Information for Sellars
It may speed up the process of your sale if you give your solicitor your mortgage account roll number as soon as you find it!
Upwards purchase
We will probably need to know of any purchase related to your sale. Please let us have the address of the property and the contact details of the estate agent as soon as your offer is accepted.
Solicitors
Your solicitor may be dealing with your sale and purchase simultaneously. The buying process involves more work.
You will be sent a property information form and a fixtures and fittings questionnaire to complete and return to your solicitor as soon as possible. Once the title deeds have been obtained, usually from your lender, then your solicitor will send out a draft contract to the buyer's solicitor. Any issues raised by these forms will be resolved between the solicitors according to your instructions.
Your solicitor will make arrangements to redeem your existing mortgage with the funds from your sale and prepare a completion statement detailing the financial transactions.
When all matters are agreed, you will be asked to sign a contract and transfer by your solicitor. This will include an agreed completion date, which is the day your house or flat changes hands. 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 usual and preferred to have a few days gap between exchange and completion so that everyone can confirm the completion date with their removal company, send change of address cards, inform utilities, book the cat into the cattery etc. However, it is not uncommon to exchange contracts and complete simultaneously on the same day.
Completion
This is the day that your house or flat becomes someone else's! It's the day when your solicitor receives payment and the day that 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. We often get involved along with the other estate agents in the chain in getting agreement on this date. On the day of completion you must have vacated the property by 2pm to allow your buyer to move in.
Possession
On the day of completion it is usual for the seller to deposit all keys to the property with us. We will not release these keys until we have received authorisation from your solicitor that they have the completion monies in their bank account. This usually happens between 12 noon and 2pm. The Law Society deems that you should relinquish possession of the property by 2pm on the day of completion.
If you are involved in a chain of people moving, you may not get access to the house you are buying until later in the day. This is rare, but can be stressful. We will try to keep you informed, but please don't take it out on us or indeed your solicitor, who is waiting for notification from the bank that the sale money has arrived!
You will probably want to take your own meter readings. Any request to have your mail redirected takes a week to process, so you may need to leave a forwarding address and rely on the goodwill of your purchaser. Most importantly, please leave the manuals for all equipment you are leaving, especially the alarm (and the code).
General
Please note that this is an extremely simplified description of the progress of your sale. 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 sale 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 vendor etc.
Providing the chain is complete, the time between the notification of your sale and the day of completion should be between eight and ten weeks. If your property is leasehold, this may be delayed if your management company is slow sending out information to the solicitors. It may be prudent to contact them as soon as you receive the notification. Unless other timings have been agreed with your buyer, either through us or your solicitors, then your sale may be jeopardised if you go over this time.
Remember, it is only when contracts are exchanged that your sale becomes legally binding, so it is to your advantage to achieve this quickly.
It is very much in everyone’s interest that the sale of your property is a happy and efficient process. Most sales that we handle are. Once the sale is in the hands of your solicitors, we usually only act as messengers to help speed the process along. However, please phone Debbie or Clare on 0113 268 2100 if you have any queries that you think we may be able to help you with.