Conveyancing
We appreciate that having found the perfect property at auction, you would like swift service without unnecessary delays, so that you can move in and enjoy your new home as soon as possible.
UK Auction List can help you to achieve this.
WE HAVE RECRUITED THE UK's LEADING ON-LINE CONVEYANCING AND HOME INFORMATION PACK PROVIDERS TO GIVE YOU THE FOLLOWING SUPPORT WHEN BUYING OR SELLING YOUR PROPERTY:
- Competitive fixed fees guaranteed
- On-line case progress reports
- Text message updates
- No completion, no fee
- Email updates
- No meetings necessary
- UK and overseas service
- No hidden extras
If you are buying or selling property at auction, our partners' client liaison teams can co-ordinate the whole process on your behalf from appointing your solicitors to arranging your new gas, electricity and telephone supplies.
You can follow the progress of your property sale or purchase on-line, 24 hours a day and you'll remain updated throughout, both by email and by text message updates. If your property sale or purchase should fail to go ahead, for whatever reason, no legal fees will be payable to our providers.
We also arrange transfers of equity and
can supply fully qualified English speaking lawyers if you are buying or selling property overseas and require their expertise.
FAQS
- What exactly is conveyancing?
- What do you mean by contract documentation?
- I've received my mortgage offer, what happens now?
- the results of our searches,
- our copy of the mortgage offer and
- contract papers from the other side solicitors
- What happens next?
- your signed documentation
- results of all searches (including specialist searches)
- answers to any additional questions we have raised with the other side solicitors
- When do I pay the deposit?
- How do I agree a completion date?
- When will you exchange contracts?
- What happens on the day I complete and when can I get the keys to my new house?
- How long will the whole process take?
- What happens after completion?
- My property is leasehold - is there anything specific I need to know?
- I'm selling a property - what happens with that?
- When do I cancel my mortgage payments?
- And finally?
- What is the contract?
- What about all the other clauses on the contract?
- What about the other documents that we have sent you?
- Title plan (one copy for you to keep and one copy for you to sign and send back) - this is the plan of the property kept at the land registry and your property will be shown normally edged in red but there could be other markings as well. Make sure that the plan is correct and is all of the property you are buying. If there are any "t"s within your boundaries then you are responsible alone for maintaining those, otherwise walls and fences dividing neighbouring properties are generally (unless the title says otherwise) maintained jointly with your neighbours.
- Official copies of the register - this tells you the description of the property you are buying, who owns it at the moment (and what mortgages they have which will be paid off when they sell to you) and what restrictions there are on the property. We will have highlighted anything of importance and there could be other documents referred to in the official copy which we will have also enclosed (or if we haven't got it ourselves yet from the sellers solicitors we will have asked for). Common restrictions when buying a property include not to use it except as a private residence and not to alter it structurally without a third party's consent. There are many different restrictions that can be enforced and it is therefore important that you study any that we have highlighted or referred to.
- Seller's information forms and fixtures fittings and contents list - these documents are filled out by the sellers and they tell you important information about the property. Please read them carefully and let us know if you want us to query anything. In addition we may be providing you with other copy documentation such as copy planning permissions or building regulations for any alterations or extensions or guarantees for work carried out. It is not possible to set out what every document could be but do read them and ask us to clarify anything you don't understand.
- Copy of the registered lease (or conveyance or transfer) - if you are buying a leasehold property then we will have enclosed a copy of the lease and we will also sent to you our 'living in leasehold' guide - please read this carefully. If you have not received it then please ask us for one and we will send it to you. If we have included a conveyance or transfer then this is because they are part of the title to the property and will include important information which you should read (and we will have highlighted). We apologise that these documents are written in legal language so please don't feel uncomfortable if you would like a plain English translation!
- Letter of confirmation - this is to confirm to us that you have read and understood all that we have sent you and that you fully understand what you are required to do.
- Transfer - this is the document that transfers the property to you. You need to sign it where we have indicated, have it witnessed by someone independent and return it to us - please do not date it.
- Personal identification sheet - if you have not already sent us acceptable identification then we need to see identification for you according to the list. We will photocopy any original documents and send them back to you by special delivery.
- What about paying the deposit?
- What happens next?
- Checking the title papers from the Council/Housing Association- the Council/Housing Association have to send us papers to prove that they own the property they are selling to you and also tell us if there are any obligations or restrictions that go with it- for example that you cannot run a business from the property. The Council/Housing Association may take a few weeks to send these papers or a few months- it depends on how busy they are! Our job is to make sure that the Council/Housing Association send the papers as quickly as possible and when we receive them to let you know and report to you on them.
