Buying a Brand New House
 

Before exchange of contracts

You, or the site office, contact us to ask us to act for you.
You receive from us an introductory letter and enquiry forms to complete. We request ID from you and the cost of any searches we need to carry out.
You make your mortgage application, and organise a survey if you wish.
We obtain the contract documents from the builders’ solicitors. This is the most important part of our job. We need to ensure that they have a legal right to sell the property to you and that what you thought you were buying matches the information. We also need to ensure that you will have all the rights you need, and know what your responsibilities will be, once you buy the property.
We apply for the searches and raise any enquiries. You can have the basic searches which ask the local Council and the Land Registry for information about the property, or we can undertake some extra planning and environmental searches as well. The basic searches are compulsory if you are having a mortgage, but the extra searches are optional.
We receive our version of your mortgage offer and ensure that any special conditions are dealt with.
We either send you a written report, or ask you to meet with us, so that you can look at all the information we have and sign the contract if you are happy to proceed. It is not legally binding until exchange.
You will let us have a deposit. This is part of the purchase price which is paid by you and held by the builders' solicitors. It is extra to your reservation deposit. The contract normally provides for this to be 10% of the total price. However there are circumstances where this is not possible and a lower amount can often be agreed.
Within the 28 day exchange deadline, contracts are formally exchanged by the solicitors involved. This is the point at which you are legally obliged to buy the property, and the builders are obliged to sell it to you. It is usually a telephone conversation, and you don’t have to be present.
The completion date might be a date which is fixed when contracts are exchanged, or you might be moving a few days after the builders give us notice that the property is ready.
Only once Contracts are exchanged are you legally committed to the move, so you can now make removal and other arrangements if you know the completion date.
 
Before completion
We ask your lender to forward the funds to us.
We undertake a final search with the Land Registry to make sure that nothing untoward happened with the property recently and we have to make sure that you aren’t an undischarged bankrupt
We calculate the financial statement which shows how much money we need from you, if we haven’t been able to tell you before.
 
On completion day

This is the magical date you have been waiting for! On completion day:

We forward the money from your lender to the builder.
You can collect your keys from the site office, usually after 1pm, unless you have made other arrangements.
We pay your Stamp Duty Land Tax to the Inland Revenue
 
After completion
We collect the documents necessary to register your ownership at the Land Registry and make the application.
We advise you, and your mortgage lender, that the application has been completed.
We forward all the deeds and documents to you so that you can keep them safely, ready for when you sell.