Residential Conveyancing

Buying and selling your home can be complicated and stressful. It is probably the most valuable asset you own and to maximise your enjoyment and investment you might move or re-mortgage as your property rises in value, or invest in ‘buy-to-let’ schemes. Whether you are a first time buyer or an investor, Armstrong & Co provide a friendly service from our experienced, efficient and approachable team of professionals.  We offer competitive fees and guarantee to keep you fully informed at every stage of the transaction.

Our Areas Of Expertise Include:

Freehold and leasehold property sales and purchases

Re-mortgages

Transfers of property

Gifts of property

Trusts

Lease extensions

Our Services Include:

With every purchase or sale transaction there are key steps to undertake, which vary according to individual circumstances.

They are typically as follows:

  • Taking your instructions and giving initial advised based on the information you have provided

  • Identifying you as required by Money Laundering Regulations

  • Checking finances are in place for you or your buyer to fund the transaction

  • Considering or drafting contracts of sale

  • Considering or drafting property information forms

  • Reviewing all documents that form the legal title to the property

  • Checking leasehold issues with the owner of the freehold

  • Sending or receiving the contacts of sale

  • Raising enquiries upon the documents provided or dealing with any enquires raised

  • Putting indemnity insurance policies in place where required

  • Providing advice on all documents and information received (a ‘report on title’) to you and your lender

  • Finalising the contract and sending to you for signature

  • Agreeing a completion date

  • Exchanging contracts

  • Drawing down funds from your lender and you or receiving funds and completing the purchase

  • Dealing with post completion matters including redeeming any mortgages, the payment of any stamp duty and registering the purchase in your name

    If We will discuss this with you at the earliest opportunity, so you always have a clear picture of how long things are likely to take.

Key Stages

1 – Pre Contract

  • Once a sale has been agreed the seller’s conveyancer will put together a contract pack including a contract for the sale, various property information documents, and title deeds.

  • The buyer’s conveyancer’s job is to sift through this pack, raise enquiries with the seller’s conveyancer and also carry out searches of records relating to local authority issues, water and drainage, environmental considerations and more, to discover whether there are any potential problems for the buyer in owning or subsequently selling-on the property in future. If the buyer is using a mortgage to buy the property the conveyancer will also act for the lender to ensure that the property is good security for the lender’s loan and complies with the lender’s legal requirements.

  • Once the buyer’s conveyancer has completed the investigation and reported to the buyer’s satisfaction, the conveyancers will arrange for their clients to sign the necessary documentation and place them in funds in readiness for “exchange of contracts”.

  • Where one person’s purchase is dependent on another person buying their existing property there is a “chain”. The greater the number of links in the chain, the more likely statistically there is to be a problem in one of the links. For example, if the buyer at the bottom of the chain is delayed in obtaining a mortgage offer or if the conveyancer’s investigation shows up a defect which needs to be rectified before they can proceed there will be a delay in the whole chain reaching exchange of contracts, often to the frustration of everyone else in the chain.

  • Usually the last point to be agreed is the date when completion will take place and so it is advisable to start this dialogue with your estate agents fairly early in the process so they can contact all parties in the chain and endeavour to agree a completion which is convenient to all parties in the chain.

  • The pre-contract stage of conveyancing usually represents about 80% of the conveyancer’s work and 80% of the time from agreement to actual completion.

2 – Exchange of Contracts

  • “Exchange of contracts” is the point at which the buyer and seller become legally bound to buy or sell the property. Up until this point there is no binding agreement and any party can withdraw without having to pay any compensation to the other.

Once all parties in the chain are ready and willing to exchange contracts and have agreed on a completion date the conveyancers will bring the contracts into legal effect by following a strict legal formula which ensures that all parties in the chain become bound to buy or sell and complete their transactions on the same day.

  • At this point a deposit (usually 10%) is paid by the buyer to the seller’s conveyancer as security for the contract. If the buyer fails to complete in accordance with the contract this 10% deposit could potentially be forfeited to the seller. This is another reason why the buyer’s conveyancer has to have all their “ducks in a row” before exchanging contracts so as to ensure that the buyer is happy with what they are buying and will have funds to complete the purchase on the contractual completion date.

3 - Pre completion

  • In the period between exchange of contracts and completion the conveyancer will, if applicable, arrange for the mortgage funds to be sent in time for completion, and will arrange for all final documents and financial matters to be resolved so that completion can take place smoothly.

  • Buyers and sellers should make their arrangements for moving and packing up in readiness for completion.

4 – The Completion date 

  • This is the day when ownership of the property changes hands. The money moves up the chain and so if you are at the start of the chain then you are likely to complete early in the morning whereas if you are at the end of a chain you may not complete your purchase until later in the afternoon. Once completion has taken place the estate agents will release the keys to the new owner.

5 –   Post Completion

  • The seller’s conveyancer will ensure the seller’s mortgage is paid off and the lender’s mortgage removed from the title documents.  The buyer’s conveyancer will deal with payment of Stamp Duty land Tax to HM Revenue and Customs and will register the buyer’s title (and the new lender’s mortgage if applicable) at HM Land Registry.

  • The conveyancing team have an in-depth legal knowledge and strong relationships with local estate agents and developers.   Both clients returning to us and those using us for the first time feel safe putting their business in our hands. 

    Time Scales:

    For any transaction, the timescales are subject to change depending on when your offer is accepted and other factors involved, such as:

    • Number of parties in the chain

    • Whether the buyer has a mortgage in place

    • Whether the buyer requests lease extension for a leasehold property

    • Whether the searches flag up any issues

    • Whether buyer’s Survey shows up any issues

    • Buyer’s Enquiries

    A typical transaction will take between 8-16 weeks. However, we cannot control third parties and there are also many other factors that may increase the time taken and increase your costs. We will discuss this with you at the earliest opportunity, so you always have a clear picture of how long things are likely to take.

Our team of experienced conveyancers are here to make the process as simple and stress free as possible.

T: 020 8699 3477

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