Key Stages – Sale
Once you have instructed us to act for you in the sale of your property, your lawyer will proceed as follows
Receive a Memorandum of sale with details of your Buyer from your Estate Agent and will contact the Buyer’s lawyer.
Obtain your Title Deeds or copy of the Land Registers.
Obtain your responses to Property Information Form questionnaire about your property, Inventory of Fixtures, Fittings and Contents showing details the items included in the sale price or that you wish to sell separately)
Your buyer will probably instruct a surveyor to view your property and your lawyer will take your instructions on any enquiries raised by the buyer’s lawyer or surveyor.
DRAFT CONTRACT
Prepare and submit a draft Contract to the Buyer’s Lawyer
Reply to the Buyer’s Lawyer’s enquiries
Discuss and negotiate any necessary amendments to the draft Contract and send final version to you for signing in readiness for exchange of Contracts
Agree a completion date with you and your Buyer through his lawyer. If there is a chain of transactions behind you, the same date is normally agreed by everyone in the chain.
EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS
Proceed to formal exchange of Contracts with the Buyer’s lawyer. Again, if there is a chain of transactions behind you exchange of Contract is normally a simultaneous exercise. Once Contracts are exchanged, the transaction and the agreed date for completion will be legally binding on all parties. Failure to complete on the agreed date will almost certainly incur financial penalties.
PREPARE FOR COMPLETION
Your lawyer will receive a draft of the Transfer Deed from the Buyer’s Lawyer and will negotiate any necessary amendments before sending it to you for signature.
If you have a mortgage, your lawyer will obtain confirmation from your Lender of the amount to be repaid calculated to the agreed completion date.
Your lawyer will then prepare a financial statement and request funds for completion.
COMPLETION
This is the date by which you must vacate the property. The Contract will show the time by which you must vacate.
The time frame from instructing a lawyer until the date of completion depends upon the length of the chain, the complexity of the transaction and a number of other factors but as an approximate guide, after receiving your initial instructions it usually it takes at least 6-8 weeks to reach exchange of Contracts and another 2-4 weeks to reach Completion.