Purchasing & Selling Leasehold Properties
Moving home, they say, can be the most stressful experience that you are likely to encounter throughout your life. We are here to help you throughout the buying and selling process and this page demonstrates the stages of the process if you are buying or selling a leasehold property.
Until contracts have been exchanged either party can pull out of the transaction and sometimes there are set backs through the conveyancing process which means it can take longer than expected.
Despite this, the vast majority of conveyancing cases complete successfully and we do everything in our power to ensure that your conveyancing transaction and move proceeds satisfactorily.
What legal work will you be doing for me?
The precise stages involved vary according to the circumstances. However typically we will need to do the following:
Purchasing
Once an offer is accepted and you have instructed us we will then send the initial documentation, which you will complete and return together with an initial fee and give you initial advice.
We will then check finances are in place to fund your purchase and contact the lender’s solicitors if needed.
The sellers’ solicitors will then send us the draft contract pack, Once received, we will begin to order searches on the property you are purchasing.
Then we shall raise any necessary enquiries to the seller’s solicitor.
When we are satisfied with the replies to enquiries, we will report to you and go through the conditions of mortgage offer with you and the conditions of the lease, which may include restrictions that may impact your use of the property that you intend to purchase.
We will then confirm to you the service charge and ground rent payable.
You will then receive the final contract for your signature.
Both parties, at that time will agree a completion date (date from which you own the property).
Exchange will then take place and we will notify you when contracts have been exchanged. This is now legally binding and you can arrange your removals.
We will then arrange for all monies needed to complete your purchase to be received from lender and you (if required)
On the completion date agreed, we will then complete the purchase and transfer the monies. Once confirmed we will advise you that you now legally own the property and can arrange to collect the keys.
After completion we will deal with payment of Stamp Duty/Land Tax and the application for registration at the Land Registry and serve the required notices on the Landlord and the Management Company.
Once the Land Registry has registered the property in your name(s) we will then send you the Official Copies and any other important documents we hold in relation to the property.
Selling
Once an offer is accepted and you have instructed us we will then send the initial documentation, which you will complete and return together with an initial fee and give you initial advice.
Once we have received the initial fee. We will then prepare the draft contract pack and send this to the purchaser’s solicitors, once the contract pack has been sent we will then inform yourselves and the estate agents and wait to hear from the purchaser’s solicitors with any enquires.
We will reply to usual enquiries raised by the purchaser’s solicitors.
We will require information with regards to any apportionments of service charge and ground rent that may be owed.
When agreed and where possible, we will exchanging contracts and agree a completion date
On completion day, we will transfer the funds between the relevant parties and redeem any charge on the property.
It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur other costs other than those described above. However, we would advise you of the stages once we know the specific circumstances of your case.
How long will my house sale/purchase take?
The average process takes between 8 - 12 weeks. However, the length of time from your offer being accepted or accepting an offer to completion will depend on a number of factors. The process can be quicker or slower than this timescale and is dependent on the parties in the ‘chain’.
A ‘chain’ is a list of buyers and sellers all connected together because each person is buying a property from someone and selling a property to another in the ‘chain’ and requires the proceeds of sale to purchase the new property. The ‘chain’ often begins with someone who is only buying and ends with someone who is only selling. You can also have ‘chain’ free properties where the individual selling does not need to buy a property at the same time. e.g. if they are going into rented accommodation.
If you are a first-time buyer, purchasing a new build property (no chain) with a mortgage in principle and the transaction goes smoothly it could take as little as 6 weeks. However, if you are buying a leasehold property that requires an extension of the lease, this can take significantly longer and can be between 3 to 6 months if not longer. Another delay example is that we may require information from the management company. The management company often are responsible for the management of the service charge and the delivery of management and maintenance services in the housing development and receiving information frm them could take between 2 to 4 weeks.
Who will be dealing with my matter?
Your conveyancing transaction will be handled by a member of our experienced conveyancing team. Once we know who will be handling your case for you we will introduce you to them and provide you with full contact details. Full details of the experience and qualifications of our team are available on Our Teams section.
Regardless of who is working on your case the matter will be supervised by one of our partners:
Richard Scott
Qualified Solicitor
25 years experience
Commercial & Residential Conveyancing
Alison Street
Licenced Conveyancer
25 years experience
Residential Conveyancing
If one of the above is deal with your case then the other individual will be supervising the matter.
If you would like to receive any further information then please contact us on 01937 832371 or send us an email to legal@bjhsolicitors.co.uk