Residential Conveyancing Archives - Bartletts Solicitors

How Do I Buy A Property At Auction?

Buying a property at auction is becoming increasingly popular because of the shortage of homes for sale on the open market combined with the far faster completion process that auction property offers.

Making A Bid On Property At Auction

Before You Make A Bid

Before you place a bid on property for sale at auction, make sure you research the property in advance first. Enlist a solicitor to review the sale pack before the date of the auction – this should contain the property’s title deeds and recent searches.

It’s vital you understand the property you’re potentially going to buy at auction.

Although being thorough means spending money on a house you might not buy, you will know which questions to ask at the start of the auction before the bidding starts, as your solicitor will give you a report highlighting any areas of concern.

You should also arrange a suitable survey so that you are aware of any defects in the dwelling/building and the costs of rectifying them.

Your Bid Is Accepted

If your bid is accepted, you are legally committed to making the purchase.

The contracts are exchanged at the auction and a completion date is set, often 28 days after the auction day.

You cannot raise any queries after the sale is agreed and contracts exchanged – this is why it’s worth the cost of a solicitor prior to the auction date, to ensure you don’t receive any unexpected news or costs related to the property at a later date.

Your solicitor will then deal with the completion process, transferring legal ownership of the property to you and making arrangements for any stamp duty to be paid to the H M Revenue and Customs.

Paying For Property At Auction

You will have to pay a 10% deposit on the day of the auction, if your bid is successful, so it’s vital to ensure you have the necessary funds cleared in your bank account before the auction date.

Furthermore, as you’re legally committed to buy the property if your bid is accepted and completion is far quicker than for a standard home purchase, you must have sorted funding in advance. There will be no time to sort a normal mortgage between the auction and completion dates.

Is It A Good Idea To Sell Your Property At Auction?

The advantages of selling your property at auction include a fast turnaround time – if you need to sell the property quickly for whatever reason, an auction sale will offer a far faster completion time than a normal house sale.

The downside to selling at auction is that you could end up accepting a lower offer than you might have done if you sold the property on the open market.

How We Can Help You With Your Auction Property Purchase

Our solicitors have the specialist legal knowledge and experience of helping clients to buy and sell property at auction – and are here to help you if you’d like to find out more about the process or to instruct a solicitor to review a sale pack.

To speak to us about buying or selling property at auction, please contact us on 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk

Alternatively, you can Make An Online Enquiry and one of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

How Long Does It Take To Sell A House?

Selling a house is often an exciting time and almost always a stressful period, and the process depends on numerous factors which can slow down or speed up the transaction.

Bartletts Solicitors Residential conveyancing Chester In terms of how long it will take you to sell your house, it is difficult to say with certainty as every conveyancing transaction is different. As a guide though, the average time for the process of house selling, from the acceptance of an offer through to completion, is 6-15 weeks.

How Can You Speed Up Selling Your House?

Selling a house is an individual experience and every sale goes through at a different speed, depending on factors such as whether the buyers are cash buyers or in a chain.

However, an effective way to speed up the overall process is to start early – find a solicitor as soon as you decide you want to sell your house. By doing so, you’ll be able to complete all the necessary paperwork before you accept an offer, rather than delaying the process by doing the paperwork afterwards.

When it comes to finding a professional conveyancing solicitor, it’s a good idea to phone for a quote. You’ll be able to ask questions and understand what the service will be like as well as what the quote includes – more so than finding quotes online.

There is a lot of paperwork involved with selling a house, and Bartletts Solicitors are always happy to help, going though the paperwork with you in person or over the phone, whichever is easiest for you.

Once you’ve chosen your solicitor and completed your paperwork, let your estate agent know which solicitor you’ve instructed. This enables them to communicate effectively with the relevant parties on the sales particulars and improve the conveyancing process.

