The YouMove Guide to Selling

Appointing a solicitor to handle the sale

Although your solicitor has no real involvement until this stage it's a good idea to instruct them at the time you put your home on the market.

This gives them the chance to prepare a draft contract that will be ready for when you have an offer agreed.
It's a good idea to make sure that your quote is for a fixed fee otherwise the amount you pay can rapidly creep up. Also, check that disbursements (expenses) are included in the fee.

The process from offer to exchange

While it's your solicitor that handles this process, it's good to have an overview of what's going on so you'll know what questions to ask. The process from offer to exchange is as follows:

• Your solicitor sends the draft contract to the buyer's solicitor.
• You forward a copy of your HIP to your solicitor who will pass it on to the buyer's solicitor.
• The buyer's solicitor conducts various property searches to uncover information that might affect the property.
• The buyer's mortgage lender will value the property and, if they are sensible, the buyer will have their own survey done as well.
• The buyer's solicitors will send "preliminary enquiries" to your solicitor, to be answered by you. Answer the questions honestly, but if you don't know the answer simply state "I don't know".
• Once the searches and enquiries are complete and the contract has been agreed you are ready to exchange contracts.
• At exchange the buyer and seller each sign an identical copy of the contract and then they swap (exchange) them.
• (Usually, the buyer and seller sign the contracts at their respective solicitors' offices and then the solicitors do the swap, which saves everyone from having to be in the same place.)
• The buyer then pays a deposit — usually 5 or 10% of the purchase price.

Completion

At completion the property actually changes hands. The buyer pays the balance of the purchase price and the seller hands over the keys.

The seller's solicitors will arrange to pay off the balance of the mortgage, while the buyer's solicitor will deal with the payment of SDLT. All you have to do is wait to hear that the purchase funds have been released to your solicitor before handing the keys over to the buyer.