Seven Steps to Moving House

Seven Steps to Moving House

You have found a property, agreed a price with the other party and/or the estate agents and applied for your mortgage. What next?

1. Contact us to find out about the legal costs involved. This will include Land Registry fees, stamp duty and search fees.
2. We will investigate the title to the property and carry out searches including a search with the local authority, an environmental and drainage search.
3. You should consider whether you should arrange a survey of the property. A “RICS Homebuyer” survey is recommended rather than relying on the valuation report carried out by your mortgage lender.
4. Once all outstanding issues are resolved and your mortgage offer has been received, we will send you the contract to sign. There will usually be a number of other documents for you to sign including the mortgage deed and a stamp duty land tax return.
5. We can exchange contracts and agree a completion date once everyone in the conveyancing chain is ready. Completion is usually a week or two after exchange.
6. We will request money ready for completion from you and/or your mortgage lender and carry out the pre-completion searches with the Land Registry.
7. On the day of completion, we will transfer the money to the other sides solicitors. You collect your keys and move in.

How long will it take?

It usually takes about 6 – 8 weeks from your offer being accepted to get to completion.

The actual completion date will however, depend on everyone in the chain being ready with mortgage offers (if needed) and all agreeing on a completion date.

Be prepared to be flexible on the completion date, although it is useful to have a guide as to your preferred date, until everyone is ready, we cannot guarantee that this date will be met.