Your Guide to Residential Conveyancing and Buying and or Selling a Home 

Buying or selling your home is one of the biggest financial transactions you are likely to make. Keith Flower & Co Solicitors have been established for over 50 years in Pinner, Harrow Middlesex and have a wealth of experience in relation to all types of property matters. We offer a professional service to our clients, giving advice at each stage of a transaction, with regular updates as to progress. We also pay attention to detail and protect our clients interests at all times.

Getting advice.

This is a guide to the services you can expect from Keith Flower & Co Solicitors when buying a home.

Costs

Remember you will also need to pay a variety of other expenses such as stamp duty land tax, Land Registry fees, VAT and search fees when you buy a property.

What Keith Flower & Co Solicitors will need from you

We will ask you for a variety of details and documents. These could include:

• some personal identification;

• confirmation as to the price of the property;

• a copy of the energy performance certificate (EPC) for the property if there is one;

• any factors that may influence the exact time you want to buy the property (for example: to coincide with school holidays); and

• how you are planning to pay for the property.

We will also need to know whether:

• you have applied for a mortgage;

• you plan to carry out work on the property;

• you are buying with someone else;

• the seller is buying another property; and

• you have a property to sell.

Energy performance certificates

When the house or flat is put on the market the seller (or the estate agent selling it) must have commissioned someone to prepare an EPC if there isn't one currently in force for the property. The EPC contains a rating for the energy performance of the property, and recommendations for improving it. Keith Flower & Co can  give you more advice as to this.

Survey advice

If you are applying for a mortgage, your mortgage lender will need an independent valuation of the property. Usually they will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey upon which you can rely upon.

You should consider appointing your own surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell Keith Flower & Co so that we can advise you further. You may wish to renegotiate the price.

Contacting the seller's solicitor

When you instruct Keith Flower & Co to act for you in your purchase, we will ask the seller's solicitor, for a draft contract and other papers including a form listing the fittings and contents which will be included when you buy the property. You should to check this list carefully and let us know if it is not accurate.

Searches

Keith Flower & Co will carry out various searches, including enquiries of the local authority. These can help to reveal any planning issues affecting the property, such as road improvements and details of any planning permission granted for the property. These searches will only provide information about the property itself and not generally about any neighbouring properties. Keith Flower & Co may also carry out flooding, mining and contaminated-land searches if necessary. If any of these searches show matters of concern, we will let you know.

Leasehold properties

If the property is leasehold (particularly common when buying a flat), there will be detailed lease terms and conditions. Keith Flower & Company will check these carefully and will also make enquiries with the seller's solicitor or the managing agents of the property about what service charges and management costs you will have to pay.

Mortgage offer and terms

If you are taking out a mortgage to buy a property you will usually need a satisfactory offer of a mortgage before exchanging contracts. You should be sure that you can meet any conditions in the offer.

You should read the offer letter and mortgage conditions very carefully.

Signing the contract

When Keith Flower & Co has received the results of all searches and enquiries, we will report back to you in writing on all the information we have obtained for you.  If you are still happy to proceed with your purchase we will finalise the terms of the contract with your seller and explain it to you. You then need to sign the contract and provide the deposit money - usually between 5% and 10% of the purchase price.

Exchanging contracts

This is the crucial moment of the transaction  between you and the seller. Keith Flower & Co will exchange contracts with the seller's solicitor so that you have the contract the seller has signed and the seller has the contract you have signed. We will also set the date for completing the transaction at this point, after agreeing this date with you which is the date for you to move house. After exchange of contracts both buyer and seller are bound to complete the transaction on the agreed date.

Between exchanging contracts and completion, your solicitor will take the mortgage money from your lender and the rest of the money from you. This will include costs, VAT, Land Registry fees and stamp duty land tax (if any). Your solicitor will carry out final searches and make arrangements with the seller's solicitor for paying off any existing mortgages on the property. Your solicitor will also prepare the transfer deed and send it to the seller's solicitor for signing.

Completion

This is the final stage in the conveyancing process when Keith Flower & Co hands over the purchase money to the seller and the keys are released to you. After completion takes place Keith Flower & Company will pay the stamp duty land tax and Land Registry fees on your behalf. We will also  will register the interest of your mortgage lender if you have a mortgage and record you as the new legal owner of the property.

Related legal matters

Buying a property may involve other related legal matters. For example:

• if husband and wife are buying a home in joint names they should consider how the property will be owned if one of them dies

• if you are buying a home with someone you are not  married to, you may need to enter into a 'declaration of trust' to set out what share of the property each person owns;

• if you do not have a will, you should consider making one; and

• if you do have a will, you may need to update it.

In all cases your we can offer you legal advice as part of a complete professional service.

Contact us for your Conveyancing

Just complete the form and we will contact you with further details of our conveyancing services.