We will obviously be in touch with you by letter, email and telephone through the transaction but we thought that this brief guide to the Selling process may be of assistance to you and help you to understand what is going on in what can be a rather confusing process.

We also keep you updated through our online case tracking system

Step 1	Buyer and seller reach agreement on the price to be paid for the property either directly or through an estate agent.
Step 2	Seller obtains quotation from solicitor and instructs solicitor to act.
Step 3	Your solicitor will send some questionnaire documents to you setting out various details about the property including, in particular, the items of fixtures and fittings that you are leaving at the property and those that you are taking away.
	These questionnaires are essential to enable a contract package to be prepared and, although somewhat time consuming to fill in, they do save a lot of time and confusion later in the process.
Step 4	Seller completes Forms giving information about the property and a fixtures list and returns them to his solicitor.
Step 5	The seller's solicitor will obtain a copy of the Land Registry documentation which gives all the title information about the property. As our firm is on Land Registry Direct we can obtain this information immediately on line in nearly all cases.
Step 6	Seller's solicitor prepares the draft contract setting out the terms of the sale and sends it to the buyer's solicitor with copy title documents and sellers forms.
Step 7	If the property is leasehold the seller's solicitor will apply to the freeholder or managing agents to obtain up to date service charge information, copy buildings insurance etc. Please note that in sales of leasehold properties this step can cause delay if the freeholder/managing agent does not deal promptly with the enquiries. Unfortunately, in nearly all cases the freeholder/managing agent will make a charge for supplying this information. This can be anything from a few pounds to £200.00 depending on the company concerned.
Step 8	The buyer's mortgage survey should take place. If an appointment for a survey is not made within a couple of weeks of the sale being agreed you should speak to the estate agent or the buyer direct to enquire as to progress.
Step 9	The buyer's solicitor will usually raise some enquiries about the property arising out of the information sent to the buyer's solicitor with the contract papers. Usually your solicitor will be able to deal with some of these enquiries but it may be necessary to take your further instructions in writing or over the telephone in respect of some of the enquiries.
Step 10	Once the enquiries have been dealt with the seller's solicitor will send the contract to the seller for signature.
	If you are also purchasing a property both contracts will come to you at the same time.
Step 11	The solicitors exchange contracts fixing a moving date and making the sale of the property legally binding on both parties.
Step 12	The seller's solicitor advises the estate agents of the completion date and arranges for settlement of their account normally from the net sale proceeds.
Step 13	The seller's solicitor provides the buyer with payment details, agrees the completion arrangements and a statement showing the balance of the monies required by the seller (if the property is leasehold this will take into account any ground rent and service charges that may be outstanding or paid in advance).
Step 14	The seller's solicitor will ask the seller's mortgage company if appropriate for a figure for the monies that will be necessary to pay to discharge their existing mortgage over the property.
Step 15	The seller and buyer organize practical arrangements such as removals in readiness for completion
Step 16	The seller's solicitor will forward sufficient monies to the seller's mortgage company to redeem the mortgage, will pay the agents fees, legal costs and send the balance to the seller (or use it towards the price of any other property that the seller is buying).
Step 17	The seller should place a set of keys with the estate agent or, if there is no estate agent, advise the buyer of the location of the keys.
Step 18	The seller's solicitor will telephone the estate agent to confirm that he is happy for the keys to the property to be handed to the buyer.
Step 19	The seller's solicitor will send the Transfer documentation to the buyer's solicitor.
Step 20	If the seller's solicitor has redeemed a mortgage on the property that has been sold he forwards a receipt to the buyer's solicitor when this is received from the mortgage company concerned.

Since the introduction of Home Information Packs in 2007 it will be necessary for your Solicitor to have a copy of this compulsary document to send on to your Buyer's Solicitor.

For a full explanation of HIPs and how we can help you to produce one click here   HIP  

We hope this guide has been useful to you. We hope it also shows that solicitors do earn their money in Conveyancing transactions!