Organising a Mortgage

1. Your first task before considering buying would be to establish a price you can afford to pay. A Home Loan or (Mortgage) can be arranged by a number of various sources including Building Societies, Banks and Insurance Companies.

Finding a Home and Making an Offer

2. Once you have viewed a number of properties and have decided upon your ideal home the Estate Agent will then deal with negotiations on your behalf. Only when an agreed offer has been accepted by the owner, can you consider proceeding. However, always remember that your offer is Subject to Contract and both you and the seller are not bound legally to the transaction until the formal Exchange of Contracts has been completed by the Solicitors.

Choosing A Solicitor

3. It is at this stage you will need to instruct a Solicitor. Your Solicitor will deal with all aspects of your property purchase acting always in your best interest as well as acting on behalf of your mortgage lender if required.

What Does My Solicitor Do ?

4. The first task for your Solicitor is to request a Draft Contract from the seller's Solicitors. Basically, this is a legal document confirming the address, title and a copy of fixtures and fittings (along with lease and maintenance details if you are purchasing a flat). It is the responsibility of the Solicitor to satisfy himself and the mortgage company that all relevant information is accurate and that there are no onerous legal implications affecting the saleability and usage of the property. Various questions will be raised by your Solicitor (including maintenance and leasehold information if purchasing a flat) to be subsequently answered and satisfied by the owner's Solicitors. It is only when all these questions are answered that your Solicitor will approve the contract.

How Does A Survey Effect My Purchase?

5. Your Building Society, bank or lending source will at this stage arrange a survey on your proposed purchase. A choice of survey is available to you including the basic Building Society Report, Home Buyers Report and Full Structural Survey. There are various forms of survey which each dictate different amounts of detail on the required property. The costs of these surveys are also dictated by the detail. The report once complete will then be sent both to yourself and to your lending source. If any unsuspected problems have been highlighted by this report then it is at this stage that they need to be addressed, as your lending source may hold money back or consider not lending at all if they consider the problems to be a threat to their lending criteria. They may also request individual reports on highlighted items your Surveyor has picked up on, examples of this are damp, woodworm, structural defects, windows and the roof. Your Estate Agent will help and advise you on various specialists to use. If you are then indeed happy with the results and satisfy your lending source on any defects (if indeed there are any) then a formal offer from your lending source confirming the amount being lent will be issued, this is called a mortgage offer.

What Does A Search Involve?

6. Along with the mortgage offer and agreed contract, the other important document requested by your Solicitor is the Search. This is a series of approximately 30 questions sent to the Local Authority requesting information on various aspects including any building works or plans and the property boundaries. Upon the satisfaction of all these documents, you may well be in a position to exchange contracts. Your Solicitor will at this stage arrange an appointment to see you where he will discuss the contract and upon your satisfaction, will arrange for you to sign the contract, pay the deposit (usually 5% to 10%) and arrange a completion and moving date. The formal Exchange of Contracts is usually done by phone. Once this has happened you are then legally bound to the purchase and will be subject to legal ramifications and loss of the deposit if you do not complete.

Organising your move

7. You are now in the position to start organising removals and consider contacting various utilities including gas, electricity and telephone to instruct them on your new address and a date of reconnection. Other important people to contact would also possibly be your Bank, Doctor, Milkman etc.

Tie Up Loose Ends

8. Your Solicitor will still have a few loose ends to tie up between Exchange of Contracts and the completion date. Transfer of Title Deeds into your name and Land Registration (again a fee will be charged to yourself for this information) and arranging the remaining purchase money from your lending source to be distributed to him in time for completion.

Collect The Keys

9. On the day of completion, the monies will then be transferred to the seller's Solicitors, usually around midday. Once this is satisfied, your Solicitor or Estate Agent will ring to confirm a formal completion and arrange for yourselves to collect the keys.

Move In

10. You are now the proud owner of your new home, if you have any further queries on buying or would like advice on selling, please contact the above office for an informative chat.