Buying or selling your property is a significant life event and you need clear and reliable advice and communication at each stage of the process.

HRJ Foreman Laws Solicitors have an experienced team of conveyancers who can guide you through the process of buying or selling a property whether based locally or nationwide.

Craig Rennie, partner and conveyancing solicitor at HRJ Foreman Laws Solicitors says: “We understand that buying or selling a property can be stressful. But our wealth of knowledge and experience means we can provide a personal service with clear, jargon free advice and will ensure you are regularly updated throughout your transaction. We work in teams which means when you call us, any one of your team will be able to update you. We take a pro-active approach and push your transaction forward highlighting any obstacles where necessary.”

The conveyancing team at HRJ Foreman Laws Solicitors are here to help and will guide you through each stage of the transaction. The firm holds the Lexcel accreditation, the Law Society's quality mark for excellence. It is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and operates to the highest standards of practice and integrity required by the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS).

HRJ Foreman Laws Solicitors give a step-by-step process for buying a house:

1. Your offer is accepted

2. You instruct us to open a file. This will include collecting your ID and a sum on account of search fees.

3. We obtain the contract and initial papers from the seller’s conveyancer.

4. You will need to arrange your mortgage (if applicable) and any survey that you wish to have carried out as your lender’s valuation is only for their mortgage purposes and is not a structural survey.

5. We review the initial papers and title documentation and will raise any enquiries with the seller’s conveyancer.

6. We will carry out searches on your new property; these include a local authority search, water and drainage search, environmental search and chancel repair liability search.

7. If additional searches are required, depending on your location, we’ll carry these out too.

8. We’ll review all the results from the searches and flag any issues to you or your lender which need to be addressed before the transaction can exchange.

9. We’ll create a pre-exchange report for you with a summary of the enquiries and search results. Any documents that we need you to sign will be sent with the report. We will request you transfer the deposit funds when returning the signed documents which is usually 10% of the purchase price.

10. When you’ve reviewed the report and discussed any enquiries you may have with us we will proceed to exchange of contracts which will fix the completion date.

11. Following exchange we will send you a completion statement requesting the balance of the funds from you and your lender in good time before completion including any costs and disbursements such as Stamp Duty Land Tax.

12. It’s moving day! We will transfer the completion funds to the seller’s conveyancer. When they confirm receipt, you will be able to collect the keys to your new home.

13. Following completion we will then file your Stamp Duty Land Tax and process the payment for you. We will then submit an application to the Land Registry to register you as the owner of the property.

14. We will send the completion of registration and any other original documents to you for safekeeping.

The time taken to complete the process will be dependent on your situation. If you are in a property chain, there will be a number of buyers and sellers, all dependent on the other. You should prepare for a period of 10-20 weeks for the process to complete. Letting us know about key dates that will impact your completion, for example, rental notice periods, holidays or personal circumstances can also help speed things up.

For more information or to receive an instant conveyancing quotation visit https://www.hrjforemanlaws.co.uk/legal-services/buying-or-selling-a-property or email: info@hrjforemanlaws.co.uk HRJ Foreman Laws Solicitors, Hitchin, Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.