Here at LLG we provide tailored services to consider the nature of a transaction as well as the clients’ needs. We take on a personal approach to understand the clients’ needs during a transaction and to understand the circumstance, allowing us to progress matters transparently and efficiently together.
Selling or buying a property for the first time can be slightly overwhelming in trying to understand the procedure and timeline of the transaction.
Our aim is to complete transactions with clear communication and efficiency, where the solicitor and client can work together to complete the transaction.
Here is a typical breakdown of a sale transaction, noting areas where you as the seller can help us expedite a transaction or to simply save some time to progress the matter.
Sale:
Once you have discussed your property with your acting solicitors and the engagement letters have been actioned, here are the following main steps to progression:
– Initial monies on account to be paid as outlined in your engagement letter in relation to disbursements. This will enable your solicitor to send out the Thirdfort ID link for you to complete and order the Office copies at the Land Registry. The solicitor will need to receive these to be able to send out contract papers to the buyer solicitors.
– Sale questionnaire, protocol forms and accompanying documents to be completed and returned using the links sent to you via the online portal.
– Sale questionnaire – mainly enables the solicitors to contact the lender to obtain a preliminary redemption statement for the mortgage on the property.
– Protocol forms – These are standardised documents used to provide the buyers and buyer solicitors with the necessary information about the property sold. This is important as it forms the main part of the contract papers to be sent to the buyer solicitors as an initial stage of the transaction.
– Accompanying documents – The protocol forms note relevant documents that will be required e.g. Planning and Building Regulations documentation, guarantees and warranties, electrical and gas certificate, and service reports etc. This also forms part of the contract papers which will enable the buyer solicitor to review and advise the buyer accordingly. Therefore, any documents available at hand can be provided with the remaining to follow.
– Probate sale – If this is a probate matter, please inform your solicitor who will advise you of the various documents required such as the original probate document and death certificate to take certified copies to file.
When selling a leasehold property, a management information pack will need to be obtained from your Landlord, Landlord solicitor, Management company or Managing agent. This is also applicable for a Freehold property sharing communal areas under an estate management.
– To expedite this process our solicitors will advise you to contact the relevant contact to request these. This is because it typically takes a few weeks to obtain these, as a payment fee will need to be made to obtain the management pack and there will be a turnaround of around 10 working days to produce the documents.
– We will need to provide the buyer solicitors with the management pack for their review to raise enquiries and we will then need to liaise with the relevant contact for them to provide the responses to satisfy the enquiries. It is quite common for this process to take time as management companies and agents take longer periods to respond. Therefore it is vital to get this started at an earlier stage to speed the process.
Once the contract papers are sent to the buyer solicitors, they will in due course raise the initial enquiries to your solicitor:
– The solicitors will review the enquiries and contact yourselves and either the Landlord, Landlord solicitor, Management company, Managing agent or Estate management to provide the answers to the enquiries regarding the property at their capacity.
– One of the main aspects dealt in enquiries are the planning and building regulations documentation – In some cases these can be located at your council website using your log in details, as solicitors do not have access to this. Therefore, it would be helpful to provide these to your solicitors to satisfy enquiries.
– Service charge and/or Ground Rent arrears – If the management pack shows accounts with arrears, the buyer solicitors will raise for these to be settled. Your solicitor will provide you with the account statement, requesting the arrears to be cleared and provide us with confirmation so new statements can be requested to confirm the same to the buyer solicitors.
– Retention riders/clauses – It is common for a retention to be agreed on a Leasehold transaction. This is due to the service charge accounts being finalised at a later date, past the service charge term. Once the accounts are finalised it is common for arrears to be left in the accounts. This is where the retained some will be apportioned to clear the arrears due during your ownership of the property, any monies remaining will be returned to you. Your solicitor will provide the retention rider/clause and advise further to take your instructions before agreeing. Please note retention rider/clauses can be used in other instances such as potential works, major works etc.
– Indemnity policies: There are instances where you may not hold a required certificate in relation to planning and building regulations, or there may be a defect/missing information in the Title, Lease or plans. To satisfy the enquiry and requirements, an indemnity policy can be provided to the buyers on completion at the seller’s expense (a one-off payment). The indemnity policy is obtained from third parties and the cost varies depending on the nature of the policy, property value, date of work etc. Our solicitor will provide a draft indemnity policy for your review and take your instructions before agreeing.
Building Safety Act:
Please ensure to discuss with your solicitor at the initial stage if you are aware, that your property as a qualifying leasehold and therefore subject to Building Safety Act. This will enable us to assist with providing our guidance documents and advise for the Leaseholder Deed of certificate to be served as early as possible. This is to allow for the 4 weeks’ notice for the Landlord to respond to start imminently to avoid any possible delays. Our solicitor will notify you otherwise if your property is a qualifying leasehold upon reviewing the title documents etc. and will guide you to serving the Leaseholder Deed of certificate.
– Exchange:
– Once the majority of enquiries have been satisfied it will be time to discuss potential exchange and completion dates. We advise our client to arrange this with the agent for efficiency due to the agents having direct contact with the buyers.
– Signed documents in readiness to exchange:
– We will provide the documents via email or post (your preference) along with the guidance to sign and witness these. We request these to be signed with wet signatures and scanned back to your solicitor, with the original copies to our office marked for your solicitor’s attention.
– Please note our solicitor will need the original signed documents in the office in order to proceed to exchange and complete. Therefore, it is essential for this to be actioned to ensure a smooth process to exchange.
To recap where you can assist your solicitor for an efficient transaction:
– Notifying your solicitor if you are aware of your leasehold property as a qualifying property where the Building Safety Act applies. The solicitors can then guide you with serving the Leaseholder Deed of certificate at the earliest to start the 4-week turnaround time without further delays.
– Enable your solicitor to order office copies and send ID links by making the initial monies on account payment. This will then enable your solicitor to issue the contract papers.
– Request your solicitor to provide the list of documents required to be posted in relation to the probate sale e.g. Probate documentation, Death certificate, copy of the Will etc.
– Provide your sales questionnaire and protocol forms with the available accompanying documents to send as part of the contract papers to the buyer solicitors. This will provide sufficient time for the buyer solicitors to review the contract pack and mainly to order searches, which has a turnaround time of around 4-6 weeks to receive search results.
– Contacting Landlord, Landlord solicitor, Management company, Managing agent or Estate management to request the management pack and make payment directly upon instruction. There is a turnaround time of anywhere around 10 working days for the management pack to be produced and issued to your solicitor.
– Efficiently working through the enquiries and assisting where possible, such as accessing planning and building regulations documents on the council website to provide to the buyer solicitors. Further, clearing the service charge/ground rent arrears where possible to satisfy the buyer solicitors’ enquiry.
– Arranging the exchange and completion dates with your agents for efficiency as they are in direct contact with the buyers.
– Ensuring to action the signed documents task by provided signed scanned and signed original documents as this is required for your solicitor to exchange and complete.
By Vithu Baskaran