The Conveyancing Process

After you’ve completed and returned the sellers property information form, fittings and contents form and leasehold information form (for leasehold properties), your solicitor sends out a contract package to your buyer’s solicitor. This provides your buyer’s soliciotrs with the opportunity to check all the details and make sure they’re happy with the terms of the contract, title to the Property, information provided in the transactions forms, results of their searches and the terms of buyers mortgage offer. Your solicitor liaises between your buyer’s solicitor and you, addressing any enquiries they have and responding to their solicitors accordingly. Your buyer’s solicitor then reports to the buyer, have the documents signed and arrange funds for the deposit.

Exchange

The exchange of contracts between your solicitor and your buyer’s solicitor makes the purchase legally binding. After this point, changing your mind about selling or buying the property comes with financial fines. A completion date is set.

Completion

The conveyancing process is finalised at completion – when the funds are transferred from your buyer’s solicitor and once received, your keys are handed over.

This is usually done by midday on the day of completion, so it’s a good idea to have vacated your house by then.

How We Can Help You With Your House Sale

Our specialist conveyancing solicitors are here to help if you’re selling your house. We can provide advice and act on your behalf as your solicitor to ensure the process is as straightforward and efficient as possible.

To speak to us about selling your house or to instruct one of our solicitors to act on your behalf, please contact us on 0800 988 3674 or 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk

Alternatively, you can Make An Online Enquiry and one of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

What Is Involved When I Buy A Property Off-Plan?

Guide To Buying A Home Off-Plan

Buying a property off plan with Bartletts Solicitors Brand new homes are appealing and buying a newbuild off-plan can be an exciting way to purchase a forever home or investment property or second home. More and more of us are choosing to buy off-plan – and often, choosing to buy before it has even been built and therefore without seeing the completed property.

It’s important that, whatever your reason for buying off-plan, you consider all the factors and potential risks first.

What Is Buying Off-Plan?

Buying off-plan is when you buy a property you haven’t seen, normally before it has been built.

Sometimes, the developer of the off-plan homes will have finished some of the properties in the scheme, including a show home which you can view to give you a better idea of what your house will be like when completed.

However, there are times when your new home only exists on paper, in the plans, and the completion date will be set for a time far in the future.

Pros Of Buying Off-Plan

Buying off-plan is a popular way to buy property as it can be a cheaper option. Purchasing in this way means the price is fixed and cannot rise – depending on what the market does, this can save you a lot of money.

When you commit to buy off-plan, you pay the price of the property’s value at the time of committing and not at the time of completion. If the market rises greatly during the time it takes to build your house, you will save as your price will reflect the lower value from when you agreed to buy.

However, the opposite is true and if property prices fall in the time between committing to buy and completion, you can pay over the odds for your house. To offset this risk if the market isn’t rising, developers will often offer a discount on the final price.

As a guide, the main benefits of buying off-plan include:

You have more control over the finish of the property than you do with a traditional property purchase given your house is likely to still be in the build phase or yet to be built phase when you exchange. Normally, with off-plan you can choose how the house will look in terms of décor and fixings.
New builds are often created in interesting locations and sometimes with a theme, such as for retirees or for second homeowners, which helps to forge a sense of community.
The nature of the house buy means the process is normally chain free.
The property itself is usually built to a high standard and with good levels of energy efficiency, which should mean it’s cost efficient to live in.

Cons Of Buying Off-Plan

As a guide, the main disadvantages of buying off-plan include:

Lack of certainty over what you’re buying. If you’ve only seen plans and marketing brochures, there is a risk that the house that is built for you doesn’t live up to your expectations.
Not all housing development schemes are completed due to developers going bust or funding shortfalls.
A landscape change depending on the size of development your newbuild is part of. It may be that the number of off-plan homes built means the look of the area changes or you experience ongoing construction noises after moving in, while other houses are built.
The gap between exchange and completion is longer than for a traditional property purchase and can take months or years to complete. This can cause difficulties for funding the build or securing a mortgage.

