We provide a first class and cost effective conveyancing service. Transactions are dealt with by a dedicated and caring conveyancing team. We pride ourselves on progressing sales and purchases extremely quickly and efficiently, drawing on years of experience with all aspects of residential property law. Our experienced staff will deal with your sale or purchase in an expert and professional manner. We aim to ensure that our prices are always competitive. Our staff are local to the area and we have found that local knowledge can often assist in conveyancing matters.

Buying a property

Once you have identified a potential property, the legal process will begin. Initially this will involve us carefully checking the documents and information provided by the seller and the seller's solicitors and then carrying out on your behalf Local Authority and other searches. Once the enquiries and searches have been completed and your finances are in place, we will negotiate with the seller's solicitors with regards to the timing and the details of the legal contract between you and the sellers.

If you are buying with a mortgage we have to send a report on title to the mortgage lender confirming the legal documentation is in order and confirm to them that you have signed the mortgage deed. It is our responsibility to ensure that the rights of the mortgage lender are properly protected.

Final agreement between the parties of this legally binding contract is known as exchange of contracts. At exchange any agreed deposit must be paid and a date for the completion of the transaction will be agreed. At this point removals may be booked or notice given on any rented accommodation.

Upon completion funds will be transferred by us to the seller's solicitors and upon receipt of the funds by them the keys will be released, and at that time may be collected by you. You should bear in mind if you are involved in a lengthy chain of transactions that completion could take place quite late on in the day.

Following completion, we will file the required Stamp Duty Land Tax Return and then once the stamp duty, if any, is paid we will complete the registration of your ownership at the Land Registry. Copies of the completed registration document will be forwarded to you and your mortgage lender (if required).

Selling a property

On the sale of a property it is the seller's solicitor who will draw up the contract of sale and provide all the necessary information about the property. To achieve this you will need to complete a detailed property information questionnaire and a form detailing which fixtures and fittings are being taken by you and which are being left and are included in the sale price. The buyer's solicitor will require copies of planning permissions and guarantees for any works which have been carried out to the property. On occasions these are not available and we can advise you on the appropriate course of action to take, be it a retrospective application for planning permission or arranging an insurance policy against the risk of an enforcement action being taken. We will communicate with any mortgage lender(s) for a redemption figure on the existing mortgage account to ensure that the mortgage can be repaid to enable the sale to go through.

Once the buyer's solicitors have successfully completed their enquiries they will be in a position to enter into a legally binding purchase contract. If you are buying and selling simultaneously we will liaise with solicitors on the other sides to ensure that the timing of the two transactions coincides.

Upon completion the mortgage(s) secured on the property will be repaid, the estate agents account paid and balance funds transferred to you.

Joint tenants / tenants in common

When purchasing with your spouse, friend or partner you have a choice between holding the property as a joint tenancy or tenancy in common.

The difference becomes important on the death of either joint owner. Joint tenancy means that you purchase the whole property between you equally. On the death of either, the deceased's share automatically passes to the surviving individual. That individual then becomes the full and complete owner of the property regardless of any intention expressed otherwise in a Will made by the deceased. The automatic right of survivorship makes this method of co-ownership both suitable and attractive to prospective co-owners who are married to each other. However, where a married couple have children from former relationships who would expect to inherit on the deaths of their respective parents a tenancy in common may be appropriate.

Survivorship rights may not be desired by co-owners who are not married to each other. Tenancy in common can be in equal or unequal shares depending on each individual's contribution to the deposit and/or future mortgage repayments. Unlike a joint tenancy, if you elect to hold the property as tenants in common your shares will be fixed, meaning that on the death of either the survivor will not automatically be entitled to the deceased's share in the property. Hence if you wish to hold the property in this way you should confirm the same to us specifying the shares you each respectfully wish to hold in the property.