Buying a Property 101

December 22, 2022

A Step-By-Step Guide to Buying a Property

Whether you are a first-time buyer or a commercial landlord, buying a property can seem a daunting process. To alleviate some of the stress, we have created a simplified step-by-step guide to give you an overview of the process.

Step One: Find a property and make an offer

This part is down to you. Once you have found your perfect property, made an offer, and received acceptance from the seller, you will need to instruct a solicitor to deal with the formalities. You will pass the solicitor’s details to the agent who will issue a memorandum of sale to all parties with the key terms of the offer. 

Step Two: Instruct a solicitor

This is where we come in. Our role is to ensure that you are buying a property that is suitable for your requirements and is free of any unexpected or avoidable problems. Once title and contract documentation have been received from the seller’s solicitor, we will review and raise any necessary enquiries. 

We will also conduct searches to reveal information about the property that you may not have known from your initial visits. For example, we can assess whether the property is at risk of flooding, and we can also determine whether necessary planning permissions and building regulation consents have been obtained for any works carried out at the property. 

It is also at this stage that you may wish to instruct a surveyor to carry out a detailed survey of the property. 

You will also have applied for your mortgage at this point if you are purchasing with a mortgage and we will need to await the mortgage offer from the lender before we can proceed to exchange. 

We will keep you fully informed throughout the process. Once we have received satisfactory replies to enquiries, search results, and your mortgage offer (if applicable), we will report to you on the property and ensure you are completely satisfied with the property that you are buying. 

Step Three: Exchange contracts

Once our legal due diligence has been completed, we will be in a position to exchange contracts with the seller’s solicitor. An exchange of contracts formally commits you to purchasing the property and creates a legally binding agreement between you and the seller. It is at this stage that we will require your deposit, which is usually 10% of the purchase price, and your signed contract.

The contract will usually specify a fixed date for completion that has been agreed between all parties (including other transactions in the ‘chain’ if there is one. If there are multiple transactions in a chain of purchases and sales, then it is important that everyone exchanges on the same date to avoid issues if one part of the chain fails to complete. This is often where delays can come in whilst we wait for confirmation from third parties higher or lower down the chain. Where there are mortgages involved, or if removals need to be booked it is usual to have at least a week between exchange of contracts and completion). 

Step Four: Completion

Prior to completion, we will need to ensure we are holding the balance of the purchase monies. Some or all of this may come from your lender as a mortgage advance which is ordered at exchange. We will also need you to have signed your Transfer document and mortgage deed (if applicable). 

* Virtual sigh of relief for everyone *. You are now the owner of the property. The purchase has been successfully concluded and you can collect the keys. However, for us as your solicitor, the work is not yet done. 

At this point, we will begin conducting the post-completion steps. This includes paying your Stamp Duty Land Tax to HMRC and registering you as the new owner of the property with the Land Registry. Once the registration process is complete, we will write to you enclosing the new deeds detailing you as the owner. 

This guide is meant to be a very simplified overview of the process, and this will differ depending on lots of different factors such as whether the purchase is leasehold, a new build, or if you are using Help to Buy. If you are thinking about buying a property or wish to know any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0121 705 7571 and ask to speak to our knowledgeable Property Department. 

This article is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute technical, financial, legal advice or any other type of professional advice and is no substitute for specific advice based on your individual circumstances. We do not accept responsibility or liability for any actions taken based on the information in this article. For more information, please click here.