How To Reduce Your Risks Of Buying Off-Plan

There are steps you can take to minimise your risks of buying off-plan – and these include the following:

Make sure your chosen developer has a good track-record and you can trust them to complete the property scheme to a high standard.
Find the right solicitor for legal protection – your solicitor will draft a contract that details exactly what the developer must deliver and outlines your expectations and what happens if these aren’t met. This includes having an end date for completion that means if the property isn’t built by this date, you can cancel the agreement and get your deposit back.
Get insurance to cover you for any time delays or shortfalls with the build.
Keep your property build deposit to under 10% if you can.
Consider having alternative funds in place if needed. Most mortgages only last six months and the gap between exchange and completion could be longer than this, which could potentially mean having to reapply to your bank and experiencing a shortfall in advanced funds if the property is valued at a lower price than originally.
Plan ahead and speak to a financial adviser if you need a mortgage. There are some specialist mortgages available for off-plan properties.

How We Can Help You With Buying Off-Plan

Our residential conveyancing team has experience of handling all types of property purchases, including buying a home off-plan. We fully understand the process involved and the factors to consider with each purchase type, and will ensure you have the legal protection and reassurance in place if you decide to go ahead with your off-plan purchase.

As well as checking the planning permission on your house build to ensure it complies with all plans, your conveyancing solicitor will also make sure there are no issues with the wider development and that you have the necessary access and services built-in as part of the build and not as an extra cost.

Your solicitor will ensure the contract is legally watertight and provides the guarantees you need to make buying off-plan as stress-free and straightforward as possible.

To speak to one of our specialist solicitors about buying a property off-plan, please contact us on 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk

Alternatively, you can Make An Online Enquiry and one of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

Should I Buy A Property Together As Joint Tenants Or Tenants In Common?

Buying a property together as a couple is an exciting time – but should you make the purchase as Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common?

Bartletts Solicitors Residential conveyancing Chester Couples can choose how to buy their home, and the option that’s right for you depends on how you want the equity to be held for the future.

Joint Tenants

With a joint tenancy, both you and your partner own the property and have no specific shares and have equal rights to the whole of it. This is regardless of the equity share you each put into buying the property originally.

If a co-owner dies, their share automatically passes to the surviving co-owner, known as the Right of Survivorship.

This is the most straightforward option and is often chosen by married couples, as it avoids probate and inheritance tax issues by automatically passing the deceased co-owner’s share to the surviving one.

Tenants In Common

Owning property together as Tenants in Common means each of you own a specified share in the property. You can choose to set the ownership split from the start or to detail it according to the financial contributions you make during your ownership of the property.

You can own different shares in the property and can use a Declaration of Trust to state any financial details or write this within your Will.

When one of you dies, the surviving owner cannot sell the property without the appointment of a further co-trustee. The deceased’s share of the property does not automatically go to the other owner and will pass according to their Will or the rules of intestacy.

This option enables couples who are paying an unequal amount towards the purchase price to safeguard their bigger share, and lets unmarried couples pass their share of the property to their children in the future.

Which Ownership Option Is Right For You?

If you’re unsure whether owning your property as Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common is best for you, make sure you’re honest with your partner about your wishes for the future. It’s a good idea to seek independent legal advice before purchasing the property, too, if your contributions are unequal or you want to be able to pass your share of the property onto someone else when you die.

You can change how you own your property at a later date, if your circumstances change. You might want to switch from having a joint tenancy to being Tenants in Common if you divorce or separate and decide to leave your share to someone else. Or you might wish to change from the Tenants in Common option to Joint Tenants if you get married and want equal rights to the whole property.

Helping You With Your Property Purchase

Our conveyancing solicitors are here to help you with every aspect of your property purchase – including choosing the right ownership option for you.

Depending on your personal situation and wishes for the future, we will help you buy your property in the right way. We can also help with the additional drafting of specific details in your Will or with the drawing up of a Declaration of Trust, if needed.

With our help, you can buy your property in the best possible way, providing you with the financial reassurance and peace of mind that your loved ones will be looked after in the future.

