It’s only a matter of filling in forms, isn’t it?
Stephen Solomon - Solicitor

It is trite, but absolutely true, to say that buying or selling your home is probably the single largest financial transaction which you will ever enter into, and some say one of the most stressful. It can be managed successfully in co-operation with your solicitor:

• Solicitor and client work best as a partnership, each having the trust and confidence of the other. Good communication between them is essential for a smooth transaction.

• Give instructions promptly and fully on the relevant facts and issues at all times. When asked to provide information or complete forms, do so as quickly as you can.

• Give details of your address, all contact telephone numbers, e-mail address where appropriate and fax numbers when available.
  
  
• Say when you might be away (whether on holiday or business). A power of attorney can be given if action might have to be taken whilst you are away.
  
  
• State your objectives at the earliest possible stage; particularly the speed at which you want to proceed and any circumstances which might cause problems.
  
  
• Discuss problems with a view to possible solutions: at times a solution may not be readily apparent but a good solicitor thinks laterally and sometimes the answer can be found in the most unlikely places.
  
  
• Never hesitate to ask that silly question: almost always it is very far from silly!

The dreaded "chain"

The chain links a number of sales and purchases, all of which move forward at the pace of the slowest. If you do get caught up in a chain, there is only a limited amount which you can do about it but the experienced solicitor does develop skills in organising and managing your transaction within a chain so as to ensure that it progresses as well as it can.

Incidentally, chains do have one particular advantage, in that once the chain is complete, all parties will know exactly where they stand financially and none should find themselves unintentionally either owning two housed or homeless!

Moving on to particular transactions, there are steps in each which would be helpful.

SALES

All properties

• To start the process, the title deeds are needed. Arrange to send them to your solicitor as soon as possible. It is quite surprising how long it takes banks to disgorge deeds on occasions.
  
  
• If the deeds are held by a building society or bank as lender, let your solicitor have the name and address of the lender together with the roll number (for building societies) or account number (for banks and other lenders) of the mortgage account. Most lenders charge a small fee to send out the deeds in this way: if you try to economise in saving this, you risk additional costs and trouble if the deeds then have to be retrieved urgently.
  
  
• Assemble and let your solicitor have additional documents which buyers’ solicitors will ask for. For example, planning and building regulation consents (or confirmations that they are not necessary) are very helpful, as are guarantees for works to the property (replacement of windows, roofing works, and so on).

Leasehold Property

• A common factor of delays in sales of leasehold properties is the time it takes to obtain details of the service charges, ground rent and so forth. Assemble and provide information about rents and service charges paid or demanded, insurance details and premium amounts, problems encountered with the landlord or managing agents in management of the property and so on.

PURCHASES

• Let your solicitor know at the outset whether you need a mortgage loan who the lender is and how long you expect the application to take. The process takes some time and you should therefore start as soon as you possibly can.
  
  
• The solicitor’s rôle on a purchase is to play detective by making various searches, considering the title and making enquiries of the seller’s solicitors. The purpose is to discover relevant information about the property and in particular any problems, with a view to solving them. You would not, for example, expect to find yourself obliged to buy a house with a granny annex if the seller’s granny was entitled to remain in residence. However, we are not psychic (we are good but not that good) and you will need to tell your solicitor about any features which merit particular investigation: for example, extensions, unclear boundaries, resident grannies and so on.
  
  
• These days questions about environmental problems are necessary. The principle which now applies is that "the polluter pays" to rectify environmental problems but if the polluter cannot be found or will not pay up, the owner of the property is responsible for the cost of dealing with environmental problems. This can be very expensive indeed. Unfortunately, contaminated land is not restricted to former industrial sites and landfills but can exist on land which to the eye is completely inoffensive. Former agricultural land on which housing developments are often built may be contaminated as a result of the agrochemicals that have been used. A recent instance concerned a purchase (not involving this firm, I hasten to add) where the proud new owner decided to dig up his garden and found that a previous owner had used it as a burial plot for old batteries which were now leaking. He now had a thoroughly contaminated garden which had to be cleared up at his expense.
  
  
• My own view is that good practice requires that you receive a written report on the property which you are buying, complete with copies of relevant documents, when deciding whether or not to commit yourself to exchanging contracts. It takes time and care to prepare a report and that necessarily has to be reflected in the fees which you may pay. However, the investment is more than worth while if you are thereby enabled to manage or avoid problems.

RE-MORTGAGES

• You may want to re-mortgage your property at some point after buying, to take advantage of a better mortgage deal or for some other good reason. If so, the procedure to be followed is very similar to that applicable to a purchase and can be both swift and straightforward as of course no related sale complicates matters.

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