- Once we have the papers from the Council/Housing Association we will report to you on them- As you can imagine there is quite a lot of legal papers to sign but we will send you a full explanation of them at the time to make it easy for you - and we are always at the end of the phone to explain anything you don't understand.
- You cannot go ahead until we have received the Council/Housing Association papers and you have received your mortgage offer. Whichever comes first, we will report to you and send the necessary forms to you to sign and send back. We will not be able to set a completion date until we do have all those papers. Don't worry if you don't hear from us for a while - we sometimes have to wait for quite a while for the papers from the Council/Housing Association.
- As soon as you receive the package from us you need to read it carefully and make sure you understand what you are signing and then send what we tell you back to us.
- And then?
- Obtain any mortgage money from your lender.
- Get any other money from you (according to the completion statement that we will have sent you in the package)
- Pay the Council/Housing Association anything else they say is outstanding (there may be arrears of rent or last weeks rent still outstanding)
- What actually happens on the completion date?
- Let you know that the property is now yours
- Pay any balance or credit to you
- Register you as the new owners of the property!!!
- It all sounds very simple - is it always so smooth?
- Anything else I should know?
- And finally?
- Anything else?
A simple definition of conveyancing is the transfer of ownership or property rights from one individual to another. Goldsmith Williams have 18 years conveyancing experience and our job is to ensure that there are no problems relating to the property you are buying or selling. We also give you the peace of mind that all legal formalities have been carried out properly.
What happens as soon as Goldsmith Williams receives instructions?
Once we have received our instructions to act for you (this normally comes from your financial adviser), you can expect to hear from us within 7 working days. We will write to both you and your financial adviser to acknowledge our instructions and send you our Terms of Business letter and 'Guide to Buying and Selling'. At this stage, a team will be allocated to deal with your case and you will be given a direct dial telephone number to contact them. Any member of the team will be able to help you with your enquiries throughout the transaction.
We will also write to the estate agent and the seller's solicitors as soon as we know who they are, requesting contract documentation. We're just as keen as you are to complete your transaction quickly, so we apply for searches on your property as soon as we receive our instructions to act for you. At this stage we carry out a combined local and environmental search, which searches the Council's register as to any restrictions within the boundaries of your new property. Please see our 'Guide to Buying and Selling' for full details of our local search facility.
The seller's solicitors have to provide us with legal details of the property. The main document is the contract. This is prepared by the sellers' solicitors and sets out the terms of what has been agreed (i.e. price, names of people involved). There are also other documents which the seller's solicitors need to send us regarding planning permission, rights of way and other important matters. Quite often we will need to raise additional questions about these prior to exchange.
We will normally receive our copy of your mortgage a day or so after you and we will now write again to the other side to request contracts if they have not already sent these to us. Provided we have received:
Your file will be passed to our title examiner who will check the title, raise any further enquiries and apply for any specialist searches required (for example, a mining search or water search) and prepare our report to you. We aim to send this report to you within 7 working days.
Once you receive our report PLEASE READ ALL DOCUMENTS CAREFULLY before you sign them. In some circumstances you will need to have your signature witnessed. Occasionally this will need to be witnessed by another solicitor, but normally documents can be witnessed by someone over the age of 18 who is NOT a member of your family and who does not have an interest in the transaction. We will clearly indicate to you who needs to sign and where.
Within our report you will also find a deed of consent form, (sometimes called an occupiers waiver), which needs to be signed by anyone who will be living in your property who is over the age of 17 and not named on the mortgage. Sometimes they will have to take independent legal advice before signing this form. If this is not applicable in your case simply return the form to us.
You should send all documents and your identification back to us by special delivery. Your identification will be checked and returned to you by Special delivery. Details of the types of identification we can accept are highlighted in our 'Guide to buying and selling'.
Once we have received:
We will talk to you about the completion date. At this stage we also have to ensure that all the mortgage lenders conditions have been met and that you have adequate Buildings Insurance and Life insurance in line with the lenders specific requirements. Different lenders have different conditions and all of these need to be met before funds will be released. Lenders conditions can range from seeing a structural survey report to seeing divorce papers.
You should arrange to send us your deposit as soon as you have returned your documentation. You should send this by telegraphic transfer and details of how to pay this are included in our 'Important Notes' folder that we send to you with our report. Telegraphic transfer is far safer than sending a cheque or bankers draft which can get lost.
If you and your sellers have agreed a date for completion we will try and meet this date. It is not however always possible, particularly if the date is too soon or some important document or information is missing. As we say in our 'Guide to Buying and Selling' please DO NOT book time off work or book a removals company until we know a definite date. You should make sure you have at least 7-10 days between exchange and completion.
