Selling property conveyancing Solicitors in Kingston Upon Thames

Guide to selling your property

Agreeing a purchase price ‘subject to contract’

Once you have accepted an offer from a buyer, the sale will be agreed ‘subject to contract.’ At this point in the conveyancing the sale has been agreed in principle and your estate agent will normally take the property off the market.

However, although you will have agreed in principle to sell the property at a particular price, neither you nor the buyer is legally bound. Either party can walk away from the deal without any legal repercussions. This continues to be the case until the next stage of the process, which is when contracts are exchanged. The advantage of this is that if your situation changes and you no longer wish to sell the property or you change your mind about the price you are willing to accept for the property you will be able to pull out of the transaction without any legal repercussions. The disadvantage is that the buyer can do the same. Before contracts are exchanged, buyers will often have a survey undertaken. If the survey shows any defects in the property, the buyer may use this to try and renegotiate the price. Because the buyer is not legally bound by his offer until contracts are exchanged, he is able to do this without you having any legal recourse to enforce the price that was initially agreed.

Preparing the draft contract and responding to buyer enquires

The buyer’s solicitor will want to make sure that the property you are selling is really yours and will seek clarity about any obligations to which your property is subject (such as a public right of way cutting across your land). Your solicitor will send documentation to the buyer’s solicitor which addresses these points.

As part of the conveyancing process, your solicitor will also ask you to complete a number of documents that will be sent to the buyer’s solicitor. These include aFixtures, Fittings and Contents Form and a range of Property Information Forms.

At the same time, your solicitor will prepare a draft contract for the sale of the property. The contract sets out the terms of the sale and includes details about the property, what items are included within the sale, information about the buyer and seller, and the sale price. Before sending the contract to the buyer’s solicitor your solicitor will want to be certain that you are happy with and understand what the contract contains.

Having received this documentation, the buyer’s solicitor may still have questions about the property, although frequently the various forms you will have completed cover most, if not all, of the questions that usually arise. If your property is unusual in any way, additional questions at this stage are more likely. It is important to be truthful in answering – if you are not, there is a risk of being sued for mis-representation by the buyer. Once your solicitor has responded to any questions your transaction will be ready to proceed to the next stage of conveyancing – exchange of contracts.

Exchange of contracts

Once you sign the contract and the contracts are exchanged, you will be legally bound to sell the property at the agreed price on the date of completion as specified in the contract. At the exchange of contracts, the buyer will pay the deposit to your solicitor, which is typically 10% of the purchase price. Normally, the deposit money will be held by your solicitor as stakeholder until the date of completion, although in some circumstances you can use the deposit to fund your own purchase of a property. If the buyer pulls out after the exchange of contract, you will normally be entitled to keep the deposit. If you pull out, the buyer will be able to sue you for breach of contract.

After the exchange of contracts, your solicitor will prepare the final conveyancing documentation for the transfer of the property. This includes the transfer deed, which is the formal document that transfers ownership of the property. If there is a mortgage over the property, your solicitor will arrange for that to be paid off in full at completion.

Completion

On the day of completion of the conveyance the buyer’s solicitor will transfer the purchase price to your solicitor. Once this happens, your solicitor will inform your estate agent that the sale has been completed and that they should release the keys to the buyer. Your solicitor will then send the Transfer Deed and other documentation to the buyer’s solicitor.

For more information about selling a property and the services SheridanLaw offers, call us on 020 8541 1181 or email us at mail@sheridanlaw.co.uk