To speak to one of our solicitors about property ownership options or any other aspect of conveyancing, please contact Bartletts Solicitors today on Freephone 0800 833288, or 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk or Khalid.mahmood@bartlettslaw.co.uk

Alternatively, you can Make An Online Enquiry and one of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

How Can I Change The Name On My Property Deeds?

There are many different scenarios when it might be necessary to change the name or names on your Bartletts Solicitors in Chester guides you through Changing the name on the deeds of my property property title deeds – fortunately, this is usually a straightforward process provided it is done correctly.

Reasons For A Name Change On Property Deeds

As a guide, you might need to change the name on your property deeds in the following situations:

Marriage – if you marry and change your name to that of your partner’s, you can arrange for your name change to be amended at Land Registry by showing your marriage certificate to your conveyancer to start the process.
Inheritance – if you inherit a property, its title deeds need to be changed to alter the name to yours. You need to pay a fee to Land Registry for this, depending on the value of the property.
New trustee – if a new trustee is appointed to the trust property, the Deed of Appointment must be registered at Land Registry.
Deed poll – if you change your name by deed, your conveyancer can arrange for the name change at Land Registry.

Do You Need A Transfer Of Equity?

A transfer of equity is the legal process that enables you to add or remove the name of someone from the title deeds of a property. As a minimum requirement, there is no sale of the property and at least one original owner remains on the deeds.

You will need a transfer of equity in certain circumstances, including:

Divorce or relationship break – if you need to divide up your assets and that includes property, then the names on the title deed will need to be changed to reflect the change in ownership
Marriage or new relationship – if you want to add your partner’s name to the deeds of the home you own
Joint owners – if you want to buy out your joint owner/s so that you own more equity in the property
Tax benefits – if you transfer equity to your children or other family members to reduce your tax bill in the long-run, seek legal advice first. Many people choose to gift their share of property to their children or partner, for tax reasons

To transfer equity, you need at least one legal owner and no more than 4 owners in total. To work out the value of the share being transferred, you usually need to obtain a current market value first. If there is a mortgage on the property, the mortgage lender must consent to the transfer.

What Is Equity?

Equity is the amount of your home that you own. To calculate this, you take the property’s value and then take away any mortgage on it, and the remaining amount is your equity in the property.

What Is The Transfer Of Equity Process?

Your solicitor will guide you through the transfer of equity process to ensure it is straightforward and completed correctly.

As a guide, the process involves:

Checking the title deeds
Preparing the transfer deed documents
Your signing of the transfer documents with a witness present
Any mortgage lenders or banks linked to the property providing written consent
Registering the transfer deed with Land Registry
Paying the registration fee, which ranges from £50 to £920 depending on the value of the property

What Happens When There Is A Mortgage?

If there is a mortgage on the property, an agreement must be reached with the lender before the transfer of equity can proceed.

There are different ways to achieve this, including:

Paying off the mortgage
Transferring the property as part of a buy-out
Remortgaging the property to release enough funds to pay off current mortgage and buy out the share you want

If there is a mortgage but the equity transfer is being done as a gift, such as a parent gifting the property to their children, with no money being exchanged, then consent from the lender is needed.

Is There Stamp Duty To Pay?

The answer is yes, potentially, if the property has an outstanding mortgage.

By adding a name to a title deed when the property has a mortgage, the new person is taking a share of the responsibility for the existing mortgage on the property and agreeing to pay off the mortgage debt. This means also taking on the required stamp duty land tax for that amount too – the stamp duty owed will be calculated based on the value of the mortgage and their share of the property.

If there is no mortgage on the property, no stamp duty is owed.

How We Can Help You With Your Transfer Of Equity

How a transfer of equity works depends largely on each individual situation, which is why we always recommend clients seek legal advice before starting the process. We always work hard to complete an equity transfer in the most efficient way, while acting in the best interests of our clients.

Transferring equity can be an overwhelming experience for homeowners. However, by providing professional and tailored guidance, our conveyancing solicitors will ensure your equity transfer is as straightforward and stress-free as possible.

