House Buying Solicitors in Matlock, Derbyshire

We will need to apply for searches against the property to satisfy you and your lender if you have one and that all is in order. The searches can help to reveal any planning issues affecting the property, such as road improvements and details of any planning permissions affecting the property. We may also carry out flooding, mining and contaminated land searches if necessary. We will let you know if the searches reveal any matters of concern.

The seller’s solicitor will send us a draft contract, which we will check and amend as necessary. They should also send us a fittings and contents form and a property information form containing various details about the property.

We will carefully inspect the title of the property. The title will take the form of copies of the title deeds if the property is unregistered, or copies of the Land Registry entries if the property is registered. Over 90% of properties in England and Wales are now registered at the Land Registry, however, in the Matlock area, we do see a lot of unregistered properties. We look out for anything which could affect you at the property, for example, any easements (rights of way) or restrictive covenants. If the property is leasehold, then we will inspect the lease and any arrangements for maintenance of services at the property. We will report anything of concern to you.

We will then raise any enquiries that we have regarding the results of our searches and the contents of the forms.

If you are having a mortgage, we will inspect the terms of the mortgage offer and the mortgage deed and explain them to you. For more details click here.

Once we are happy with the results of our searches and the enquiries of the seller’s solicitor, we will ask you to visit our offices to sign the contract. We will report to you on any findings at this stage. If you are still happy to go ahead with the purchase, then you will be asked to pay a deposit which is usually 10% of the purchase price. We will then exchange contracts with the seller’s solicitor. If you wish to withdraw after contracts are exchanged, you may have to pay the financial penalties and could lose your entire deposit. On exchange of contracts, we will set the date for completion which is the day when keys are handed over and the balance of the purchase price is to be paid.

On the completion date, we will need to have received cleared funds for the final balance from you, together with funds to pay for our fees and any disbursements and Stamp Duty Land Tax. You will be provided with this figure on a completion statement before exchange of contracts. At this stage, we will also request any mortgage monies from your lender.

On the completion date, we will send the completion monies to the seller’s solicitor. Once they have received the money the keys will be released to you. We will then arrange for any Stamp Duty Land Tax to be paid and will register you as the new proprietor with the Land Registry.

Please note that this is for guidance only and cannot be relied upon as either legal advice or what will happen with your transaction. Each transaction varies, and each property is different. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.