Selling your home - a simple guide to the conveyancing process

We've put together a simple guide to the legal process of selling your home - a process known as 'conveyancing'.

1. Instruct your solicitor

   
   

   We'd recommend that you do this before or shortly after you instruct your estate agent to market your property. Whilst most solicitors will start work once a buyer has been found, we are pro-active and like to get things sorted asap. This will enable you to complete the 'onboarding' (see step 2 below), and enable us to check your documents to make sure everything is in order ready for when a buyer is found.

   
   

2. Onboarding

   
   

   This is where you complete the anti-money laundering and ID checks. We use the latest biometric technology which can all be completed on your mobile phone in a matter of minutes. You will also need to complete various forms about your property, including a Property Information Form and a Fittings and Contents Form. If you're selling a flat, you'll also need to complete a Leasehold Information Form.

   
   

   Again, if you've been proactive and instructed a solicitor before finding a buyer we can check those forms and deal with any issues which may arise - such as advising you if there are any missing planning documents. Those property forms you complete form part of the 'contract pack' (see step 3 below) which we then issue to the buyer's solicitor.

   
   

3. Contract Pack

   
   

   Congratulations, you've found a buyer and the estate agent has emailed their sales memo to both us, and the solicitor acting for your buyer. It's now time for us to work our magic and prepare the contract pack. Ok, so it's not exactly magic - just a set of paperwork we compile and email to the buyer's solicitor. It would typically including the following:

   
   

   • Draft Contract

   • Land Registry title documents

   • Property Information Form and associated documents (planning permissions, guarantees etc.)

   • Fittings & Contents Form

   • Leasehold Information Form (if selling a flat)

   • Management Information Pack (if selling a flat)

   • Energy Performance Certificate

   
   

   If a client has already completed the property forms at the point of marketing, we can usually send the contract pack to the buyer's solicitor by email the same day as we receive the sales memo from the estate agent. Compare this to the traditional process where a solicitor is only instructed once a buyer has been found - at this point you'd still be stuck at step 2 and having to scramble around for documents and complete forms in a rush. This can slow the process down by weeks, and sometimes even longer than that.

   
   

4. Enquiries

   
   

   Having received our contract pack, the buyer's solicitor will order searches and review all of the paperwork. They will approve our contract, and will raise 'enquiries' - questions they have about the documents. If you have completed the property forms early on and provided all required documents already, this will have enabled us to provide a very comprehensive pack to the buyer's solicitor and minimise the number of questions they have.

   
   

   Inevitably, they will still have questions which arise from their client's review of the paperwork or from the searches and survey etc. Where possible, we will try to deal with such questions ourselves. If there are points which require your input or instructions, these will be flagged with you straight away.

   
   

5. Exchange of Contracts

   
   

   Once all enquiries have been dealt with, and everyone's happy, the solicitors ask their clients to sign the contract. You will also be asked to sign the Transfer Deed, which is the Land Registry document that records the change in ownership.

   
   

   A completion date is agreed, and the solicitors formally 'exchange'. The process of exchange is usually very straightforward and involves a short telephone conversation between the solicitors. Once exchange has taken place, both parties are legally bound and must complete on the agreed completion date (see step 6 below).

   
   

6. Completion

   
   

   This is it. The day when your house is officially sold. The buyer's solicitor will send us the funds, and we will then call you to give you the good news. We'll take care of contacting the agent to confirm the buyer may collect the keys, and if you have a mortgage we'll take care of the redemption too.

   
   

   The net sale proceeds will be transferred to your bank account by CHAPS, usually within an hour or so and we then send the signed transfer deed to your buyer's solicitor so they can register their client as the new owner.

   
   

   We hope this guide has been useful. If you have any questions about the process or would like a conveyancing quote for your sale please give us a call on 01403 613161 or email info@carrcobb.co.uk