Step by Step Guide to Purchasing Your Own Home

You've found the home you want and your offer has been accepted so what happens next?

1. The Estate Agents will forward details of your proposed purchase both to us and to the sellers solicitor/licensed conveyancer.
2. On receipt of those details we will notify you and ask you to let us have a cheque for £250 to enable us to carry out the local and environmental searches.
3. The sellers legal representatives have to obtain the sellers' title deeds so that they can prepare a contract to send to us. They will also get the seller to fill in replies to standard enquiry forms and a fixtures and fittings list which they will send to us with the contract.
4. Once the sellers' legal representatives have their title deeds they will prepare and send to us a contract with supporting documentation.
5. Whilst we are awaiting the draft contract and supporting papers from the sellers' legal representative you should be putting in hand your survey and organising your mortgage (if you have not already done so).
6. This part of the transaction can take between 3-4 weeks so you will probably not hear anything from us but rest assured as soon as we hear of any developments we will let you know.
7. When we receive the contract and the results of your searches we will satisfy ourselves on your behalf with regard to the title, planning, and other matters and raise any necessary additional enquiries about the property.
8. On receipt of your mortgage offer we will then contact you and send you the contract and supporting documentation together with a written report on the property. You should read through all the documentation and the Report and if you have any queries whatever you should to raise them with us and we will endeavour to clarify the position for you. Do not wait until after exchange of contracts because by then it will be too late!!
9. At this time you should let us have your deposit which is usually 10% of the purchase price. If you wish to pay a lesser amount please let us know how much you can afford. To comply with Law Society and Council of Licensed Conveyancers rules, the deposit must be "cleared funds". This means the deposit should be in the form of either a Bankers Draft or Building Society counter cheque. Alternatively you can pay the monies by direct transfer into our clients account. We will discuss the matter with you at that time.
10. When we receive your signed contract and deposit we will ask you to tell us the date on which you would like to complete your purchase (i.e. the date you move into the property). The final date decided will have to be one that is agreeable to every person in the "chain" of linked transactions so you may not end up with your first choice of date.
11. Once a date is agreed and every party is ready, we will then proceed to exchange of contracts with the sellers legal representative. We will telephone you before exchanging contracts to check with you that you still wish to proceed as this is "the point of no return" i.e. once you are exchanged you will have to go ahead with your purchase so you cannot change your mind without incuring substantsial penalties.
12. Only when exchange of contracts has taken place can you safely finalise all your removal arrangements and advise all the service providers, i.e. the gas, electricity, council, water board, etc, that you will be moving so that they can amend their records. You must also ensure that your buildings insurance is in place from exchange of contracts.
13. After exchange of contracts we will proceed with all the post exchange preparations such as carrying out pre-completion title searches and requesting your mortgage monies. We will also prepare a Completion Statement showing how all the monies in the transaction are to be expended and showing the balance we will require from you in order to complete the purchase. As at exchange we will need cleared funds on completion.
14. On the completion day we will send the balance of your purchase monies to the sellers legal representative and, all being well, these should be received by about 1 pm on that date. When the sellers legal representative has received the monies they will telephone the Estate Agent and authorise the release of the keys to the property to you and you can then move in to your new home.
15. After completion we will attend to all the remaining legal formalities including registering you as the new owner of the property. When all those formalities are concluded with we will forward your title deeds to your mortgage company who will retain them for the duration of your loan with them.

NB: The above is a guide to a typical transaction assuming that everything runs smoothly