Once we receive instructions to act on your behalf, we will make contact with the estate agents or seller’s legal advisors to ensure that the contract documentation is provided without delay. Upon immediate receipt of the required documentation, we will raise the necessary legal enquiries and request any necessary searches.
We will liaise with you and or your mortgage broker to ensure that your mortgage offer is sent to us without delay. At this stage, we will also report to you any potential issues with the property or legal title, or any other matters that may cause delay. We will send you a provisional report providing copies of the plan to the property for your approval and also the sellers fittings and contents form for your approval.
Upon receipt of your mortgage offer, we will report to you if there are any unusual aspects or requirements regarding your mortgage offer. We will also prepare and provide you with a draft completion statement confirming the monies required from you to complete the purchase.
Once we have everything in place, we will invite you to attend the office in order to advise you of any legal issues affecting the property and to sign the Contract, the Transfer Deed, the Mortgage Deed and Stamp Duty Land Tax Transaction return. Alternatively, provided that all the necessary Identification requirements have been satisfied, we can forward a full contract report to you, with all of the documents requiring your signature. These documents cannot however be sent electronically as the original documents are required to complete the transaction.
Upon receipt of any balance monies required from you to complete the purchase or the deposit required to exchange contracts, and confirmation from you as to what date you wish to complete we will proceed to exchange contracts. It is at this stage that you become legally bound to complete the purchase on the date agreed and stated in the Contract. We will request your mortgage advance and undertake the necessary checks to ensure that you and your lender are protected and that legal ownership will transfer to you on completion.
Upon receipt of your mortgage advance and balance monies required to complete, we will on the day of completion, transfer the purchase monies required to legally complete the purchase. The transfer of funds is undertaken first thing on the day of completion to ensure that legal completion takes place at the very earliest opportunity and that you are therefore able to receive the keys as early as possible on the day of completion.
Following completion, we are required to submit the Stamp Duty Land Tax Transaction return form and any payment due to the Inland Revenue. The Inland Revenue will thereafter return a Stamp Duty Land Tax certificate confirming that the relevant duty has been paid. We then prepare a registration application to submit to HM Land Registry and forward the Transfer Deed, Mortgage Deed, Stamp Duty land Tax certificate and other documents required by the Land registry to register the legal transfer in to your name and register your lender’s mortgage against the property you have purchased.
Once the transfer is registered by HM Land Registry, they will return confirmation and provide new title deeds stating your ownership of the property. We will then forward confirmation and copy title deeds to you and to your lender. At this stage, your lender will confirm whether they require the title deeds or not. If they do not require the legal deeds and documents, we can forward them to you for safekeeping or retain them on your behalf.
At every stage of the buying process, we will keep you informed of progress, we will continually liaise with the seller’s legal advisors, and ensure that any estate agents involved, maintain constant communication with all parties involved in the transaction or the chain so that completion may take place at the very earliest opportunity.
PURCHASE MILESTONES
Forward new title documents confirming the new buyers as registered proprietors of the property to the client and forward any deeds required to the buyers lender.