Offer Accepted – You’ve found your dream home – what happens next?
Once your offer has been accepted, the conveyancing process begins.
It can be helpful to think of the process as a journey: Offer accepted → Instruct conveyancer → Legal checks & searches → Enquiries → Mortgage offer → Report on title → Exchange of contracts → Completion → Registration
Step 1: Instruct your conveyancer
Your solicitor or conveyancer will open your file and begin the necessary checks.
You will normally be asked to provide identification and information about where your purchase funds are coming from. This is part of the legal and regulatory checks your conveyancer is required to undertake.
If you are obtaining a mortgage, your conveyancer will also need details of your lender and vice versa, so your conveyancer has authority to withdraw your funds ready for completion. You will also need to check if your chosen solicitor is on your lenders panel of solicitors.
First-time buyer tip: choose your solicitor based on your own choice, from personal recommendations, location, and your communication preference style. You are choosing someone to help you navigate a huge life milestone, and your first financially significant investment.
Step 2: The contract pack
The seller's solicitor will provide the legal paperwork relating to the property.
Depending on the property, this can include:
- The draft contract
- Official copies of the title
- Property information forms
- Fittings and contents information
- Planning and building regulation documentation
- The lease, if the property is leasehold
- Management information, where applicable
Your conveyancer will review the paperwork and investigate the legal title.
Step 3: Searches
Your conveyancer will usually recommend searches appropriate to the property. If you are obtaining a mortgage, most lenders require searches to be done under their lending requirements.
These may include:
- Local Authority search
- Drainage and Water search
- Environmental search
- Additional searches depending on the property's location and circumstances
Searches can highlight matters that may not be obvious from viewing the property, so they are an important part of the process.
Step 4: Enquiries and legal investigations
Your conveyancer will consider the information provided by the seller and raise enquiries where further information or clarification is needed.
This could involve matters such as:
- Rights of way
- Restrictive covenants
- Boundaries
- Planning permissions
- Building regulations
- Alterations to the property
- Guarantees
- Access arrangements
- Lease terms
- Service charges
- Management companies
Every property is different, and the legal work required will depend on the individual circumstances of the purchase.
Step 5: Mortgage offer
Your lender will carry out their own assessment of the property and, once satisfied, issue a formal mortgage offer.
It is important to remember that a mortgage valuation is not the same as a survey. A valuation is primarily for the lender, whereas a survey can provide you with information about the physical structural condition of the property.
Enquire Here
The quote is provided on the basis that it will include application for the Grant of Probate only, based on information which you provide to us and which we do not verify directly with banks, Land Registry etc. The quote does not include administration of the estate once Probate is granted, and is costed on the basis that you will deal with collecting and distributing the assets personally. We are able to provide support if you require a full administration service, however please use the Probate Cost Calculator section of our website to obtain an estimated quote for this service
* the cost calculator aims to give you an estimate of the likely costs of us dealing with the Probate / estate administration, but please be aware that all estates are unique and there may be factors which increase or decrease the cost estimate given, which we can advise you further on after taking detailed instructions.
The cost does not include conveyancing costs to sell any property within the estate. Malcolm C Foy can provide such services, but a separate cost would apply for this transaction.
* The cost estimate is provided on the basis of the following assumptions. If any of the below apply, we are still able to assist, but would need to provide you with a tailored quote to account for any of the factors below.
Assumptions
- The person who has passed away with a UK resident and there are no assets overseas
- There are no business or agricultural assets
- There is no dispute in relation to the Will / estate
- There are no beneficiaries who are unknown or untraceable
- There are no unusual debts in the estate
- You will deal with personal contents without legal input
- There are no trusts created by the Will and no beneficiaries under 18
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Legal and Regulatory
Regulatory Information
I am regulated through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Services Provided
The provision of notarial services, including attesting the execution of documents for overseas use. Obtaining an Apostille and legalisation can involve a wide range of factors depending on the nature of the instructions given and the requirements of the recipients of my Notarial Act in the destination Country.
Price Information
In order that I can give clear guidance on the stages of the work required and my fees, including disbursements by way of Apostille, courier and postage, etc., I do ask for as much detail as possible at the outset of your enquiry.
Most services are based on a fixed price, by way of example there is usually a minimum fee of £90.00 per document. For simpler instructions, I provide a fixed fee quote and explain associated costs, including circumstances in which those costs cannot be stated precisely at the outset and/or may change over time.
