The Housebuying Process In The UK: What You Need To Know
identity theft protection No Comments »Many people wonder why buying a house is such a time-consuming process. The answer is that many different legal areas (land deeds, contracts, planning, insurance etc) as well as multiple interested parties (buyer, seller, lenders, legal representatives, government, local council etc) need to dealt with.
All of this takes time – and paperwork! Perhaps the best advice you can give a first-time buyers who want matters to progress with minimum fuss is to engage the services of proper professional property lawyers with local experience.
A decent local solicitor will have both the legal knowledge and the range of contacts to bring the process to a swift and satisfactory conclusion. Once you have been granted finance by your lender, the solicitor will prepare and fine-check title deeds and contracts, deal with local authority checks and handle your mortgage transfer. Meanwhile you will arrange for a survey, buy insurance and appoint a removals company. Again, an experienced local solicitor will likely be able to advise on some or all of these responsibilities.
After all the appropriate documents have been checked and signed by relevant parties, contracts can be exchanged. At this point your mortgage advance will be released by your lender, who will receive a title certificate, final checks and searches will be made and a deposit lodged with the sellers’s representatives. As a buyer your insurance cover should be activated and your removal arrangements confirmed.
Your solicitor will present you with a full financial statement and you contact the estate agent to arrange, subject to completion, collection of the keys. The balance of the mortgage will be transferred to your solicitor by your lender , with the appropriate monies then being advanced to the seller’s solicitor, who returns title deeds.
Any surplus funds agreed with your lender are released to yourselves. While you collect the keys and move in, your solicitor will pay any stamp duty owed, register your ownership with the Land Registry and send the title deeds to your lender.
All done: you’re a homeowner.