Residential Conveyancing

Residential Conveyancing

We at Macs Legal Services Ltd provide fast, highly skilled yet affordable residential conveyancing in Torquay and all over England and Wales, carrying out all Legal Work as fast as possible, but with stringent due diligence and professionalism, client care; keeping you informed throughout.

We handle, among other things, the following Services:

  • Freehold sale and purchases
  • Leasehold sale and purchases
  • Re-mortgages
  • Advice on buying foreign property
  • Caravan, lodges and park home sales and purchases
  • Residential chalet sales and purchases
  • New Builds
  • Properties bought and sold in Auction
  • Any type of Residential and Commercial Conveyancing

Other potentially Related Services:

Better legal fees are available should you instruct our firm in multiple cases, by way of example:

  • Family Law, including, Separation, Divorce and Child Arrangements
  • Wills, Probate, Powers of Attorney

Divorce/Relationship ends/Child Contact Arrangements. We offer Family Law Services. We
are able to assist you in this area, alongside your instructions with conveyancing, which
offers you lower legal fees and the ability to come to us for all of your affairs, saving time
and money.

Instructing us to both buy and sell for you offers better rates re legal fees.

If, which is hoped not, you are splitting up; you may wish to make a Will so as to ensure your hard earned money is going to the person you want it to go to. Again, this brings more favourable legal fees and saves time as you can instruct us on all matters in one place.

What Is Conveyancing?

Conveyancing involves the legal transfer of home ownership from the seller to the buyer. This process starts when an offer on a house is accepted and finishes when the buyer’s new ownership is registered at the Land Registry. Please see below the various stages in purchasing your new home:

The Offer & Acceptance Stage

OFFER: Here, for example, you find a property that you like and make an offer on it which is accepted.

CHOOSING A SOLICITOR: Having secured the property, you then look for a solicitor who can act for you by requesting a conveyancing quote from them. At MACS Legal Services Ltd you can get a highly competitive quote by clicking here.

INSTRUCTIONS CONFIRMED: We will then send you a care letter confirming our quote and explaining the terms under which we will act. You will need to provide an original passport and utility bill or drivers licence so we can verify your identity.
Alternatively, and for long distance instructions, where you either live or work too far away, we are able to carry out electronic identity verification. This way within minutes we can confirm our willingness to act for you subject to your signing and emailing back our terms and condition.

COMMUNICATING WITH THIRD PARTIES: As you have engaged our services you then pass on our details to your mortgage lender, if you have such lender, and the selling estate agents. Those estate agents will distribute a “Memorandum of Sale” and “Property Particulars” to all parties which is a dramatis personae of all relevant parties and legal representatives.

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    Draft Contract Stage

    PREPARATIONS FOR THE DRAFT CONTRACT: Your new solicitor will now write to the selling solicitors confirming his instructions and requesting a draft contract and evidence of the seller’s ability to sell the property. If the selling solicitor is unknown to your solicitor, he will also seek details that can be used to verify those solicitors, through their governing bodies, and their client account details.

    The selling solicitor will send the draft contract, Land Registry title documents, and replies to standard enquires to the purchasing solicitor.

    Searches & Additional Enquiries

    PREPARATIONS: The draft contract pack is examined by the purchasing solicitor who will then order various searches on the property depending on what he suspects about the location and history of property (for example, local authority, environmental and water and drainage searches).

    Until the search results are received (usually in 1 – 3 weeks), the purchasing solicitor will raise enquiries of the selling solicitor and start negotiating the terms of the contract of sale and purchase.

    Once the search results are returned further enquiries are usually raised.

    If you are taking out a mortgage, your solicitor will receive a copy of the offer and report on the terms and conditions with you. As he will be acting for both you and the lender, he/she will also advise you of the potential conflict that exists.

    Once all searches have been received and answers to all enquiries have been answered satisfactorily, you will be invited by your solicitor to sign the contract, the mortgage deed and the Transfer (the purchase deed). You will also be asked to transfer the deposit monies to your solicitors in readiness for exchange of contracts. This deposit is usually 10% of the purchase price (unless in a chain where whatever deposit given on your related sale is acceptable for the purchase).

    Exchange of Contracts

    Provided completion dates have been agreed between the parties, both solicitors will exchange signed contracts. It is only at this point that offer to sell, and purchase becomes binding on the parties based on that completion date. Your solicitor will then send the 10% deposit cheque to the buyer’s solicitors.

    Should either party withdraw from the sale after this, the other side will be entitled to claim compensation for breach of contract.

    Between Exchange & Completion

    Once the contract has been exchanged but before completion you do not own the property yet but have a chose in action. This means you have a legal right to require the seller to complete the sale to you. This gives you the insurable interest required for you to insure the property between exchange of contract and completion.

    If not already done, the solicitors will ask each party to sign the purchase deed called the Transfer in readiness for the completion date. This legally transfers the property to the buyer provided it is subsequently registered at the Land Registry.

    The purchasing solicitor will also make a Land Registry application (although called a search) to ensure that ownership of the property has not and will not change for a period long enough for completion and registration to take place.

    A bankruptcy search is also carried out ostensibly to ensure that on completion the buyer can enter into a mortgage.

    During this period the buyer will receive a final statement of account showing the balance required by his solicitor to complete the purchase. The mortgage monies will also be requested from the lender by way of a report on title that confirms to the lender that there are no adverse title issues relating to the property that would undermine the mortgage security.

    Completion Day

    Completion takes place when the selling solicitor confirms that they have received the balance of the money due. The seller’s signed transfer is then posted to the buyer’s solicitor and the keys are then released by the estate agents to the buyer who starts moving into to his new home.

    Post Completion

    The buyer’s solicitor then pays any Stamp Duty Land Tax due on behalf of the buyer, and upon receipt of the title deeds and documents and Transfer signed by the seller’, registers the sale and the new owner with the Land Registry.

    Once the registration has been received back from the Land Registry, a copy of the new title showing the name of the new owner and the duly registered charge in favour of the lender is sent to the buyer and the lender to confirm the end of the solicitor’s work.

    Call MACS Legal Services Limited on 01803 895222 for an initial no-obligation discussion on your sale or purchase or click here for a free quotation.
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