Typically, my Notarial fees for a Power of Attorney for Spain, based on two parties signing the document, would be £280.00. There is no VAT payable.
Legalisation at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for an Apostille currently stands at £45.00 each plus postage/courier or agents' fees to handle the obtaining of the Apostille.
Other services, which are more complex, once instructions are clear, I will set out the basis of my charges and provide a proper estimate of the work to be carried out and the fee to be charged and keep you updated. If that estimate or associated costs change, I will inform you promptly.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
My professional indemnity insurance is £1,000,000.
Complaints Information
In the first instance, please write to me, preferably by email.
If the matter cannot be immediately resolved, I will refer the complaint to the Notaries Society, which will deal with the complaint under its Approved Complaints Procedure.
Complaints to the Notaries Society should be addressed to:
The Secretary of the Notaries Society
PO Box 876, Chichester, PO19 9ZH
Email: secretary@thenotariessociety.org.uk
Complaints may also be made to the Legal Ombudsman after a period of 8 weeks from the date the complaint was first made.
Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman should be addressed to:
The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Data Protection: Privacy and Consent Notice
ANDREA PASHLEY NOTARY PUBLIC
The purpose of this notice is to explain how I collect, process and retain personal data in the course of providing notarial services and to gain your consent to do so.
As a Notary Public I follow the privacy policy of Malcolm C Foy & Co Ltd. However, my notarial practice is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under number ZA276555.
Telephone: 01302 340005
Email: info@malcolmcfoy.co.uk
Post: Lazarus House, 14 Princes Street, Doncaster, DN1 3NJ
How do I collect personal information?
I collect information and data:
- directly from you at the point of your initial enquiry or instructions; and the Client Registration Form, a copy of which is available to you upon request.
- directly from the documents that you provide to me for notarisation or from third parties with a relevant and legitimate interest in the transaction.
- as a result of any additional due diligence enquiries necessary to complete the notarisation process.
How do I use your personal data?
Your personal data is used only, and solely for, the purpose of providing notarial services. It is processed in accordance with the 8 Principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for the following purposes:
- responding to your queries, requests and other communications;
- providing notarial services, including the translation and legalisation of documents;
- enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on our behalf in provision of notarial services including but not limited to webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical and courier services;
- in the resolution of any complaints.
Who do I share your personal information with?
Your personal data may need to be shared with third parties if:
- further processing is required, additional processing may include:
- translation;
- where documents need to be legalised at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or at the Embassy or Consulate of the foreign jurisdiction where the document is to have effect.
- I have a statutory duty to disclose it for legal and regulatory reasons.
Where personal data is shared with third parties, I ensure that such third parties comply with all current data protection legislation. Where such third parties are located outside of England and Wales, for example your personal data is being transferred to foreign Embassies located in the UK or abroad, such organisations will process personal data in accordance with the laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which I have no control.
How long do I keep your personal information?
Basic data regarding the documents I am asked to notarise is transferred into a Master Client Protocol as required by my regulator, the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. These records are kept permanently and include the following data:
- The date of the act, the name of person at whose request the act was performed, the person or persons, if any, intervening in the act and, in the case of a person who intervened in a representative capacity, the name of his principal, the method of identification of the party or parties intervening in the notarial act, and in the case of a party intervening in a representative capacity, any evidence produced to the notary of that party’s entitlement so to intervene, the nature of the act, the fee charged.
Client Registration Forms and additional due diligence notes are kept for a minimum period of six years.
A copy of the notarial act is scanned into my computer system and kept permanently. Upon retirement or closure of the notarial practice, records are transferred to a successor practice or as directed by my Regulator.
Data Security
I have in place a range of physical and electronic security safeguards to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. Note that from time to time data is transferred across the internet and I do not always have control over the processes involved.
Data subject rights
Your data is processed in accordance with Principle 6 of the GDPR; that personal data is processed in accordance with the individual’s rights. I therefore will not use personal data for direct marketing and no decisions shall be made by automated means.
More information may be found at https://ico.org.uk/
Consent
I _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
have read the above DATA PROTECTION: PRIVACY AND CONSENT NOTICE and hereby give my express consent to the terms contained therein.
This consent will apply to all requests for notarial services in the future in accordance with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Signed: ________________________________________ Date: ______________________________