To speak to one of our specialist conveyancers about a transfer of equity or changing the names on the title deeds of a property, please contact us on 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk

Alternatively, you can Make An Online Enquiry and one of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

How Can I Extend The Lease On My Property?

Bartletts Residential Conveyancer Khalid Mahmood takes you through the steps you can take.

Leasehold ownership means you own your house or flat on a lease basis but not the land it’s built on – that land is owned by the freeholder.

The freeholder is landlord to all the leases connected to the freehold. As leases run for a fixed term, they need to be extended before the expiry date or the freeholder can claim back possession of the property once the lease expires. How Can I Extend The Lease On My Property? Bartletts Solicitors Property Solicitors in Chester will take you through the process

Why You Want A Long Lease

The longer the lease on your property, the more valuable it is. The opposite is true – the closer your lease is to its expiry date, the less valuable it is.

If your lease becomes less than 80 years in length, your freeholder is able to claim the marriage value of the lease extension. The marriage value is 50% of the difference in value between your property with the current lease and the value of your property after the lease has been extended – depending on your property, this can be a huge amount of money.

Therefore, it is vital to extend the lease before the term gets as low as 80 years. At this point, your property becomes much harder to sell too as most lenders won’t lend on shorter leases.

How To Extend Your Lease

There are two main options for extending your property lease:

Informal Lease Extension – this is also called an extension by agreement
Formal Lease Extension – this is also called a section 42 or statutory lease extension

Whichever option you choose, your freeholder is entitled to a so-called premium payment, paid on completion of the lease extension. Normally, an external valuer is asked to provide a fair amount for this and then it is down to the leaseholder to negotiate the final settlement with the freeholder.

Once all the terms have been agreed and premium payment value settled, your and your freeholder’s solicitors will issue the lease extension documents.

How We Can Help You With Your Lease Extension

Whether you’re the leaseholder or freeholder, our specialist property solicitors have the experience and expert legal knowledge to help clients with a range of legal issues related to lease extensions.

To speak to one of our solicitors about extending a lease, please contact us on 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk or complete a Free Online Enquiry and we will soon be in touch.

What do I need to think about when buying a house?

With the recent changes to stamp duty more people are now thinking about buying their next home. Moving house can be one of the most stressful things any of us do but Bartletts Solicitors experienced conveyancers are here to help you at every stage of the process.

Here Khalid Mahmood, Bartletts’ Licensed Conveyancer, takes us through some of the key things our clients ask about when moving home and the conveyancing process.

What is conveyancing?

You may think buying a house is the same as buying anything else. The money is paid, the previous Bartletts Solicitors Residential conveyancing Chester owner moves out and you move in. In a way that’s true. But when something as valuable as a building is bought and sold, then the process involves something called an exchange of contracts and completion which requires a significant amount of legal involvement before matters proceed to finalisation of the transaction, monies being paid and property ownership and occupation changing hands. This is process is called conveyancing and to complete the property sale and purchase in the most efficient, legally protective way, you need a residential conveyancing solicitor to help you through the whole process.

You’ll be able to buy more quickly and with total peace of mind, when you use a property solicitor to carry out the legal conveyancing process.

What does a conveyancing solicitor do?

A conveyancing solicitor mediates and manages all of the legal and practical process between the buyer, the mortgage lender or bank and whoever is selling the property to the buyer. The solicitor oversees the conveyancing process and carries out necessary checks to ensure everything goes smoothly and legally correct. Whilst conveyancing is a relatively straightforward process, each property transaction is unique, meaning complications can arise. That’s why conveyancing solicitors are essential for a stress-free conveyancing process.

What are the stages of purchasing a property?

The conveyancing process starts as soon as you decide to buy a property. If you are a buying a property you will need to instruct a conveyancing solicitor to act on your behalf and the seller of the property you are buying from will have their own conveyancing solicitor acting on their behalf. These solicitors will liaise with each other as well as the Estate Agents throughout the process. The pre-contract stage takes up most of a conveyancing solicitor’s work during the conveyancing process.

