First time sellers - Q&A

I’ve accepted an offer on my house – what’s the next step?

Following acceptance of an offer on your property, you should notify you appointed solicitor that a sale has been agreed and give the estate agents your solicitor’s name and contact information.  The agents will issue the Memorandum of Sale to all parties involved in the transaction, following which contracts can be drawn up and issued to the buyer’s solicitor.  You will be asked by your solicitor to complete a ‘Property Information Form’ which gives the buyers information about the property and a ‘Fittings & Contents Form’ which details the items which are either included or excluded from the sale.  These forms should be completed by you as soon as possible as they need to be issued to the buyer’s solicitor as part of the Contract pack.

What happens if unexpected issues arise on the searches?

Upon receipt of Contracts and title information, the buyer’s solicitor will carry out searches on the property.  Hopefully, the search results would not reveal anything unexpected but if they do, there are a number of ways in which issues can be resolved.  Depending on the nature of the issue, indemnity insurance can be offered to the buyer to cover lack of planning/building regulation approval, contamination etc. It is important to note that if indemnity insurance is offered, an approach is not subsequently made to the Local Authority, Water Authority etc for further information as this would invalidate the insurance.  If the buyer did not want to accept indemnity insurance, approaches need to be made to the necessary authorities to ascertain what is required to remedy the issue.  The buyer’s solicitor may need to refer issues revealed in the searches to their client’s mortgage lender and seek approval to proceed.

What are the costs I am likely to incur?

• Estate Agents fee for marketing the property
• Solicitors legal fees
• Disbursements payable to solicitor for obtaining title information documents from the Land Registry
• Possible indemnity insurance policies
• Mortgage redemption fee payable to mortgage lender

What other complications could arise when I’m selling?

There can be various complications when selling a property.  For example, the buyers will have a survey carried out on the property which could reveal defects or there may be issues with the title which need further investigation.  The majority of complications can be resolved – if issues are revealed on a survey, a seller can choose to either carry out works to the property to remedy any issues or alternatively offer a reduction in the agreed sale price to cover the cost of any works which can then be carried out by the buyer post completion.  If issues arise with the title, there are various ways in which these can be resolved depending on the actual issue but quite often, these can be covered by the seller by signing a declaration to the effect that no problems have arisen due to title issues and also by providing Indemnity Insurance.

How will my solicitor help me in the sale process?

Your solicitor will keep you fully advised of the stages reached during the sale process and be on hand to answer any queries you may have throughout the transaction.  Advice will be offered to you in respect of any issues which arise during the transaction and they will resolve any legal issues.  Your solicitor will communicate with the buyer’s solicitor to bring the matter to a successful conclusion and on completion, will deal with repaying any mortgages secured against the property, settle estate agents’ fees and then account to you for the net proceeds of sale.

If you have any questions on this, or any other conveyancing query, please contact one of our conveyancing team today here.