The United Kingdom comprises the four separate countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The house buying process differs significantly between England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Many of the steps involved are however the same, we will highlight differences as they occur.
First Steps
Before you begin looking for a property to make your home it is important to limit your search by deciding how much you can sensibly afford to invest. You can supplement any monies you have saved with a mortgage from a commercial lender. The total you have available to spend will be reduced by fixed and variable costs including for legal work, surveys and vaulations, registry fees, stamp duty (for houses valued at over Ł120,000) and mortgage arrangement fees.
Finding your ideal house
Now that you have an idea of your budget, you can begin searching in earnest for the house you want to buy. Among the places you might look are:
Local Estate Agents
Local house builders
Classified and display advertising in local newspapers
Searching the Web
As well as the general neighbourhood feel and the quality of local facilities, e.g. schools and shops, you should consider the integrity of the bricks and mortar in which you are considering investing. Lenders will usually require a surveyor be instructed to produce a valuation of the property you want to buy, with their money. The mortgage valuation is not as comprehensive as either an intermediate house buyers report, or a full structural survey. You should think carefully about whether you can afford not to be in the possession of the full facts before making one of the most important and sizable purchases of your life.
Conveyancers
Conveyancing refers to the transference of the property’s title deeds from the seller to the buyer. In England and Wales you have the option of using either a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer to handle this transfer, in Northern Ireland and Scotland the licensed conveyancer option is not available. When selecting a professional to help you in the process of legal formalities you should shop around, get a breakdown of costs and explore contingencies, e.g. what will you be charged if the purchase falls through? You are legally entitled to do the conveyancing yourself if you have the time, knowledge and confidence but most people do retain expert assistance for peace of mind.
The Conveyancing Process - England, Wales and Northern Ireland
The seller’s conveyancer will draw up a contract to govern the property transfer after having received communication from your conveyancer. Before you finally commit to the purchase by signing this contract your conveyancer will perform enquiries and searches on your behalf to ensure that the seller has the right to sell the property all matters which may affect the property are brought to light such as listed building status, conservation requirements, local authority requirements with regard to the property and proposed changes or developments which might adversely affect the property and its neighbourhood.
You should also have in place a formal mortgage offer from your bank, building society or specialist mortgage lender. When contracts are exchanged you are usually required to pay a deposit of, normally, ten percent of the purchase price of the house. After this time you are responsible for the property and you should accordingly protect your investment as you would if you had already moved in, that is through arranging appropriate home and contents insurance.
Completion - England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Completion takes place some time after the exchange of contracts, the date will be specified in your contract of purchase. At this time the title deeds of the property are transferred to you and the corresponding purchase is made by the mortgage lender releasing funds to the seller. The seller will deliver to you or your agent the keys to the property and will vacate the premises. You have bought your house.
The Conveyancing Process - Scotland
Under Scots Law when you make an offer to purchase a house, and the seller accepts your offer, a binding contract is formed. For this reason you should be careful when making your offer. You can decide to make an unconditional offer which specifies the price you are willing to pay or a conditional offer which specifies the price but also details your conditions. The most common condition attached to an offer is ‘subject to survey’ - meaning that you are happy to proceed as long as a satisfactory survey of the house is made. For expediency, the seller is more likely to accept an unconditional offer than an offer with conditions. You should therefore consider having the property surveyed to your satisfaction prior to submitting your offer.
The property may be marketed at a fixed price or more commonly in a blind auction type arrangement. In the latter case the advertising may state ‘offers over Ł100,000’ for example. Offers will be submitted and opened on the closing date by the seller and their conveyancer. Usually the highest offer without conditions will be accepted. The acceptance may likewise be unconditional or may have conditions attached. Once you have satisfied these conditions, if any, you and the seller are in a binding contract to, respectively, buy and sell the house. This is called “concluding missives”. The missives will stipulate a date of entry and will include a “disposition” which formally transfers ownership of the property to you.
Completion - Scotland
On the date of entry you and your solicitor will make payment for the property in return for the disposition and the keys. You have now completed buying a house.
Don’t forget…
If you are moving in immediately you should have already arranged with providers of electricity, gas and telephone to activate these services in your new house. You will also have made arrangements with your house movers to deliver your furniture and belongings at an appropriate time to your new house.
