help you.
If you would rather contact us online, you could email us on info@cooklaw.co.uk or complete our Free Online Enquiry and we will be in touch with you shortly.