The first job for the conveyancing solicitor who is acting for the Seller is to create a contract pack. This includes:

Sale contract
Title deeds
Property information documents

If you are the buyer of the property your conveyancer will consider the title deeds and other documents included in the legal pack, carry out searches relevant to the Property including local authority search to check Local Authority records, water & drainage search to check the Water Authority records, environmental search and practical issues with the property. Iron out any issues which arise from his/her investigation of the legal pack and searches. It is important that these checks are carried out as soon as possible, so that any problems can be dealt with early on before they become an issue. Your conveyancing solicitor will also liaise with your mortgage lender to ensure that the property offers sufficient security for the loan.

Once these documents are acceptable to all parties in the sale and purchase process, contracts will be signed by all parties and an agreement will be reached on when completion (i.e., when the final balance of monies due is paid and keys are handed over) takes place.

What is Exchange of Contracts

Contracts are usually exchanged by both conveyancing solicitors reading out the contracts over the phone (which is recorded by both of them) to make sure the contracts are identical. The contracts are then immediately sent out by them to one another in the post. This is known as exchange.

If you are in a chain, your conveyancing solicitor will do the same thing, however, they will only release the contract to the conveyancing solicitor acting on the other side if all the parties in the chain are happy and ready to go ahead. That means if one person pulls out or delays everything gets held up.

As soon as the contracts are exchanged you will be in a legally binding contract to buy or sell the property. If you do not complete on the date agreed in the contract and you are the buyer, you risk losing your deposit and you can be sued. However, if you are the seller, you must sell to the buyer. If you do not the buyer can keep their deposit and sue you.

Why Do We Exchange Contracts?

Until you exchange contracts neither side has any legal obligation to buy or sell the property. Both seller and buyer can pull out of the transaction without any penalty. It is only when contracts are formally exchanged by the solicitors does the deal become legally binding. If completion is late penalties start to accrue. For each day that completion does not take place interest will accrue at a rate specified in the contract until completion has taken place.

When Do I Exchange Contracts?

You usually exchange contracts between 7 and 28 days before completion although you can exchange contracts on the day of completion in exceptional circumstances. You need to make sure you have everything in place before hand, so that nothing can go wrong. For example if you are buying-

You have agreed on an offer
You have had a mortgage valuation and any other surveys you require
You have had a formal mortgage offer in writing
You have deposit funds available
Your solicitor has carried out and reported to you on the relevant searches, reported to you on the contract, title deeds and mortgage, raised enquiries and received satisfactory replies to those enquiries and you have confirmed you are happy with everything received.
You have organised building insurance. After you exchange contracts, you must put your buildings insurance on risk as you will be liable for the property immediately after exchange.
You have agreed a date for completion with the other party. The date will be written into the contract.
You have read, understood and signed the contract.

What happens once we have exchanged contracts but not yet completed?

During this time the buyer’s conveyancer requests mortgage advance/loan from the mortgage provider and the balance required form the buyer and manages and ensures the smooth transfer of funds to the sellers solicitors. At this point, the conveyancing solicitor’s focus is almost entirely on finances and pre-completion checks/searches. Smooth completion of the move is dependent upon this going well. At the same time, the buyer and seller will be finalising their removals.

What is completion?

The day the seller vacates the property and the buyer moves into the property is known in the conveyancing process as the ‘day of completion’. If selling and buying, we receive the monies from your sale and send the money for your purchase to your sellers solicitors. You move out of the property you are selling and hand the keys to your Estate Agent unless you have made private arrangements with the seller. If you are purchasing you collect the keys from the sellers Estate Agents.

Please note that the keys will only be released once the sellers solicitors have received the money which is usually around lunch time. Once we have sent the money, we have no control over the length of time taken until the sellers solicitors receive it. Likewise we have no control over the length of time taken to receive money from the purchaser’s solicitors as this is due to the bank system.

