George and Co Solicitors -

Residential Conveyancing

Why come to us for your conveyancing?

Moving home is a very stressful experience. In most cases you will have spent weeks if not months house hunting. The last thing you need is a legal process which drags on for weeks and months.

We aim to move your sale or purchase on as quickly and as painlessly as possible. How do we achieve this?

All our conveyancing is carried out by a qualified solicitor who has years of experience in buying and selling property.
We explain the conveyancing process to you fully so that you know what is involved (see below).
We maintain regular contact with the other party's solicitor, the estate agents, your bank or building society your surveyor and you to ensure that everyone is doing all they can to move the matter along and you are kept fully informed over what is happening. If there is a chain we will speak to the other solicitors or estate agents involved to check for potential delays.
Whenever possible we use email to speed up communication.
If problems arise we always take the lead in getting them resolved. We don't wait around for others to act.
We carry out a thorough investigation of the legal title to ensure that there are no hidden surprises.
We provide you with a full written report on title telling you all the important things you need to know about the property you are buying.
We don't believe in hidden costs.

If you would like to know more about what is involved in buying
or selling property then read on after this enquiry form.

If you would like a quotation for conveyancing then complete the form below by typing your details in the text areas and clicking on the buttons:

Name
Email Address
Telephone

Are you	Buying Selling Both
Is the property	Leasehold Freehold Leasehold with share of freehold
If buying, is the property new	Yes No
The purchase or sale price
When do you hope to complete

Moving Home

Conveyancing jargon explained

The Chain
Often when you are buying or selling property your buyer will have a property to sell and your seller may also be purchasing a property. This is known as a chain. Some chains can be very long, with the result that your sale and purchase may be delayed. The chain can only move at the speed of the slowest person in it. When buying or selling, it is worth enquiring of your buyer and seller if they know how many people are above or below them in the chain. At the bottom there will normally be a first time buyer and, at the top, someone moving into an empty property.

CHAPS payment
The electronic transfer of money from one bank to another.

Contract for sale
An agreement in two parts which sets out the terms of sale for the property. One part is signed by the seller and the other by the buyer. On exchanged of contracts the parties solicitors exchange them so each holds the contract signed by the other party.

Completion date
The date, agreed on exchange of contracts, when the purchase is completed and the buyer takes possession of the property.

Deposit
Historically 10%, but more often today 5% of the purchase price, paid by the buyer to the seller on exchange of contracts. The money goes via the party's solictors and is normally held by the seller's solicitor. If the seller has a related purchase then it may be used in connection with that. If you do not complete on your purchase then the seller will keep your deposit. If you have only paid 5% then a further 5% will be due. As a purchaser you should be aware that if your seller uses your deposit on his purchase it may be difficult to recover it. We have never known a situation however where a purchaser has needed to recover his deposit. Having said that there is clearly a risk.

Exchange of contracts
This is when the contracts for sale are exchanged. The seller becomes bound to sell and the buyer to buy. A completion date will be agreed at this time and a deposit paid.

Freehold
The absolute ownership of property without limitation in time.

Ground rent
A payment normally of between £100 and £200 per year payable to the landlord of leasehold property.

The Land Registry
Most land in the UK is now registered and proof of ownership is retained by the Land Registry.

Leasehold (A lease)
The limited ownership of property for a defined number of years. Most flats are let on lease for a term of 99 years. At the expiration of the lease ownership of the property can return to the owner of the freehold.

Local authority search
This is a questionnaire sent to the local council to see if they are aware of any issues e.g. building of new roads, breach of planning permission, which may affect the property or its value. Please note the search only provides information about the property you are buying not any neighbouring property.

Mortgagee
In the case of the seller this is the bank or building society to which the seller has mortgaged the property and to the buyer the bank or building society from which money is being borrowed to fund the purchase.

Pre completion searches
The buyer's solicitor will check with the Land Registry that there have been no changes to the seller's title and if the buyer is having a mortgage, carry out a bankruptcy search to ensure that the buyer is not bankrupt.

Report on title
A written or verbal report given by the buyer's solicitor to the buyer, in which the buyer is advised on the legal title to the property being purchased.

Requisitions on title
A questionnaire dealing largely with completion matters.

Service charge
A payment made to a landlord of leasehold property to cover the cost of buildings maintenance.

Stamp duty
A Government tax payable on the purchase of property. Ask for a copy of our purchase disbursement sheet for current rates.

Title
The seller's legal title to the property being sold. This is registered at the Land Registry and copies of the entries are sent to the buyers solicitor as proof of ownership of the property.

Transfer
The document which transfers legal ownership in the property from seller to buyer.

