When we act for you in the purchase of a home or other dwelling, we transfer ownership to you and help you make the decision as to whether it is a safe buy. We may also secure a mortgage against the property.
The precise history of each purchase is different and unique but the main steps are:-
- Taking your initial instructions and advising you on various aspects
- Receiving contract documents and checking through them and asking further questions as necessary
- Making searches and checking their results
- Receiving a mortgage offer
- Reporting to you on all our investigations and any mortgage
- Obtaining your signature of documentation
- Exchanging contracts
- Calculating the figures for completion, requesting funds and carrying out final searches
- Completing then paying any Stamp Duty Land Tax and registering your property at the Land Registry.
This is a very short summary and perhaps misleading in its simplicity. There will be advice on such things as taxation, planning, shares of ownership etc., etc.
Looking at timescale, we have in this firm had transaction ranging from 2 hours from start to finish right up to over a year. Many factors will dictate speed including the chain of buyers and sellers. Six weeks to exchange and two weeks between exchange and completion could be taken as an average, but again may be misleading. The shorter the chain of buyers and sellers, the shorter the transactions are likely to take.
