What to Expect – Sale Transactions

At the outset of the transaction, we will write to you with full details of our costs and other regulatory information as required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We will also send out various forms that need to be completed in relation to the transaction, some of which will be forwarded to your Buyer’s Solicitors in accordance with The Law Society Conveyancing Protocol. We are required to verify your identity in accordance with both Anti-Money Laundering and Land Registration Regulations.  We will also meet you face to face in person or by video call.

We usually request the sum of £100.00 on account of fees and disbursements at the outset of the transaction to enable us to pay disbursements as they fall due.

We will ask you for details of any Mortgage secured against the property in order that we can make contact with your Lender to request full details of the sum outstanding.

If there are Estate Agents involved in the transaction, you should give them our details and they will write to us with their Memorandum of Sale and a copy of their Sales Particulars. We will then have the necessary details to be able to make contact with the Solicitors acting for your Buyer.

We will obtain copies of your registered Title of the Property from the Land Registry and discuss with you if any of the information given in your completed forms does not appear to correspond with the data held by the Land Registry.

If your property is leasehold, we will need to check the terms of your Lease to see whether a Licence to Assign is needed before the property can be transferred. We will also need to send some leasehold enquiries to your Landlord/Managing Agents and they will charge a fee for dealing with these.

A full package of documentation will be supplied to your Buyer’s Solicitors with two copies of the proposed Contract as drafted by us. They will then carry out the relevant searches on behalf of the Buyer, consider the paperwork provided by us and raise some additional enquiries. We will take your instructions as necessary to enable us to reply to any points raised.

Once the Buyer’s Solicitors are happy with the wording of the draft Contract, they will return a copy to us for you to sign.

When both parties have signed their respective copies of the Contract and are ready to proceed further, we will discuss with you proposed completion dates (i.e. when you must vacate the property and the buyer will be able to move in) and then obtain your authority to exchange contracts.

Once contracts are exchanged, the transaction becomes legally binding and the completion date is fixed.

We will then obtain a further redemption statement from your Lender giving details of the sum required to repay the Mortgage on completion.

The Transfer Deed will be drafted by the Buyer’s Solicitors (if not already dealt with) and sent to us in order that we can agree the wording. This document will need to be signed by you and be in our possession prior to completion.

We will prepare our Completion Statement and account and send this to you with copies of the mortgage redemption statement and any Estate Agents commission account.

On the completion date we will receive the purchase monies from the Buyer’s Solicitors, redeem your Mortgage and pay the Estate Agents’ commission account if you have approved this and then account to you for any balance.

As accredited members of The Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme we will keep you, the Estate Agents and the Seller’s Solicitors regularly updated throughout the transaction. Orchid Law aims to reduce stress and worry for clients where possible during their transaction and we are often available outside usual office hours for your convenience.

We are sometimes asked to give an estimate of timescale, this is extremely difficult to predict as depends on various factors. If there is no chain involved in a transaction and no mortgages are needed it is feasible that completion could be achieved in a period of
4 weeks, if a party requires a mortgage this time period would be extended depending on the time the mortgage company take to process all matters leading to the actual issuing of the Offer.

If there are a chain of transactions the timescale will be set by the speed of the slowest party in the chain and can often be several months.

For a quotation in relation to your particular transaction, please complete the Conveyancing Quote request or call us on 01233 822250.