HOW WE HELP
MORTGAGE AND VALUATION
Linley & Simpson works with both Mortgage Advice Bureau and Grange, to give you the best choices of either an in-person adviser, or an online-only journey. Whatever your requirements, our expert advisers can help you achieve your goals by finding the right deal for your circumstances.
For more information, speak to one of our professional Financial Advisers and see what they can do for you - after all, they have the whole of the market to research and find the very best mortgage for you. Prefer to call our mortgage team directly? Contact us today.
The purchaser's mortgage lender will arrange for a survey valuation to be carried out, although you have the choice to instruct a more detailed survey being carried out by choosing either a Homebuyers Report or Structural Survey. Access to the property will be arranged through the selling Agent.
SOLICITORS AND CONVEYANCING
By the time your offer has been accepted, you and the vendor should have appointed a solicitor to handle your purchase and sale.
Both parties will be sent a Notification of Sale from the agent confirming the price agreed, any special conditions negotiated, and the names and addresses of both solicitors. The purchaser at this stage should have an approved mortgage in principle.
The vendor’s solicitor will send draft documentation, contract, and deeds of the property to the purchaser’s solicitor. The purchaser’s solicitor will start local authority searches (they will ask for funds to start this process) and send preliminary enquiries to the vendor’s solicitor. The mortgage offer should be sent to your solicitor within a week/10 days after the survey date.
FUNDS TO EXCHANGE CONTRACTS
When all the enquiries have been answered to the purchaser’s solicitor’s satisfaction, the contract will be approved and sent to the purchaser for signature and return.
Bear in mind that all searches will need to be back and you will need to be in receipt of a written mortgage offer.
At this stage, the purchaser’s solicitor should be in clear funds to exchange. This amount is generally 10% of the purchase price.
STAMP DUTY
Stamp Duty Land Tax is a tax payable by the purchaser to HMRC. Your solicitor will usually handle this for you and send it to HMRC on your behalf. The Government recently announced great news for homebuyers – stamp duty, the amount of tax a buyer pays the Government when purchasing a home, has been cut for the majority of buyers.
Buyers of an average-priced home, the UK average is £275,000, will now pay £4,500 less in stamp duty than they would have done before the announcement. It means buyers will be able to put that saving towards their deposit or even some improvements, which must be good for the housing market and the economy.
A first-time buyer buying at £150,000 now pays only one-third of what they would have had to pay, £500 instead of £1500. A home buyer buying at £2 million, however, pays 50% more in stamp duty than they would have done previously, now paying £153,750 in tax rather than the £100,000 they would have paid in the old system.
EXCHANGE CONTRACTS AND COMPLETE
Once the solicitor has a signed contract, local authority search, mortgage offer, and deposit money, he will be ready to exchange contracts. At this point, the completion date will be set and the deposit funds transferred to the vendor’s solicitor.
The completion date can be the same day as the exchange date or any suitable date afterwards agreeable between the vendor and purchaser.
Completion is when your mortgage company sends the remainder of funds across to the solicitor and is the day you get possession of the property. Funds tend to clear late morning/early afternoon and keys will normally be collected from the selling agent.
Once funds are cleared and you have the keys you can move in and start to enjoy your new home!