The stamp duty on the property is estimated at the beginning of the transaction considering the basic tax rate since at that point we are not aware of a client’s personal tax liability. Hence, we provide all clients with the tax declaration, so we show the exact estimate of the stamp duty on receipt of formal instructions.

Whether you are a seller or buyer, you have to pay the conveyancer whom you hire. For example, you will need to hire a conveyancing solicitor to do the legal legwork for you when selling your home. The task will also include drafting the sale contract and negotiating the terms with the buyer. Then the solicitors of each party will agree on a completion date and oversee the exchange of contracts. For all their effort and services, you have to pay conveyancing costs to your solicitor. Similarly, if you are purchasing a home you have to pay the solicitor for various types of legal tasks. Your solicitor will negotiate the terms with the sellers, request different types of searches, exchange contracts, transfer the funds, and at last register you as the new owner of the property with the Land Registry. This is why you would need to pay conveyancing fees to your solicitor as the charge for these services.

Joint tenancy is the situation when two or more people on the same property are together. The owners of such property are called joint tenants where each has equal rights and responsibilities.

When purchasing property, joint tenancy offers equal rights and responsibilities to all parties for the purchased real estate.

Joint tenants receive an equal number of rights in the property, but there are some limitations on how they can use their shares. It also involves the most critical condition of ownership – right of survivorship. 

The term chain is used if you are awaiting money from the sale of your house before you can buy another. There is a possibility of you being in a longer chain if you are buying a house from a seller who is buying their next house from people who are in turn planning to buy a property. It means you are at the ‘bottom’ of the chain, the seller is the ‘second’ in the chain, and the last seller is at the ‘top’ of the chain. If anyone in the chain falls through, the chain collapses. The replacement is found immediately by others in the chain or else it leads to the cancellation of the process.

Drafting a contract is quite straightforward and is usually done in one to two hours depending on the length of the document. But before drafting a contract, the conveyancer needs time to determine which document needs to be put in the contract. Hence, the time is consumed after collecting, comparing, and reviewing all of the paperwork about the property. The process may take a month or two.

Contracts are almost always exchanged in a phone call. The conveyancer for the purchaser and the conveyancer for the vendor consults with their clients to decide a date and time to make a call for exchanging contracts. On the specified day, the parties exchange the contracts on phone through their conveyancers.

When they get in a call, both the conveyancers hold a copy of the contract signed by their respective clients. They confirm that they are both holding the right version of the contract. This is because most of the time the final or the original draft has some fine adjustments in the clause, terms, or conditions. Therefore, they discuss any minor amendments or correct typos.

After that, they decide a day of completion with mutual consent and the conveyancers confirm that the exchange has taken place. It is specifically mentioned in the contract. Then each of them sends their version to the other through the post. The buyer also pays the deposit, which is usually 10% of the property price.

Here is the list of searches done for a property:

• Local authority search
• Environmental reports 
• Drainage and water reports
• Chancel Repair and Indemnity
• Mining reports
• Land registry
• Anti-money laundering reports
• Utility reports

However, the kind of search for a property depends on several factors. For instance, you would not need a coal mining search to check if there is any possibility of a risk in a property if it is not on or near an old mine, or located in the city.

The local search is also called the local authority search or the local land charges search. It is a report received from the local authority which contains information specifically about the property and the surrounding area. 

The completion day – the day when the remaining amount of the property purchased in Cambridge or Cambridgeshire is handed over to the seller. Upon receiving the amount, the seller leaves the property and the buyer gets complete possession of the bought asset. The buyer usually collects the keys to the new property from the estate agents. The date of completion is decided on the day of contract exchange.

When a buyer makes inquiries about the sale of a property from the seller, it is called gazumping. The seller is free to accept the offer of any buyer offering a higher price than the first buyer, as long as the exchange of contracts has not occurred. Some use it to refer to an increase in the initial price agreed at the last moment.

It is good to note that before the exchange of contracts, the deal is not final. Gazumping can be an issue as it wastes the time and money of the buyer on purchasing the property, which they could never own. However, there are few known remedies for the problem above. They include:

1- Ask for a copy of the sale agreement in advance.

2-Ask for a copy of the sale agreement in advance.

3- Sign a lockout agreement after the acceptance of your offer as the buyer.

4- Acquiring a conveyancer beforehand for advice and having the conveyancer look into the property’s details.