We have prepared this guide to assist you in understanding the processes in buying and selling your property.

Selling

We will request your title deeds and forward a complete package of information and relevant documents to your buyers Solicitors. These will include:

A Contract based on the information we have taken from your title deeds.

Copies of parts of your deeds

Property Information Form and in the case of a flat a Leasehold Property Information Form which you will have previously completed.

Fixtures Fittings and Contents Form which you will have previously completed.

Any guarantees, planning permissions or similar documents

The buyers Solicitors may raise other queries and once we have replied to these it will be for them to confirm when they are in a position to proceed.

Buying

We will ask the seller’s Solicitors for a contract and supporting documents we will check these in detail, report any relevant information to you with copies of the appropriate documents. On receipt from you of the relevant fees referred to in our Terms and Conditions we will request the relevant searches. Any form of search made relates to the Council’s records about the property. It applies ONLY to the property itself and NOT to neighbouring properties.

If you have applied for a mortgage, you will need to have received a written offer from the lender before fully committing yourself to buy. Normally, the lender instructs us to deal with their legal requirements. Your mortgage may contain certain conditions. These conditions must be met before completion.

Our enquiries DO NOT relate to the physical condition of the property this is dealt with by your own inspection and survey. A mortgage valuation may not be sufficient. We advise you to consider a more detailed survey.

Until contracts are exchanged neither seller or buyer are bound to proceed. There is no penalty or compensation if either the seller or buyer withdraws prior to exchange.

Exchanging Contracts

This is the key stage where both buyers and sellers become legally bound. We will ask you to sign contracts before this stage. However, we will not then exchange contracts without your authority.

If you are buying, you will need a deposit of up to ten per cent of the purchase price to exchange contracts. We will need to have cleared funds – usually a banker’s draft, building society cheque made payable to ‘Henry Hyams’ before we can pay over a deposit. If you are selling at the same time normally, the deposit received on your sale can be used as all or part of the deposit to facilitate your purchase. We do not accept cash.

At exchange of contracts a completion date is fixed. This is the date upon which completion of your sale or purchase will take place. The completion date is fixed by mutual agreement and this will be your moving day.

When buying, you must have the property insured from exchange of contracts and we would strongly advise that appropriate life policies should be in force.

Preparing for Completion

By the completion date all the documents will already have been prepared, signed and all the financial aspects finalised. We will prepare a completion statement including our charges and expenses giving details of what monies we require from you in cleared funds, before completion.

Completion

If you are selling you must leave and empty your property on the day of completion. This is what ‘vacant possession’ means. Keys are normally deposited at the relevant estate agents.

If you are buying you will not normally be able to collect the keys until completion has taken place i.e. until the sellers Solicitors have received the monies in their bank account. If you are selling and buying we need to receive your sale monies (as well as your lender’s money) from your buyers Solicitors before we can complete the purchase with your sellers Solicitors. This can cause delays in the release of keys and we will do our utmost to minimise such delays. We will do our utmost to ensure that there are no delays BUT CANNOT be responsible for delays in obtaining the keys due to problems in receiving money from your sale or delays in your lender sending the new loan monies. Again, keys are normally collected from the relevant estate agents.

After Completion

After completion, we will see to payment of stamp duty, registration of your purchase and new mortgage and to other formalities. The Land Registry usually take several weeks to complete registration, after which we will get your deeds back and, if you have a mortgage the deeds will be normally sent to your new lender.