A Simple Guide to Selling a Property
By Kieran Clarke Green
Step 1
Getting Started
Once you have accepted an offer on your property, the first thing you will need to do is instruct a solicitor to act on your behalf in the sale. Once you have instructed us to act, the first thing we will do it send you an initial letter called a ‘Client Care Letter’ which sets out the terms of our instruction, together with the initial property information forms. Once you have signed this and returned these forms to us with your ID and a payment on account, we can then commence work on your matter.
Fee - £50.00 in a sale
Step 2
The Contract Pack
We obtain all necessary documentation and information regarding the property from the forms we send you at the outset and from the Land Registry. We will use the information contained in these to prepare the contract pack. This will consists of a contract for the sale of the property to the buyer, a copy of the Land Registry title documents, the property information form and fittings and contents form you have completed and any other documents that are available and relevant to the property. You will also require an Energy Performance Certificate – if you have agreed the sale via an estate agent they should have arranged for one to be obtained, or we can instruct an assessor to prepare one for you if you need us to.
Once the buyer’s solicitors have received the contract and supporting documentation, they will review them and ask any questions they feel are relevant. We will liaise with you to ensure that responses to the questions are obtained as quickly as possible.
Once the buyer’s mortgage offer has been received and satisfactory replies to any further searches and enquiries, each party will then arrange for the contracts to be signed in readiness for completion of the sale.
We will have obtained from your mortgage lender, if applicable, a statement confirming how much will be required to pay off your mortgage and an invoice from the estate agents for their fees. We will know at this stage whether there will be sufficient monies from the sale to pay everything in full or whether we will need a balance from you.
Step 3
Exchange of Contracts
We will agree a completion date with you, your buyer and your buyer’s solicitors. Once this has been agreed we will then exchange contracts with the buyer’s solicitors.
Exchange of contracts is when the agreement between you and the buyer becomes legally binding. Until contracts are exchanged, either party can withdraw from the transaction without having to pay any monies to you.
Step 4
Completion
On the day of completion – the day that the buyer becomes the new owner of the property and you must move out – the buyer’s solicitors will send the purchase monies to us by electronic bank transfer.
As soon as the money is received we will contact you to confirm that completion has taken place and you must move out and hand all keys over to the estate agents. We will then contact the estate agents to let them know they can let the buyers have the keys.
We will also redeem your mortgage (if you have one), pay your estate agent’s bill and any other costs due. Any monies left over will then be transferred electronically into your nominated bank account. You should cancel any Buildings Insurance and direct debits relating to the property. We would also suggest that you take final meter readings for all services to enable you to close your accounts and settle any balances due with your suppliers.
Step 5
After Completion
Following completion, we will provide formal evidence that your mortgage has been paid off in full to your buyer’s solicitors. We will assist with any enquiries raised by the Land Registry in connection with your buyer’s application for registration as the new owner of the property.