Property Conveyancing
Sellers Guide
We breakdown the conveyancing process for a seller.
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CONVEYANCING
SELLERS
GUIDE
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Initial Instruction
In order for us to act on your behalf, we will require your formal instructions. To get these we will provide you with what is called a Client Care Letter. This letter lays out our legal fees and potential disbursements that will be required to pay. It also contains information such as our complaints procedure, terms and conditions and everything else you might need to know before deciding to instruct us.
You will instruct us formally by signing and returning that form at which point we can begin the process of ‘conveying’ the property from yourself to your buyer. -
Information Gathering
The first stage of the process requires that we give the buyer and their conveyancers as much information as possible about the property.
We will source information about the title of the property from the Land Registry. Most of the information, however, will have to come from you in the first instance as the seller of the property. There are three forms that are used to guide you through the process of compiling this information. -
Sellers Property Information Form
With this form, you disclose information about the property itself, the boundaries, any rights of way that might exist over the property, planning permissions for works done to name but a few. There is an example of the form on the law society’s website. Guidance notes from the law society on completing this form are also available.
All responses in this form must be as accurate as possible. -
Fittings and Content Form
Using this form you disclose what will remain in the property when you vacate. You can also use this form to specify that you want to sell the items left behind as part of the sale. These fittings will form part of the contract.
An example of this form can be found on the Law Society’s Website. -
Leasehold Information Form
You will only need to complete this form if your property is leasehold. This form queries details about your lease and the landlord. The Law Society’s Website has an example of this form.
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Enquiries
Once we have received all the Protocol Forms from you we will send these, along with the title deeds and a draft version of the Contract to the buyer’s conveyancers.
The buyer’s conveyancers will then go through these documents and performs various searches at the local authority and other institutions to obtain as much information as they can about your property. The buyer may also commission a survey of the property.
If the buyer or their conveyancer’s have any queries about the property they will relay them to us. We will answer those which we are able with the information we have to hand. Often there are queries which can only be answered by you and we will work with you to provide a response to the buyer.
This process might go back and forth a few times until the buyer is satisfied to commit to the purchase. -
Pre-Exchange
There are two documents that we will need you to sign in preparation for exchange.
One is the Contract to Sell. The binds both yourself and the buyer legally to complete the transaction. Don’t worry about signing it early though, you are not bound when you sign it. We will simply keep it on file until the time comes for the Exchange of Contracts.
The other is the Transfer Deed which transfers the title of your property to the buyer. Once again signing this does not bind you at the time of signing. It will only become effective on the day of Completion when we send it to the buyer’s conveyancers.
We will get a redemption figure from your lender which is an indication of the amount required to redeem your mortgage. If you have any loans secured against your property you will need to let us know about these.
Once the buyer is ready to commit to the transaction then all parties will arrange an exchange and completion date to suit everyone. -
Exchange
Exchange of Contracts is exactly that. We will send the contract that was signed by you to the buyer’s conveyancers. They, in turn, will send their copy to us along with the buyer’s deposit, typically 10%.
Once contracts have been exchanged both you and the buyer are legally bound to complete the transaction. If the buyer can’t complete for whatever reason they stand to forfeit their deposit.
At this point, the completion date has also been set in stone so you can make arrangements to vacate the property knowing that you have a removal date that you can commit to. -
Pre-Completion
We will send you a Completion Statement. The statement will include our fees, any Estate Agents Commission, the cost of redeeming your mortgage. The bottom line of the Statement will indicate how much you will receive from the proceeds of the sale or how much you will need to pay in before completion if you are selling for less than you owe on the property.
Up until the day of completion you still own the property so there is no need to move out. It might make things less stressful for you however if you are able to move out before the day of completion. If you do, bear in mind that anything specified on the Fittings & Contents form must remain in the property. -
Completion
This is the day that the ownership transfers from you to your buyer. You vacate the property if you haven’t done so already and leave the keys with the Estate Agent.
We will ensure we have received all outstanding monies from the buyer. Once the funds are safely in our Client Account we will authorise the Estate Agent to release the keys to the buyer.
We send the transfer documents to the buyer’s conveyancers so that they can transfer ownership of the title to the buyer
We will make sure that your mortgage is paid off with the proceeds, your Estate Agent receives their commission if any is due, and the balance is paid into your account.
