National Conveyancing Week: Exchange & Completion
Written by James Kerswill & Emily Nunn | Residential Conveyancing Team | 11 March 2024
It’s National Conveyancing Week and our Conveyancing team have each written a blog to explain their role in your property transaction.
James Kerswill & Emily Nunn outline the exciting steps of exchanging and completing.
I’m James and I am a paralegal in the Conveyancing Team. Nice to meet you! I have been in the team since March 2021 after graduating from the University of Birmingham with a qualifying law degree. I’m Emily and I am a paralegal in the Conveyancing Team. I joined the team in August 2022 after graduating from Winchester University with a qualifying law degree.
We are here to guide you through one of the last stages of the conveyancing transaction, the all-important exchange of contracts and completion.
Once you are satisfied with all the replies to enquiries provided by the seller’s and their solicitor, it is time for you to think of a date that you would like to complete on your purchase and collect the keys to your new home. Please keep in mind that this date must be a weekday (we are closed at weekends!) and you will need to give sufficient notice for your lender to release mortgage funds (if you are borrowing).
The notice period is different for each lender, but we will always inform you in good time of how many days they require. This can be anywhere between 1 and 7 working days.
When you have a completion date in mind, let us know and we will propose this to your seller’s solicitor (you could potentially let the Estate Agent know of your preferred date too and they can propose this to the sellers directly for a quicker response).
Once a completion date is mutually agreed between you and the seller, we can prepare for the exchange of contracts.
To prepare for this, we would request your deposit (usually 10% of the price you are purchasing the property for). We will then give you a call to take your verbal authority to say that you are happy for us to proceed with the exchange on your behalf just in case your circumstances have changed. We will also confirm the details on the front of the contract are correct (again in case any important information has changed or is incorrect).
We will then call the seller’s solicitor to exchange contracts. Once the exchange occurs, the agreed completion date is set, and you can start preparing for your move!
If required, we will request that you transfer to us any remaining balance required to complete (e.g., the difference between the deposit you have already paid and the remainder of the price, any Stamp Duty, and our fees). Do not worry if this seems complicated, we will provide you with a comprehensive ‘Completion Statement’ which shows our fees, disbursements and what you will have left to pay.
Finally, on the morning of Completion Day we will let you know once the funds have been sent to your seller’s solicitor. At this point we are sure that you will be buzzing with anticipation to move into your new home! We will then give you a second call later in the day to give you the best news you will receive – you can collect the keys.
We hope this helps and gives you the assurance you need when preparing for the big day.
If you would like to get in touch with our Conveyancing team to discuss your purchase, sale or anything else relating to your property, you can speak to the team directly by calling 01752 827069 or clicking here. You can also get an instant, no-obligation quote by clicking here.
