Property purchase or sale can be divided into three major stages. There is the initial agreement here both parties have the option to walk away from their agreement. The exchange stage which commits both parties to the agreement and formalise the deal. The last stage; in any deal, is the completion of the transaction. Below is a detailed list of the entire process which has been broken into 13 individual sub-processes:-
1. The whole process starts with a verbal agreement between a buyer and a seller. The buyer agrees to buy the property in question at an agreed price and the seller agrees to sell it at that price. Clearly, this agreement is not legally binding at this stage because the agreement is subject to contract. Both buyer and seller exchange personal details and pass to one and other details of their respective solicitors to formally start the process of sale.
2. Both parties appoint solicitors to carry out the legal work in respect of the sale. The appointment of the legal representative can be done prior to the agreement of either sale/purchase as in 1 above or after the agreement. The more astute buyer/seller will and can shop around for the best price in the market. There are price differences between firms of solicitors. So shopping around is advised.
3. It is normal practice for solicitors acting for both parties to produce an estimate of costs plus disbursements before they start any work. Once these estimated costs are accepted then the legal work begins in earnest. The seller’s solicitor obtains information about the property in readiness to send to the buyer’s solicitor.
4. The seller’s solicitor sends the first draft of the contract together with the information about property to the buyer’s solicitor. If there are any issues; legal or otherwise, they are raised by the buyer’s solicitor. An example of a query is the agreed price according to my clients was