EXPLANATION FOR FIRST TIME BUYER



GUIDE FOR BUYERS This Guide is intended to try to give you some idea of the procedures involved when buying a house or flat. BEFORE SIGNING AND EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS (i.e. before you are legally committed to complete the purchase). In a straightforward purchase with no unusual problems arising, our procedure (briefly) is as follows:- We take your instructions i.e. details of the property to be purchased, etc. We receive a draft contract and various supporting documents from the Sellers solicitors. We send a search to the local authority which is a standard form of document asking various enquiries about roads, drains, planning permissions, etc. Hopefully the result should be available within 1 to 3 weeks but some councils take substantially longer to deal with the search. At the same time, we might need to ask the Sellers solicitors some further enquiries arising from the documents which they have sent to us. We will let you know as soon as we have received the supporting documents and at that stage will send you copies of anything which is particularly relevant or unusual. We receive a copy of your mortgage offer from your lender and we will then contact you at that stage to explain some of the provisions and make sure that the offer is in accordance with your expectations and wishes. Please immediately deal with any correspondence or queries from your Bank, Building Society or other lender since delays at this stage can hold up the whole process of buying. Nowadays a lot of lenders insist upon instructing their own solicitors or conveyancers and we would therefore have to liaise with that firm and satisfy their requirements as well (these requirements may include some of the additional searches mentioned below): our costs in that connection would have been included in any quotation which we had previously given. However, the lenders' solicitors/conveyancers will often charge a separate fee themselves which would not have been included in any such quotation given by us.The above represents the work which we ALWAYS carry out but some additional work can be carried out depending upon the circumstances. For example:If you are buying a new property built on a plot of land which has not previously been developed then it might be necessary to carry out some additional searches with the relevant County Council to see if there are any rights (such as rights of common) registered against the property. You may also wish us to carry out an additional environmental search to find out what the land may have been used for prior to the development since that should give some guidance as to whether or not there is any significant risk of the land having been contaminated at any point. The search also contains some further information about the risks of coastal or river flooding. If the position is not already known to you or is not made clear in your survey report, you may also want us to carry out a drainage & water services search with the relevant water company to make sure that the property is connected to the mains water supply, sewerage & drainage services. This search will also contain some limited further information about the risk of flooding.Historically, some properties are built upon land which had previously been church land and in those circumstances, there is a risk that the church may have imposed a "tithe" on the land requiring the occupiers of the land to potentially contribute towards the costs of carrying out repairs to the church buildings. Since October 2013 churches are required to register these claims at the Land Registry but if the land which you are buying has not changed hands since then, the Land Registry records may not have contained any warning about any potential "Chancel Repair Liability". A short ChancelCheck search can be carried out to see if there is any such potential liability and a fairly cheap indemnity insurance policy is available if the search proves positive. However, the risks involved are fairly small and the potential contribution is likely to be very small in most circumstances as well.If you are buying a property in a part of the country where there are (or have been) mining works then some sort of mining search would also be a sensible precaution.We will not automatically carry out any of those searches without prior express instructions from you although in certain circumstances, we may advise you that such searches are desirable (or your lenders' conveyancers may insist upon them). In most cases, the additional costs of those searches would not have been included in any previous quotation given by us.There is a principle of English Law in any sale/purchase transaction (not just buying and selling houses): ‘caveat emptor’, which is a Latin phrase effectively meaning, “let the buyer beware”. This means that generally speaking, in any such transaction, the risk is always on the buyer and it is up to the buyer to take all necessary steps & precautions to be satisfied before committing himself/herself (or itself) to the purchase transaction. It is for that reason that we carry out the searches mentioned above and also raise various enquiries in order to obtain as much assurance for you as is possible. It is also worth bearing in mind that there are some problems which might appear later that the seller could not possibly have known about and a seller is only obliged to answer questions and to supply information to the best of his/her knowledge, information and belief: obviously, if a seller gives misleading, inaccurate or untruthful replies then the seller could be held liable for breach of contract but otherwise, everything is at the risk of the buyer. When buying from someone who is not an owner-occupier, extra caution should be taken because of course a non-resident seller (such as an executor, a landlord or a property company) could not necessarily be expected to have the same knowledge about a property as an owner-occupier! It is also usually a good idea for you to consider a survey of the property to make sure that the property which are buying is physically sound and that all of the relevant appliances and facilities are properly working. There are different sorts of survey available at different costs and it is often a good idea to ‘shop around’. A full structural survey is one of the most comprehensive and therefore the most expensive but there is of course always a need to find the correct balance between cost and risk. If the cost was not a factor, then of course a buyer should have all relevant searches and the fullest possible survey carried out. If you are purchasing a property with the assistance of a mortgage advance then a mortgage lender will almost certainly wish to arrange for a valuation report: this report is prepared for the protection of the lender and even if the lender lets you see a copy of the valuation report, there would not normally be any right for you to take action against the valuer since the contract for that report would be between the lender and the valuer not between you and the valuer! Sometimes it is possible for you to approach the lender’s valuer and ask that valuer to also carry out a more detailed survey on your behalf at the same time (in those circumstances, the cost of the survey is often a little cheaper than if you instructed your own surveyor to carry out a separate survey on a different occasion). We are of course solicitors and we would expect to be advising you on all legal matters