Steps in a sale and purchase

1	The sale is agreed and a memorandum of sale sent to each party's solicitor
2	The seller's solicitor requests the deeds from the seller's mortgagee. (Some mortgagees can take a week or more to despatch them*)
3	The seller's solicitor sends the property information and fixtures and fittings form to the seller for completion.*
4	The seller's solicitor prepares a contract for sale and sends it with copies of the deeds any other relevant documents, the property information and fixtures and fittings forms to the buyer's solicitor
5	The buyer's solicitor puts in hand his local search, considers the contract and documents sent to him and raises any further enquiries he may have
6	The buyer receives his mortgage offer a copy of which is sent to the buyer's solicitor
7	The buyer's solicitor receives a reply to his local search
8	The buyer's solicitor reports on title to the buyer
9	Contracts are exchanged and a completion date agreed. This may be delayed whilst other sales and purchases in the chain reach the same stage
10	The buyer should arrange buildings insurance on the property from exchange. Normally his mortgagee will do this, but if not, then the buyer must do so as the property can then become his responsibility
11	Following exchange the buyer's solicitor will request funds from the buyers mortgagee and client and send requisitions on title and a transfer to the sellers solicitor. He will also carry out his pre completion searches
12	The seller signs the transfer and the sellers solicitor replies to the requisitions and gets a redemption figure if the seller has a mortgage
13	On the completion day the buyer's solicitor sends the purchase money by CHAPS payment to the sellers solictors bank and following its receipt the sellers solicitor will send the transfer and title deeds to the buyer's solicitor
14	The seller's solicitor will then send the necessary sum to the seller's mortgagee to pay off the mortgage
15	The buyer's solicitor will pay the stamp duty on the purchase and register the buyer's title at the land registry
16	Following registration the deeds will be sent to the buyers mortgagee

*If you instruct us as soon as you put the property on the market we will have got the deeds already and had you complete the forms

Added steps in leasehold property

The sale or purchase of leasehold property is further complicated by the need to resolve questions of building insurance and service charge. The seller will have to complete a leasehold information form, provide up-to-date evidence of building insurance, service charge accounts for the last three years, an estimate for the current year, receipts for all payments and details of any large scale expenditure anticipated in the next 12 months. Often service charge accounts may not have been finalised for prior years in which case the seller's solicitor will need to retain a sum of money on completion to meet any outstanding liability.

Often the seller will not have all of this information in which case it will have to be obtained from the landlord, who will normally charge a fee of about £60 plus VAT for its production. Some landlords can be very slow in responding to such requests. If selling leasehold property then please provide such information as you have to us as soon as possible.

Other things to remember

Survey
We always recommend that you have a full survey carried out. We do not consider a mortgage valuation is adequate as such reports are primarily concerned with whether or not the property will be adequate security for your mortgage and not what it will cost you to keep the property in repair. There are however two schools of thought on surveys:

School 1
They are fairly worthless, as they tend to be full of exclusions as to various parts of the property, which haven't been inspected e.g.; "Couldn't get into the roof space, couldn't see the rear of the property, couldn't inspect floors due to presence of carpets and furniture etc."

They can also tend to paint a 'worst case scenario' and produce a report, which suggests the best thing to do with the house is demolish it.

School 2
There are limitations but you can plan ahead to deal with some of these, e.g. If there is a roof space make arrangements for a ladder to be available so it can easily be inspected.

A surveyor should pick up any significant problems with a property, which may not be obvious to the untrained eye. If the surveyor fails to do so then you will have some redress. If you get a survey report that seems to indicate the property is falling down then it is important to speak to the survey and have him clarify (preferably in writing) how serious any particular problem actually is.

Before the survey is carried out you need to ascertain the extent of your repairing obligations, or what you may be called on to contribute towards the repair of. When buying a flat you will often be liable to contribute towards the repair of parts of the building you won't occupy. For example you may buy a ground floor flat but be liable to contribute towards the repair of the roof. Similarly, if you are buying a flat in a block, you will normally have to contribute towards the maintenance of the whole block, any grounds it has and any ancillary buildings such as boiler houses, garages etc. in the grounds. It is important in such a case that the surveyor report extends to all property over which you have a financial liability.

Contaminated land

Since 1 April 2000, Local Authorities have been under an obligation to inspect and identify seriously contaminated sites. They can issue notices requiring the contamination to be removed from the land. This may result in expenditure which exceeds the value of the property. The liability to clean up the land is that of the contaminator. If they cannot be found or have ceased to exist however then it becomes the liability of the owner or occupier of the land.

Many properties now and in the past have been built on "brownfield" sites and are therefore potentially at risk of contamination. When buying property ask when it was built and if anyone knows what the land was previously used for. If there is any likelihood of a previous industrial process (this can include a wide range of businesses including for example market gardening where land may be heavily treated with chemicals) then further investigation should be carried out before contracts are exchanged.

Flooding

Properties have been constructed on flood plains or may be in an area where river defences are now inadequate. When buying property you should enquire if it has ever been subject to flooding and consider how close it is to any river or other open water. If you feel the property is potentially vulnerable to flooding then you should let us know so that further enquiries can be made.