Buying a Property

We aim to make buying a property run as smoothly as possible. Here we outline what to expect once you have found the house of your dreams.

The conveyancing process for buying a property

Once you have found a property to buy and agreed to a price, you need to let your estate agents know that ORJ in Stafford are your appointed solicitors for your conveyancing. If you are organising a mortgage for buying the property, you also need to let your mortgage broker or mortgage company know too so that they can send us your mortgage offer.

The estate agents will then issue a memorandum of sale so that everyone has the details of all the parties involved. They will also provide us with a copy of the EPC for the property and certified copies of your identity documents to satisfy anti-money laundering requirements.

At the same time, we will write to you with our initial pack which has some forms for you to complete, if you require any assistance completing these please contact us as we are here to help.

When we have received your completed forms, identity documentation and initial payment, we will request the contract papers from your seller’s solicitors and submit searches.

As soon as we receive the contract papers we will check the legal title to the property and raise any enquiries we have with the seller’s solicitors. We then have to wait for them to contact us with the replies, but if it takes them too long we’ll give them a chase.

We will also submit searches to the Local Authority, Drainage Company and Environmental Authority to obtain as much information as we can about the property you are buying.

When your mortgage offer arrives, we will send the mortgage deed out to you for signing and let you know of any special requirements that your mortgage lender may have before the loan can proceed.

Once our enquiries are satisfied and the searches are received we will write out to you with all the information we have about the property and the contract to sign.

As soon as we receive your signed contract we can agree a date for completion and request the deposit money from you.

When a completion date has been agreed, and the deposit money has arrived in our bank account, we will exchange contracts which makes the transaction legally binding and the date is fixed for completion.

On the day of completion, we will receive your mortgage funds and transfer these electronically to the seller’s solicitors. As soon as the money arrives with the seller’s solicitors you can collect your keys, usually from the estate agents.

We will pay any stamp duty payable and register you as the new owner of the property at the Land Registry, together with the mortgage.

When the Land Registry has confirmed that your ownership has been registered with them, we will contact you (and your mortgage lender) to let you know.

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For conveyancing enquiries or for more information about buying or selling a property in Staffordshire, please send an email to Witney.Tully@orj.co.uk or call 01785 223440.