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Moving Home

From making your offer on a property, a solicitor can guide you through the home buying and selling process and may also help you be able to secure a mortgage.

When purchasing a property, a solicitor will negotiate your offer, resolve any valuation and local planning issues, boundary issues, rights of ownership to the land, as well as any leasehold, freehold and commonhold agreements. On behalf of the buyer, the conveyancing solicitor will ensure that you have ‘title’ to the land, this ensures that the seller of the property has the right to sell.

Your solicitor will also undertake a number of searches on your behalf:

Local Authority Search: This will include details such as any planning in the locality or any plans to build roads etc close to the property.

Drainage search: This type of search is usually insisted upon by mortgage providers and will include issues such as whether waste water from the property flows out into a public or private sewer.

Usually the buyer of the property agrees the price and arranges for a structural survey to be made on the property and the buyer’s solicitor will arrange for the relevant searches to be made.

The process of buying a house takes approximately 10-12 weeks but this can be affected by a number of factors. Up until contracts are exchanged either party can cancel the sale or purchase. Once contracts have been exchanged you have agreed to purchase the property and a deposit may be required. On the date of completion you are required to pay the balance on the property.

Home Information Packs

Home Information Packs (HIP) were introduced in 2007 but the duty to have a HIP was suspended on 21 May 2010. This means homes put on the market on or after that date will no longer need a HIP. However, you will need to have commissioned, but not necessarily received an Energy Performance Certificate before marketing can start. This means that a seller or a person acting on their behalf i.e.an estate agent must have instructed an accredited Energy Assessor to carry out an energy performance assessment.

Landlord and Tenant

A solicitor can advise both landlords and tenants, in the social and private sector, on issues such as the terms of a tenancy agreement, possession and rental arrears cases, business tenancy agreements and renewals, dilapidation claims and service and/or maintenance charges. A solicitor can also provide advice to property owners facing possession claims because of arrears on a mortgage or a loan secured on the property. 

Related accreditations: Planning Law Accreditation Scheme

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