concerning the purchase but we are not surveyors and we would not be qualified to advise you on the relative merits of, need for or interpretation of a surveyor's report: you should discuss all these matters with the surveyor direct. Sometimes the valuer or surveyor will highlight some matters in the report which you are advised to raise with your solicitor so please feel to contact us about those aspects. When all of the above matters are completed and if the Seller is also ready, you will then be in a position to exchange contracts (this will legally bind both you and your Seller to complete the transaction on the date that is then agreed by both of you) and we will ask you to call in by appointment to sign the Contract. At that stage, we will need your deposit; if this is going to be less than 10% of the purchase price you should inform us as soon as possible. Also at this stage you should discuss with us and with the Seller the date you would like to move in bearing in mind that we usually need at least a further fourteen days to prepare for completion. We would not normally advise anyone to agree to a completion date of less than two weeks after the date of exchange of contracts because if any of the searches (please see below) show any problems then there is not going to be much time left to resolve those problems. In the circumstances, if (despite our advice) you really want to have a completion date of less than two weeks then it is likely that some additional work will be involved and some additional search fees. In those circumstances, any such additional work would not have been covered by any quotation previously given to you and there is likely to be an additional charge for an expedited completion of not less than ?100.00 plus VAT and additional disbursements. Obviously, we can discuss any additional likely fees at the time if you consider it necessary to arrange an expedited completion. If two or more people are buying together we will advise as to the methods of ownership e.g. Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common (see attached explanation). AFTER EXCHANGE BUT BEFORE COMPLETION (MOVING) DATEYou will now have a date for completion and you should make arrangements with the Seller to have the meters read and the telephone transferred etc. on the completion day. You will normally need to arrange the buildings insurance on your purchase at this stage and make arrangements to change any contents insurance to your new home on the completion day. You should also deal with Council Tax, Water Rates and any other agencies (such as T.V. licence). The next stages for us are:-We prepare the final Legal Documents, Transfer, Mortgage, (etc). We carry out various final searches of a technical nature (e.g. bankruptcy). We report generally to and request the mortgage advance moneys from your mortgage lender (they usually require at least five working days notice). As soon as we have received sufficient information, we will send you a completion statement setting out exactly how much money will be required from you prior to completion. COMPLETION (MOVING) DAY On the completion day provided that we have safely received all of the moneys from your mortgage lender and from you (if necessary) we then instruct our bank to send all of the moneys to the Sellers solicitors’ bank. As soon as they have received the money (sometimes, for instance on a Friday, it might take several hours for the money to be transferred because the banks are so busy) they should then arrange for the keys to be released and made available for you to collect and they will then also send all of the deeds to us. It is usually possible for you to obtain access to your new property between 12 noon and 2.30 p.m. on the day of completion but that cannot always be guaranteed. AFTER COMPLETIONAfter completion, it is first of all necessary to deal with any Stamp Duty Land Tax on your purchase. Since 1st December 2003, the Stamp Duty system has changed considerably: H.M. Revenue & Customs (H.M.R.C.) now requires a six page form to be completed or at least signed by the Buyer personally and the Stamp Duty Land Tax is charged on the transaction itself. The new form of Land Transaction Return has to be completed within thirty (30) days of the purchase completion date. Although H.M.R.C. suggests that the Form should be completed by the Buyer personally, it is necessary to include details of the Seller’s solicitor/agent as well as the details of this firm as your “agent”. Furthermore, specific code numbers have to be inserted so it is not very easy to complete the form without reference to the guidance notes issued by H.M.R.C. (which take the form of a 75 page booklet and which can be ordered from H.M.R.C. or can be read or downloaded from “”. Alternatively, we would be willing to complete the form for you and send it to you for signature but we would have to charge a further ?50 + VAT for the extra work involved. As your agent, we will only be assisting you with the form and any initial correspondence: you will still be signing the form yourself and it is therefore your responsibility to check that all of the information and answers are complete, correct and honest.Subsequently, H.M.R.C. will issue a certificate which we need to complete the registration at the Land Registry to show you as the owner of your new property. We will send the original set of copies of the new Land Registry entries to your Bank, Building Society or other mortgage lender, but will also send you some copies for your own reference at the same time. Unfortunately, the Land Registry plan of your property which is normally included in the official Land Registry documents is itself based upon the ordnance survey plan and is therefore subject to the Ordnance Survey copyright. We have obtained a licence ourselves and can supply official photocopies with the appropriate copyright data for a nominal charge of ?6 plus VAT. If there are any older copies of the Land Registry plan available, we could send those to you since we would not have photocopied them ourselves or alternatively, if you require an official up to date office copy from the Land Registry of the filed plan, we could obtain that for you upon payment of the Land Registry fee in that connection (currently ?8.00). There are a lot of agencies who may need to be informed of your new address (such as D.V.L.C., your tax office, G.P., dentist, etc.)This is a short summary of our work and we hope it helps you to understand what we are doing for you. If you require any other information please call us during office hours. If the call can wait until 10.30 a.m. this will give us time to deal with all the mail we receive that day (including yours). If you are unable to speak to the solicitor then the solicitor's secretary may well be able to help you. Otherwise, please leave a message explaining the nature of your enquiry which will make it easier for the solicitor to have a complete answer for you when he returns your call. Obviously, it always helps us if you can remember to quote your file reference (which should appear on all of our letters to you) when you contact us. To avoid disappointment please telephone for an appointment before calling in to see us in person.SWABY CLARKE & NORRISSolicitorsJhumat House160 London RoadBARKING Essex IG11 8BBDX 8507 BARKINGTel: (020) 8507 1882Fax: (020) 8507 1891Authorised & regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 366705) ................
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