After the completion has taken place, the conveyancing solicitors will continue to conduct administration tasks to do with paying stamp duty land tax to HM Revenue and Customs, as well as registering the title deed at the governments Land Registry for the buyers. The Sellers conveyancing solicitor will be responsible for paying off any mortgages on the property sold by the Seller and ensuring the buyer has a clear and unencumbered title to register their new ownership.

For further information or advice about Residential Conveyancing please contact Bartletts Solicitors today on Freephone 0800 833288, or 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk or Khalid.mahmood@bartlettslaw.co.uk

How Can You Avoid Common Pitfalls When Buying Property?

How Can You Avoid Common Pitfalls When Buying Property? With the property market still moving at a fast pace, it’s vital you’re able to buy your next home as quickly and as efficiently as possible – and using an experienced professional conveyancing solicitor will help ensure the process is as straightforward as possible.

Buying or selling a home is often a major decision or an important investment and the process can become complicated and stressful. With the help of an experienced conveyancing solicitor, you don’t need to worry about the legal aspects of a property purchase and can buy with peace of mind.

Your conveyancing solicitor will make sure the process runs as it should and that all the legal necessities are taken care of, including approving contract, checking the title and searches, raising appropriate enquiries, complying with Lender’s conditions in the mortgage, arranging the transfer of funds from buyer to seller, and transferring ownership from seller to buyer.

How To Avoid The Common Pitfalls Of Residential Conveyancing

Buying a home is an exciting but stressful time as there is a lot that can go wrong with the purchase process – which is why you need to use an experienced professional conveyancing solicitor who will make sure all the legal checks are made and that the process is as straightforward as possible.

5 common pitfalls to avoid when buying or selling property:

Moving Slowly

Once you’ve made the decision to buy, instruct an experienced conveyancing solicitor as soon as you can who will start the purchase process straightaway. Always use a CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) accredited solicitor for peace of mind.

Being Unprepared With Documentation

Have your forms of ID ready so that you don’t delay the process – acceptable forms include a passport, driving licence or council tax bill.

Not Checking Paperwork

Make sure you fill in the paperwork correctly and return it quickly too. Always check the details in the paperwork to ensure you fully understand the nature of the property you’re buying – for example, rights benefiting the Property, rights reserved against the Property, restrictions affecting its use and future alterations or extensions or has it undergone any alterations or extensions such a loft extension or new conservatory? If so advise your solicitor so that he can ensure that the relevant planning permissions are there for any work that’s been undertaken. Ask your solicitors if you haves any questions or if you are not sure about any aspect.
If you’re selling a property, make sure you have all the paperwork needed for any alterations that have been made to the property.

Not to Carry Out Searches

Searches enable you to check the details of the home you’re buying, including the immediate area and any potential risks associated with it such as drains and sewers running through the Property, which may affect future development, or a history of flooding or any financial charges registered against this Property. Be careful you don’t decide not to conduct searches in order to speed up the process, as this could result in you paying too much for the property or having difficulties selling it in the future or you end up paying the financial charges.

Failing To Understand The Details

Make sure you understand the type of property you’re buying, such as is it freehold or leasehold and the intended use of the property, such as a home or to rent out. These key details will affect the information your conveyancing solicitor needs. For example, with a leasehold property you’ll need to see a management pack that includes data on issues such as service charge and ground rent, and for a buy-to-let purchase your mortgage agreement will likely be more complicated and your solicitor need to make various checks to ensure that any existing tenancy complies with lender’s requirements and meets the current legislation.

How We Can Help You With Your Property Purchase

Our conveyancing solicitors are here to help you with every aspect of your home purchase or sale, and have the experience and legal knowledge to ensure the process is as efficient and uncomplicated as possible.

We will provide advice and guidance throughout, making sure all the checks are completed accurately and quickly, and that you understand fully the details of the property to avoid any potential unexpected costs or problems in the future. With our help, your property purchase will be both delay- and stress-free.

For advice on the residential conveyancing process or to speak to one of our conveyancing solicitors about a property you’d like to buy or sell, contact our team of specialist property solicitors on 01244 311 633 or email advice@bartletts.co.uk