Conveyancing solicitors in Hitchin

Once you have your offer accepted, it’s time to get the ball rolling on legally transferring the ownership to you. Here’s how we do things at My Home Move Conveyancing.

First, your estate agents will send us a copy of the Memorandum of sale, which provides the details of the property, the amount offered and the name of the sellers and buyers and their conveyancers. You will be asked to complete your details and provide to us your instructions along with primary ID such as a passport or driving licence and proof of residence in the form of a bank statement/utility bill.

Read our Home Buying Process guide

If you are selling a house, you will need a Conveyancer to act for you – that’s where we come in!

You will be asked by us to complete your details and provide your instructions along with primary ID such as a passport or driving licence and proof of residence in the form of a bank statement/utility bill. You will also be asked to fill in a Property Information form including some specific details about the property, its boundaries, any alterations to the property etc. If you have any additional paperwork such as planning permissions or notices, then these will be required by us to send with the contract papers. We will also ask you to complete a Fixtures, Fittings and Contents form to say what you will be taking and leaving behind. If the property is leasehold, you will be asked for information about who you pay ground rent and services charges to…

Read our Home Selling Process guide

After we have received your instructions to act we will check the legal issues and title to your property to ensure it offers a satisfactory security for your new lender, as this is the essence of a mortgage.

We will also check the amounts outstanding on any current mortgage registered on the property as these will have to be repaid at completion. The amounts will be confirmed with you.

Usually, we will not carry out Local, Drainage or Mining (if appropriate) searches as we will put in place an insurance which will protect your lender. This is less expensive for you and quicker. Some lenders still require that searches are made and will not rely on insurance. If this is the case the searches will have to be made and the cost will show on the Financial Statement sent to you.

At about the same time that you receive your Mortgage Offer we receive a copy together with the lender’s instructions to act for them. We will consider the Offer to ensure that we do those things required of us as the solicitors and to check what other conditions have to be satisfied.

We will then send you the Mortgage Deed to sign and any other documentation that may be required by your lender. We shall need to have this back from you as soon as possible and certainly by the day before we complete. Otherwise there will be a delay.

You need to check that the Mortgage Offer is acceptable to you. For example, is the mortgage amount and mortgage product correct? Is it the correct method of repayment? Are there any early repayment fees?

We target a completion date for 7 days after we receive our copy of the Mortgage Offer but our being able to complete depends on the terms of the Offer and any peculiarities of your transaction.

If the new mortgage amount is less than the amount we have to pay to your existing lender, we will ask for the difference from you, before the completion date.

Following completion we deal with the registration formalities to ensure the mortgage security is perfected for your lender and any deeds will then be sent to your lender for safe-keeping.

Note – If your property is leasehold, we also:

Request your landlord to confirm that all ground rent, service charges and insurance premiums (if applicable) have been paid to date and that there is no known breach of the lease.

Have to approve the wording of the lease.

Have to serve on the landlord a notice of discharge of your existing mortgage and a notice that a new mortgage has been given to your new lender.

Read our Remortgaging Process guide