Residential Property Sale

Instructing PM Law’s Conveyancing Department couldn’t be easier. Simply enter your details on the online quotation form and we will give you an immediate quote for the sale of your property.

Once you accept our quotation we will send you our client care documentation, together with the ancillary documentation required to support the contract pack which will be sent to your Buyers solicitors. These will include a property information form and a fixtures, fittings and contents form, together with other useful forms which the buyer may request to assist the smooth sale of your property. You will also be sent a questionnaire which requires certain necessary personal details for our file and details of any mortgages/charges over the property.

Simply complete and return the forms together with any documents which you hold in relation to the property, especially if the property is unregistered and you hold your deeds. We may also need your original identification papers (ijn order to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2003 Act).

• We will obtain a copy of your legal title from the Land Registry (if registered) or your title deeds (if unregistered) and you must forward any guarantees or other documents to us that are not contained within your title deeds.

• If you hold any pre-registration title deeds (which may have been sent to you when you purchased or re-mortgaged your property) then these may be useful to your buyer so please also forward these to us.

Once you have returned the documentation to us in relation to your property, a draft contact and supporting package will be prepared and sent to the buyers’ solicitors for their approval.

At this time, a copy of the agreement will be sent to you for signature which will be held on our file until exchange of contracts takes place but will not be used without your explicit instructions – this saves time!

If the buyer has any further enquiries we will keep you informed and may write to you with the enquiries in order that you can reply.

To save you time we can deal with the signing of documentation through the post.

At this stage, if you have a mortgage(s) over the property then provisional redemption (settlement) figures will be obtained from your lenders to ensure that there is enough money from the sale proceeds to discharge all of the mortgage(s) and ancillary sale expenses.

There is one other document on your sale that requires your signature and this will be prepared by the buyers’ solicitors. This is the Transfer document which effectively transfers the property at the HM Land Registry from your name into the buyers name.

This is prepared by the Buyers solicitors but may be sent to us prior to exchange of contracts for approval (in order to save time). You may be requested to sign the Transfer even before exchange takes place.

The document will not be handed over to the buyers’ solicitors until the day of completion when all the sale monies have been received.

On completion, the completion date is inserted and the buyers’ solicitors will use to the document to register their clients ownership of the property at the HM Land Registry.

• Once your buyers’ solicitors are ready to proceed then discussions will take place in relation to a completion date and exchange of contracts (this is a milestone process which makes the sale legally binding and neither party can withdraw from the transaction) and completion.

• Remember exchange of contracts cannot take place until everybody within the chain is ready to proceed and a completion date has been agreed upon.

From the purchaser’s perspective search results, replies to any enquiries, the mortgage offer (if appropriate), cleared deposit monies and a completion date all has to be agreed and in place.

We will then (or if there is not sufficient time between exchange and completion possible before exchange) apply for an up to date redemption (settlement) figure from your lender(s) calculated to the day of completion.

When exchange of contracts takes place the completion date (moving date) will be inserted in the contract and will be legally set.

If there is sufficient time between exchange and completion (i.e. more than 7 working days) then the buyers solicitors will forward the deposit cheque to us, if however there is not sufficient time then the buyers solicitors will hold this to our order.

Once exchange of contracts has taken place, the final legal preparations will be made. Arrangements for the keys will need to be made, if there is an Estate Agent involved we would suggest that the keys are delivered to the Estate Agents on completion, alternatively if you wish you can make arrangements direct with the buyer.

On completion when we have received the sale monies from your buyers’ solicitors through the bank system (we cannot guarantee a time as we are reliant upon the chain and the banking system) we will then telephone you to inform you that the completion is finalised and the keys can be handed over/delivered to the estate agents.

PLEASE NOTE if you are delivering the keys direct to the buyer PLEASE DO NOT hand over the keys until we have confirmed that the sale monies have been received.

We will then arrange for your mortgage(s) (if applicable) to be repaid in full, will pay the estate agents (if applicable) and will also deduct our costs and expenses from the sale – you will have the choice of whether or not you wish the sale proceeds to be paid by cheque or direct into your bank account (subject to a bank charge).