The conveyancing process begins once you have secured a property and instructed a solicitor to carry out the purchase of the property for you.
The solicitor will advise you on the following factors (and more!) throughout your purchase:
- The Draft Contract – the initial/’draft’ contract created by the solicitors involved in the transaction, detailing information such as the parties involved, the purchase price, deposit amount and any relevant information from the title deeds.
- Searches – your property searches will be applied for by your solicitor (once they have received payment from you) and are essentially enquiries made with the local authority of the property in relation to local planning proposals, flood risk, water supply, sewage and more. Whilst not a legal obligation to have, mortgage lenders require them, therefore if you are purchasing with a mortgage, you will be required to have searches carried out for the property.
- Enquiries – your solicitor will ask questions/raise ‘enquiries’ for the seller’s solicitor to respond to about the property you are purchasing. Enquiries may be raised in relation to changes made at the home, certification held for the property or even about the local area, with further enquiries likely to be raised once your search results have been received. Essentially it is the solicitor’s role to ensure that any relevant information that could impact your decision to purchase the property and the amount being paid is known to you before you have exchanged contracts and committed to the purchase.
- Mortgage Offer – whilst your mortgage application will be handled by your mortgage adviser/lender, your solicitor will require a copy of your mortgage offer once approved. Your solicitor will need to comply with any requirements requested by your mortgage lender before they will release the mortgage funds to them.
- Exchange Of Contracts – once you and your solicitor are satisfied with all responses to enquiries raised and your searches and mortgage offer are in place, the solicitors will swap/’exchange’ contracts for you and the seller to sign. Once signed and a completion date has been agreed, you will be asked to transfer your deposit in order to ‘exchange contracts’, which is when your purchase becomes legally binding and you will likely lose your deposit if the agreed completion date is not met.
The solicitor plays a major role in your purchase and it is crucial to choose a solicitor you trust, as this will play a role in dictating the speed of the transaction and impact your re-sale of the property in the future.
Here at Newton Fallowell, we work in partnership with a few local solicitors, who can provide quotes to our buyers for their purchase. We always advise shopping around to ensure you have an understanding towards the cost and value for money of the service for your chosen solicitor.
To gain a conveyancing quote for your purchase, or if you have any questions about the process, then please give our team a call on 01733 511225 or email peterborough@newtonfallowell.co.uk