Once we are entirely satisfied that all queries have been answered and all conditions have been met, we can move onto exchanging contracts. By this time you should have returned the contract and we 'exchange' this with the other side. Once contracts are exchanged, both sides are legally committed to go ahead. We will not allow you to exchange until we have ensured that the title to the land is guaranteed and that there can be no dispute as to the ownership. Exchange is legally binding and neither party can back out without suffering loss.
On the day of completion you do not need to come to our office. We will arrange to send the purchase money to the seller's solicitors, and once they have received this, you will be able to pick up the keys from the Estate Agents and move into your new home. This does not normally happen until early or mid afternoon. Please note that Fridays are particularly busy and you may not be able to pick up the keys until late in the afternoon.
There are a variety of factors affecting the timescale of these transactions. For example, how quickly the other side solicitors respond to enquiries, results of searches, and how quickly the other parties involved can arrange their finances. Obviously if there is a chain with many sellers and buyers totally dependant on each other, delays can occur. On average though, it is likely to take between 9-12 weeks, and at Goldsmith Williams we try our best to meet deadlines, providing that it does not compromise your long term interests or the quality of our work! No two transactions are the same so it is impossible to be specific about how long the process will take. Often unnecessary delays can occur if signed documents, building insurance information and existing lender information is not returned to us at the earliest opportunity.
Once completion has been confirmed, we will forward any outstanding monies due to you by cheque. We can transfer money straight into your account but there will be an extra charge of £55. After completion has taken place our post completion department deals with the payment of your stamp duty (where applicable) and the registration of the title. This process can take several months to finalise (long after the move!!). If there is a mortgage on the property then the mortgage deeds are sent to your mortgage lender where they are held until the mortgage has been paid or the property is sold. If there is no mortgage involved you will need to tell us whether you require the deeds to be sent to you. If you wish, Goldsmith Williams can provide safe and secure storage of your deeds at no extra charge.
If you are buying a leasehold property, you will see, an amount called 'leasehold expenses' on your completion statement. This amount is intended to prevent delays in completion and cover any unexpected charges by the landlord, such as service charges or ground rent. Any unused part of this money will be paid back to you within three months after completion. We also reserve the right to charge extra fees in leasehold cases if the case becomes more complicated than anticipated. In order to ensure that the property has a good and marketable title there are additional enquiries we must make in these cases and you should be aware that the purchase of a leasehold property does usually take longer to deal with than the purchase of a freehold property. It is the responsibility of the Seller's solicitor to provide sufficient information in order for us to deal with our questions, but they may be dependent on others such as a landlord or Management Company to supply information to them before passing it on to us! The longer it takes the Seller's solicitor to supply this information to us, the longer the transaction will take!
If you are selling, we need to prepare a seller's pack. To do this we need the name, address and account number of your existing lender or, if you do not have a mortgage, details of where the deeds are being kept. We then request the deeds to your property and prepare the contract to send to the buyers solicitors. At this stage, we will report to you and send some forms which need to be completed and returned to us. Once we receive the deeds and signed documents, we can then issue a contract and respond to any questions that the buyer's solicitor may raise. We will then send you your part of the contract for signature .When a completion date has been agreed we write to your existing lender and request a redemption statement; this tells us how much is required to pay off your existing mortgage. A transfer of your property is prepared by the buyer's solicitor and this will also be sent to you for signature. As soon as the buyers' solicitors are ready, exchange can take place and we will agree a completion date. If you are selling AND buying, then we will need to exchange on both transactions at the same time so that you are not left without a home or with two!
Your mortgage with your existing lender must be paid right up to the agreed completion date and your lender will provide us with the figure required to redeem your mortgage up to the time of completion. PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL YOUR MORTGAGE PAYMENTS UNTIL WE HAVE CONFIRMED THIS TO YOU. Details of when to start paying your new mortgage are included in your mortgage offer but if you are unsure, please contact your new lender directly to arrange your payments
Moving house is stressful, and some people react better to stress than others. Whatever the concerns, we will deal with them sympathetically. Please note however that it is not always possible to speak to the Senior Team Leader, but any messages left with us will be dealt with, they are not ignored!! Don't forget though, ANY member of the team will be able to help you with your enquiries. Remember also that we are on your side and sometimes we do need time to follow something through. Delays do happen in buying property, through no fault of ours and whilst we will try and accommodate your wishes for completion dates, it is not always possible but we'll do as much as we can.
