Conveyancing process explained: for sellers

• Send you a letter confirming who will be handling your conveyancing, our fees and any payments required, as well as our terms and conditions. There will be some forms to sign and you will need to send or bring in two forms of identification to confirm who you are.
• We will also include the following forms for you to complete:
• TA6 – This is a general questionnaire and includes questions about boundaries, proposed developments of which you are aware (like housing developments or motorways near to your property), any building works that have been carried out, council tax, utilities and contact details.
• TA10 – This is a fixtures and fittings form detailing what you are including in the sale of your property (washing machine, oven, curtains etc.)
• If you are a leaseholder, you will also be required to complete a TA7 or a TA9 form detailing more information on the lease/commonhold.
• It is vital that these forms are completed to the best of your knowledge and truthfully because if not, then the buyer may feel that they have been misled or you may be sued for compensation after completion.
• We will also write to your buyer’s solicitor to confirm we are acting for you.

• We will use the answers provided by you in all of these forms to draw up a draft contract which will then be sent on to your buyer’s solicitor/conveyancer for approval.
• We will then begin negotiations with your buyer’s solicitor/conveyancer to agree a date for completion (usually 7-14 days after the exchange of contracts)
• If you have a mortgage on your home, then we will request a redemption figure from your mortgage company. This is how much we pay to them upon completion of the sale.

• At this stage, you and the buyer will have agreed a date to complete. Your solicitor will contact you on the day of exchange to ensure that you are happy to proceed. Once you have confirmed your approval ,we will contact your buyer’s solicitor/conveyancer and exchange contracts for you.
• This is usually done by both solicitors/conveyancers who will make sure that the contracts are identical, insert the completion date and then immediately send them to one another in the post.
• If you or the buyers are in a chain, the solicitors/conveyancers will do the same thing, but will only release it if the other people in the chain are all happy to go ahead. This means that if one person pulls out or delays, then everyone in the chain is held up.
• Once you have exchanged contracts, you will be in a legally binding contract to sell the property. Which means;
• If you pull out, the buyer can sue you.
• If the buyer does not complete the purchase, you can sue them and likely keep their deposit.

• Immediately after the exchange of contracts, we will receive the deposit from the buyer which will be held in an account for you until completion.
• You will continue to own the property and be free to live in it until the agreed completion date. Now is the time to pack and get ready to move by hiring a removal firm or making your own arrangements.
• It is important to ensure that when packing up, all items listed on the fixtures and fittings list are still left in the property and that you do not damage the property in any way.

We will receive the outstanding balance of the sale price, which will then be sent on to you after payment of any outstanding mortgage fees, estate agent fees and our own fees.

You will need to ensure that you have moved out and handed over the keys to your property. In practice, the buyer normally collects the keys from the estate agent.