Thank you for instructing Barrett & Thomson in connection with the sale of your property.  This information sheet is designed to give you an indication of the key stages and actions which will take place during the course of the sale.

First Contact

We will receive details of the sale from the estate Agents.  A copy of their Memorandum of Sale will be sent to all parties involved – you, your buyer, us and the buyer’s Solicitors.

First Action

We will need you to complete a Sellers Property Information Form and Fixtures and Fittings List.  Once you receive these from us please complete them as far as you are able and return them to us.  If you have any queries, please let us know.

If your Property is leasehold you will also have to complete a Sellers Leasehold Property Information Form.  Again this should be completed and returned to us as soon as possible.

It is important that the information given on these forms is accurate as the buyer will be relying on them.

We will also require funds from you on account of costs and disbursements.

We will obtain a copy of the title to the property from the Land Registry.

The Draft Contract

Once we have a copy of the title to the property we will prepare a draft contract.  This will be sent to the buyer’s Solicitors together with all supporting documentation, including the Property Information Forms which you have completed. 

Additional Enquiries

The buyer’s Solicitors may raise some additional enquiries on the documentation received from us.  If they do we may be able to deal with these on your behalf from information held with your deeds.  Alternatively we will ask you for your replies.

Approval of the Contract

The buyer’s Solicitors will, once they are satisfied with the documentation provided to them, approve the draft contract which we have submitted to them. Once we have received an approved contract from them we will arrange for the same to be signed by you.

Exchange of Contracts

Once the buyer’s Solicitors are in possession of all the documents they require, including their client’s mortgage offer, they will report to their clients and obtain their signature to a copy of the contract.  They will also request the deposit.

Contracts can then be exchanged.  At this point all parties become legally bound to proceed with the transaction and a completion date (moving date) is set.

There is no set period which has to elapse between exchange and completion.  However a certain amount of time is required to enable the buyer’s Solicitors to give the relevant amount of notice to their client’s lender to draw down the mortgage funds.  Lenders usually require between 4 and 7 working days notice to release funds.

Between Exchange and Completion

We will need to request a redemption statement from your Mortgage Lender to confirm the amount required to redeem the mortgage on the date of completion.  Once this is to hand we will let you have a completion statement showing how the sale proceeds will be distributed.

The buyer’s Solicitors will provide us with a draft transfer for approval.  Once this has been approved we will forward the same to you for signature and return in readiness for completion.

Completion

On the day of completion we will receive the balance of the sale monies from the buyer’s Solicitors by electronic transfer.  Once this is received we will authorise the estate agents to release the keys to the buyer.

It is usually the case that the buyers would expect to receive vacant possession of the Property by lunchtime on the day of completion.

We will arrange for your mortgage to be redeemed and for the estate agents to be paid.  We will let you have our receipted account together with a cash statement and will arrange for the net proceeds of sale to be sent to you.

Timescales

It is difficult to give an indication as to the length of time the transaction will take as it is dependant on so many factors including the speed of the other parties in your chain.  As a very rough guideline an “average” sale will typically take between 10 and 16 weeks.  Please telephone us if you wish to discuss your particular requirements.

We hope that the above is of assistance to you.  If you have any specific queries however please do not hesitate to contact us.

*please see our  Conveyancing Fixed Fees  and Residential Conveyancing Servives for more details.