As we mention in our guide to buying and selling the contract is the legal document which is prepared by the sellers' solicitors and which they have sent to be approved. As you will see, the contract sets out the important terms of the transaction, including the price, the names of the parties and what happens if something goes wrong. You will see that your names and the price that you are paying have been inserted. You will also see that there is a space for the completion date to be inserted - that is not done at this stage but must be left blank. This will be added when contracts are exchanged. At this stage all you need to do is check your names are correct and the price is right and sign where indicated.
There are always lots of other standard clauses on contracts and you can be sure that Goldsmith Williams have looked at your contract to make sure there is nothing unusual in the contract clauses. If there is, then we will have already raised this with the sellers' solicitors or we will tell you about it in our covering letter. Most of the legal clauses relate to timings on producing documentation and what happens if things go wrong at the last minute. Please read the clauses and let us know if you would like any explanations but it is not usually necessary.
Enclosed with our letter will be other documents that we want you to read and check that you are happy with. The most common of these are:
As you are probably aware, it is standard practice to pay a deposit on your property on exchange of contracts. This figure is generally 10% of the purchase price but it can vary depending on what size mortgage you are getting - it should never be more than 10% though! Although we can't exchange contracts at this stage (there will be information that we need from the sellers solicitors still, and we may not have received your mortgage offer yet) it can be helpful if you pay your deposit to us now rather than wait for your mortgage. If you can pay it now it means that we will have cleared funds (and don't have to wait for the banks to clear it) and it means that if there is urgency to exchange and complete then we could do so even if we haven't got all the other documents back from you - although we can't exchange until we have at least seen your mortgage offer. If you are getting a 100% (or more) mortgage or you haven't got the deposit available yet don't worry about this at this stage.
If you have the deposit available now and are happy to pay it to us at this stage (you will earn interest on it according to the Law Society Rules) then please send a cheque payable to Goldsmith Williams for the deposit with your contract. Once we receive it we will acknowledge it and put it on deposit.
The team dealing with your case in Goldsmith Williams will now be waiting for answers to any questions that we need answering on the contract and documentation. If there is any important information that we receive which we need to discuss with you we will get in touch.
The next stage is normally when we receive your mortgage offer. When we do we will contact you again.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the team dealing with your case at Goldsmith Williams.
The council/housing association has confirmed the price for my house. what happens next?
The Council/Housing Association have confirmed the price for your house and you have agreed to buy it - as your solicitors we now have to make sure that what the Council/Housing Association say they are selling you is correct. We check this by:
So the council/housing association have sent Goldsmith Williams the papers - what next?
Once we have all of the package papers back from you we will check them to make sure everything is in order and then we will agree a date (called the completion date) with the Council/Housing Association and on that date the property becomes yours! Sometimes, certain Councils'/Housing Associations require 2 weeks from our notification to them that we are ready, before they are able to complete. They often need to check that rent payments or service charges have been paid up to date. Before the purchase is finalised we need to:
On the completion date there is no need for you to stay in or be inconvenienced in any way- provided there is nothing that is still owed to the Council/Housing Association we arrange paying them the money direct through our bank or we send them a cheque. You need do nothing!! Following the completion we will:
Although the vast majority of the cases that we deal with are straightforward there is always an occasional case that is not so simple- this could be for a variety of reasons - the Council/Housing Association may not be able to produce all the papers to prove their ownership or they may want to see further documents from you especially if you intend to carry out improvements to the property. We are experienced solicitors and you can be sure that we will do everything we can to make the purchase as quick and painless as possible but if there are problems we will let you know about them and tell you how we will resolve them- don't forget we are on your side!
Don't forget that if the property you are buying is leasehold you may need to pay an amount each year to the Council/Housing Association to contribute to building insurance and maintenance. If this is the case we will let you have all the relevant details at the package stage.
As the case develops there may be other matters that we need to bring to your attention- when we need to do so we will. There may be periods when nothing seems to be happening except you paying more rent! - don't worry we are doing what we can but sometimes legal matters take longer than you expect.
We will keep you informed on a regular basis as to what is happening (even if nothing happened since the last time!) but don't worry about phoning us if you want to - it won't cost you extra!
We will tell you who to ask for and some direct dials to get through- don't worry if the team can't speak to you when you phone - just leave a message and someone will phone you back as soon as they can!
Even after the completion date there are still legal matters that we have to do on your behalf and that includes changing the ownership of the property into your names. That can take some time as we need to send papers to the Land Registry and they sometimes need to inspect the boundaries of the property- don't worry that we don't send you the deeds-if you have bought the property with a mortgage - then the lender will hold the deeds- if you bought with cash we will tell you when the deeds are ready and we will either send them to you or we will keep them for you at no cost.
No - only enjoy being a proud house owner!!
Call 0845 459 0554 for more information or request a call back by filling in your details below.
