Freehold sales & purchases
The majority of residential property transactions involve the sale or purchase of freehold property and usually single houses, as opposed to flats or maisonettes.
We believe that it is not just our job to deal with the “nuts and bolts” of freehold property sales and purchases, such as the preparation of documents for signature, submitting searches, addressing Stamp Duty Land Tax and registering the purchase at the Land Registry, but that it is just as important to guide and advise our clients through the whole transaction. This means knowing what, if any, action is required and, importantly, the timing.
Where issues come to light, we will give impartial advice about whether this represents a substantial problem. For our clients, our wealth of experience and expertise can be invaluable in overcoming any such obstacles so that the transaction can proceed without significant delays.
A vital part of our approach is thinking ahead and preparing documentation which may be needed later in the transaction as soon as possible. Communication is equally key.
We actively value as much interaction with our clients about the transaction as possible. This is beneficial for you in so far as you will receive regular updates and it also beneficial to us as in most cases we will not see the property in question and there could well be some quirks or peculiarities which we may not be aware of unless they are brought to our attention.
It is important to note that most freehold property sales and purchases will be part of a chain of transactions involving buyers and sellers of other properties. In such cases, the key stages of the transaction, such as the exchange of contracts and the completion, can only happen when the slowest link in the chain has reached that point. Sadly, there is very little that your property lawyers can do to prevent this from happening.
Many of the worst experiences of buying and selling arise from one party in the chain having a fixed idea about the timescales that matter to them and having their plans ruined when others are unable to meet these or follow a different agenda. In these circumstances, our job is to give you as realistic an assessment as possible on timescales and warn you if our experience tells us that some other party is likely to be a source of delay. Where your sale or purchase is held up by others, we will ensure that we have attended to all the other elements of the transaction which need to be dealt with so that when all of the parties in the chain are able to proceed, so are we.
Our team can advise you on:
- Freehold Property sales & purchases, the process & timing
- Stamp Duty Land Tax
- Land Registry formalities
