Finding a new home is exciting and we understand you will want to move in as quickly as possible. You will, however, appreciate that the legal process of transferring ownership from one party to another takes time.
Some delays in buying and selling property cannot be helped. But many can be mitigated by being organised from the beginning.
We’ve put together five top tips to help speed up the conveyancing process for you:
1. Instruct your conveyancer early
Engage a legal firm as soon as you have your offer accepted or before you accept your offer. Legal firms are obliged to complete anti-money laundering (AML) checks before starting legal work. You can get ahead of the game here by instructing your legal firm and providing the necessary information early on. This can include identification documents and source of funds/source of wealth.
Harold Stock & Co will require photo ID and address ID dated within the last three months. Your solicitor would confirm anything above this that is required from you at the outset, but ensuring you have the photo ID and address ID in hand is always a good idea.
Read this blog post for our top tips for choosing a conveyancer.
2. Secure your mortgage
When you are considering placing an offer on a property, do your research and choose your mortgage type and lender as soon as you start house hunting.
Obtaining a mortgage in principle is usually required by an estate agent to prove you can offer on a property. An agreement in principle (AIP) is a preliminary agreement from a lender showing they are willing to lend to you (as a result of a quick affordability assessment).
To obtain the full offer from your lender you will find a more in-depth look will be taken at your affordability. Once your offer is accepted on your new property, you can swiftly contact your lender or broker to complete the full mortgage application, saving valuable time.
3. Arrange your property survey quickly
It is always advisable to schedule a property survey as soon as you can after your offer is accepted.
We as a firm highly recommend that you undertake a survey when purchasing a property. A surveyor will go into significant detail as to the structural condition of the property and possible repairs required. They will also bring to the forefront any issues they believe may affect a prospective buyer to allow the buyer to raise these issues with the seller before proceeding.
The solicitors can review the sections of the report directed at them, but it gives you as the buyer the ability to refer any queries you have to your legal advisor who can forward them to the sellers at an early stage and, should it be necessary, to allow time for renegotiating the price or addressing the issues raised.
4. Stay organised
As you will appreciate, buying or selling a property involves a lot of paperwork.
Keeping all your important legal documents in one place can really help. Lenders, solicitors and estate agents will all likely want the same information. Having this all together would eliminate a lot of time and energy in the transaction.
Another point to consider is to be mindful of important dates, such as the expiration date of your mortgage offer and or expiration of any Early Repayment Charge on a sale. If you need to reapply for the mortgage on a purchase or ask for an extension from your lender, be aware that both processes can take time.
Similarly, on a sale the Early Repayment Charge may significantly affect when you want to proceed to completion, so having this information from the outset will greatly assist you.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask your solicitor questions
As you can imagine, it is impossible for legal work to be undertaken if a solicitor is inundated with calls for updates. We would however say that it is important that you raise any concerns you have with your dedicated contact as soon as you can to ensure the issues can be addressed in a timely manner.
Sending the queries you have in writing ensures they can be handled efficiently, so we would always suggest an email as the most effective way of contacting your solicitor. Remember, there are no such things as silly questions!
We as a firm want all of our clients to feel fully informed and confident to move forward and welcome questions from our clients.
Contact us
We hope these few tips help you on your way with your property matter.
Should you have any further queries or questions or wish to contact us for a quote do not hesitate to contact us on (01457) 835597 or email our team at c@haroldstock.com and we will gladly assist you. You can also view our conveyancing fees and more information on our conveyancing webpage.
