Information For Buyers
Cash
If you are paying cash for your purchase (ie you are not getting a mortgage), please ensure that we have a letter of confirmation of this funding from your solicitor, accountant or bank within seven days of your offer being made.
Mortgage
It helps the progress of your purchase if we have details of your financial advisor. You would normally be expected to have your mortgage application approved within seven days of your offer being accepted. Please phone and confirm this with us. Your mortgage company will require a survey/valuation of the property you are buying. We expect for this to be booked by them within two weeks of this notification of sale.
The surveyor who inspects the property on behalf of the lender will often ask for a detailed specialist report on certain matters, very commonly damp and timber, wall-ties, roof, gas appliances, wiring.
We can organise these reports for you, getting access for the contractors and keeping the seller informed. The reports will be posted to you. Don't be alarmed that they have been requested. The surveyor is not a specialist and cannot access certain parts of the house. When did you last see a surveyor with a set of ladders or dressed in anything other than a business suit?
No property is perfect and a survey and specialist reports will tell you where the imperfections may be, or are, in this particular property. If the surveyor has down- valued the property or there is a retention (i.e. the lender is holding some money back pending reports being done), there may be room for negotiation on the price of your purchase on a 50/50 basis of the work quoted for. However, the seller can refuse to negotiate. The seller will almost certainly refuse to negotiate if the property has been valued to the purchase price.
A 'homebuyers', structural, or any other more detailed
survey can be expensive and may be unnecessary. We would
advise you to discuss this with your financial advisor
or mortgage provider before commissioning one.
Solictiors
The solicitor acting for the buyer's side does most of the work.
He or she will receive a draft contract from the seller's solicitor once the title deeds have been acquired, usually from the lender or 1st mortgagee of the property. Any issues will be resolved between the two sets of solicitors, subject to your instructions to them.
Your solicitor will apply for the local searches. On average, in Leeds this takes about two weeks and costs £120.00. If the property you are purchasing does not have a home information pack, or if the searches within it are not suitable, then some solicitors will not routinely apply for these until your mortgage offer is in, but you may instruct them to do so. The return of searches can delay the hoped for completion date. Often a mortgagee will accept another kind of search, obtained through a private company instead of the council which costs about £80.00 and often takes only 4-5 days. If this is possible, it can be well worthwhile in terms of eliminating last minute stress and aggravation! Your solicitor should advise you on this point.
Once the mortgage offer is received, your solicitor checks its conditions. Providing any outstanding issues have been resolved, you will be asked by your solicitors to move your deposit in cleared funds to their holding account, and to sign the contract.
Your contract includes an agreed completion date, which is the day the house or flat becomes yours. Once contracts have been exchanged, the sale/purchase becomes legally binding. At Hendys, we always say that you should pop the cork on the day of exchange, because you'll be too tired to celebrate when you move on the day of completion.
It is more usual and preferred to have a few days gap between exchange and completion so that everyone can confirm the completion date with the removal company, send change of address cards, inform utilities, book the dog into kennels etc. However, it is not uncommon to exchange contracts and complete simultaneously on the same day.
Completion day
This is the day that you take possession of the house or flat. It's the day when the seller receives payment and the day that most people move. If you are in a chain, you may have to compromise on your arrangements so that everyone in the chain finds a mutually convenient date for completion. We often get involved, along with the other estate agents in the chain, in getting agreement on this date.
Possession
On the day of completion it is usual for the seller to deposit all keys to the property with us. We cannot release these keys to you until we have received authorisation from the seller's solicitor that they have the completion monies in their bank account. This is regardless of when your solicitors released the money to them and is written in stone.
This can be stressful, but please don't take it out on your estate agent or indeed your solicitor who is reliant on the banks transferring money through the chain.
General
Please note that this is an extremely simplified description of the progress of your purchase. Conveyancing is a specialised field best left to the solicitors or licensed conveyancers.
If you have a good team of solicitor, financial advisor and estate agent to help and advise you, then your purchase should go through smoothly. However, your input is vital. Please keep everyone informed of any hold up in your mortgage, change of phone number, holidays booked, arrangements made with your own buyer etc.
Providing the chain is complete, the time between your offer being accepted and notified to the solicitors and the day of completion should be between eight and ten weeks. Leasehold properties may take longer. Unless other timings have been agreed with your seller, either through us or your solicitors, then your purchase may be jeopardised if you go over this time.
Remember, it is only when contracts are exchanged that your purchase becomes legally binding so it is very much in your interest to achieve this quickly.
While we work for the seller, who is our client, it is
very much in everyone's interest that your purchase of
this property is a happy and efficient process. Please
phone Debbie or Clare if you have any queries that you
think we may be able to help you with.