Hallett Co. was established in Ashford in 1830. It is one of the oldest firms of solicitors in Kent and has a long history of advising local families and businesses. Today, the firm delivers the same tailored, client-focused service it has always done, combining this with a strong grasp of both modern law and the modern marketplace, advising and representing clients from within Kent and beyond on a broad range of legal matters.
This guide is designed to give you an overview of the process as we appreciate that selling a property can be a daunting process.
Instruct a solicitor or conveyancer
You should appoint a solicitor, licenced conveyancer or legal executive to carry out your conveyancing. You should obtain an estimate of fees to ensure you know the overall cost. Hallett and Co have an experienced team of property specialists who will be happy to assist you.
Once you have found a legal representative that you are happy with, you should inform the estate agent who will then send the memorandum of sale to the relevant parties.
Fill in the relevant forms
On receipt of the memorandum of sale we will write to you with forms relating to the property. These forms are only to be answered based on your knowledge of the property from your ownership rather than a legal test but we are available to answer any questions you may have.
Draft contract
Once we have received the completed forms we will send them to the buyer’s solicitor together with the Land Registry documentation for the property and the draft contract.
Buyer’s actions
The buyer’s solicitor will usually instruct a local authority search, water and drainage search and environmental search. They will raise enquiries as a result of the search results and the draft contract pack which we have sent to them.
The buyer may choose to have a survey carried out on the property and will obtain a mortgage offer if necessary.
Answering enquiries
When the buyer’s solicitor raises the enquiries, it is likely that we will need your assistance with some of these based on your knowledge of the property.
If you are selling a leasehold property or a freehold property which has involvement with a management company then enquiries will also need to be made with the management company and freeholder (if applicable).
Signing the contract and exchanging contracts
Once the enquiries have been answered you will be sent the contract, often together with the Land Registry transfer, for signing. Although you are not legally committed to the sale of the property until after contracts have been exchanged, you should be sure that you are happy to proceed when you return the signed contract.
You will need to agree a completion date with the buyer, often with the assistance of the estate agent. Completion dates are usually set 1-2 weeks after exchange of contracts because mortgage lenders typically need 5 working days to provide the funds. Depending on the individual transaction you may be able to exchange and complete within a smaller timescale which can be discussed.
Exchange of Contract is the moment that you become legally bound to sell the property on the terms contained in the contract. Until then, you or the buyer can withdraw from the sale without any penalty.
Completion
On the day of completion the buyer’s solicitor will send the completion monies to us and we will settle your account with the estate agent and redeem your mortgage in accordance with the completion statement we have sent to you, before sending any surplus funds to you or using them for your own purchase.
You will need to hand the keys to the estate agent by 1pm on the date of completion as this is the time of completion usually committed to in the contract, being when the ownership of the property transfers to the buyer.
Time scales
A typical transaction will take approximately 8 weeks for a freehold property and 10 weeks for a leasehold property. However, the following factors may increase the time until exchange of contracts:
- Number of parties in the chain
- Whether the buyer has a mortgage in place
- Whether the buyer requests lease extension for a leasehold property
- Whether the searches flag up any issues
- Whether buyer’s survey shows up any issues
- Buyer’s Enquiries
For more information please contact info@hallettandco.co.uk
