We know how daunting it can be to buy your first home, but it is important that you understand the process involved so you can stay in control.

Step 1 – Offer Accepted

Once you have had your offer on a property accepted, you will be required to provide your solicitor’s details to the selling agents. For a no obligation quotation, please contact the Darlington office on 01325 281111 or the Catterick office on 01748 830000 or use our online quotation tool at www.clarkwillis.co.uk.

Step 2 – Instruct Your Solicitor

Once you have decided on your chosen firm of solicitors, they will send you some initial client care paperwork for you to complete and return. This will normally include a questionnaire, firm’s terms, information in respect of stamp duty, proof of funds and ID. You will need to complete and return all documents in order to instruct the firm. An upfront payment will also be required which will be around £250.00 for disbursements such as your searches and ID checks.

Step 3 – Contracts Received

Once the contracts and protocol documents are received from the seller’s solicitors, your searches can be requested. It will be a condition of your mortgage offer that searches are carried out on the property before funds can be requested. The searches include a local authority search (which we request direct from the relevant local authority) a water and drainage search, an environmental search and, in some circumstances, a coal search. At this stage the contract documents will be checked and any enquires will be raised with the seller’s solicitors. You will receive a report on title of the property which you are purchasing.

Step 4 – Mortgage & Survey

Once the solicitor’s offer of mortgage arrives, this will need to be checked to ensure the same is in line with the contract, we will also need to check whether there are any specific mortgage conditions within the offer. A mortgage report will be provided. The mortgage valuation is not a survey and can only be relied upon by your lender. You may wish to instruct an independent surveyor who will advise you on the different types of reports available.

Step 5 – Providing the Information

Once we have replies to the enquires raised at Step 3 and your search results, we will be in a position to provide you with all the necessary information about the property.

Step 6 – Signing Documents & Deposit

Once all enquires are satisfactorily responded to and search results are clear, the contracts will be issued to you for signature. You may attend the office or the documents can be posted or collected by you. You will be asked to sign a contract, transfer, mortgage deed, confirmation form, file plan and stamp duty form. You will also be provided with a completion statement which details all receipts and payments that need to be made on your transaction. We would require the deposit/balance funds from you in a cleared format together with confirmation of the source of the funds and up to date bank statements.

Step 7 – Exchange of Contracts

At this point you must be sure that you are happy to purchase the property. Once contracts are exchanged the completion date will become legally binding. There are penalties if you change your mind and wish to withdraw. Upon exchange of contracts a fixed date is inserted into the contract. There is no set time frame between exchange and completion. Some people wish to book removals or hand in a notice on a rental property so will require a period of time between exchange and completion.

Step 8 – Completion Day

This is the day in which the funds are sent to the seller’s solicitor and upon receipt, subject to the agreement of time, keys will be released to you. These are normally collected from the selling agents.

 

If you are ready to take the first step, contact us for a no obligation quotation on 01325 281111 (Darlington office) or 01748 830000 (Catterick office) or use our online quotation tool at www.clarkwillis.co.uk.