How to sell and buy a house at the same time

If you are moving house, you may be wondering how to sell and buy a house at the same time. This is a common process, and your conveyancer will be able to tie in the two transactions so that they both complete on the same day. We take a look at how the process works.

At Lockings Solicitors, our conveyancing lawyers have been helping individuals and families move house in the East Yorkshire area and beyond for many years. We hold the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme certification, recognising our legal expertise and high service standards.

If you ask us to deal with your sale and purchase, we will act promptly, ensuring that you have feedback from us throughout the transactions and that there are no avoidable delays on our part. We know that moving house can be stressful and we always aim to make the process as easy as possible for you.

Our conveyancing solicitors are highly experienced and have the legal expertise to handle any complications effectively. We will explain the steps in plain English and ensure that we are easy to contact so that you can talk through any concerns and ask us anything you want to know along the way.

We offer a FREE initial chat so that you can ask us any questions you may have about buying and selling a house together. Call us on 01482 300 200, email us at welcome@lockings.co.uk or fill in our Free Online Enquiry and we will call you back promptly. We have offices in Beverley, Hull and York and represent clients across the East Yorkshire and York area.

How to sell and buy a house at the same time UK

We routinely tie in sales and purchases for clients, dealing with both transactions at the same time. To enable us to start work as soon as you have a buyer and have found a property to purchase, you can contact us straightaway and we can let you have the initial forms for completion.

This will include property information and fixtures and fittings forms which you will need to go through and fill in, ready for your buyer. We will also verify your identity so that we can open files and be ready to go ahead. This will usually be when you have a buyer, you have had an offer accepted on the property you want to buy and the rest of chain is in place. This means that buyers will be in place for any related transactions.

The sale process

We will obtain a copy of the legal title and an official plan of your property from the Land Registry and draft a sale contract. This will be sent to your buyer’s solicitor together with the contract package, which will include the property information and fixtures and fittings forms, any documents they refer to, such as copy guarantees and planning consents, and copies of any documents referred to in the legal title.

Your buyer’s solicitor will apply for searches, go through the contract package and return to us with any questions they may have. We will work with you to respond to these.

We will let you have a copy of an initial mortgage redemption statement, showing the amount your lender, if you have one, will need in order to redeem your mortgage.

Once your buyer is ready to proceed and your related purchase is at the same stage, we will be able to exchange contracts.

The purchase process

When we receive the contract package from your seller’s solicitor, we will apply for searches and raise enquiries.

While this is happening, you can ask a surveyor to prepare a survey and also make sure that, if you are taking out a mortgage, your mortgage application has been made.

We will then receive search results, replies to enquiries and your mortgage offer. We will go through all of the information with you, providing explanations as necessary and drawing your attention to anything unusual.

Once you are happy with everything, including your survey results, you will be ready to exchange contracts.

Tying in a sale and purchase

We will let you have the contracts for your sale and your purchase for signature, along with the mortgage deed if you are taking out a mortgage on your purchase. Property contracts are not legally binding until they have been exchanged.

We will liaise with the estate agents, with you and with the other solicitors to agree on a date for completion. We can then exchange contracts and the completion date will become legally binding. A deposit is payable on a purchase when contracts are exchanged. This is usually 10% of the purchase price, but if you are tying in a sale, the deposit on your sale will be used.

After the exchange of contracts, we will obtain an accurate mortgage redemption statement for your existing mortgage and let you have a statement showing exactly how much you will receive from your sale and how much, if anything, we will need from you in cleared funds to complete.

We will order your mortgage advance and carry out the final legal checks. You will need to sign a transfer document for the property you are selling and usually for the property you are buying as well, and we will let you have these.

On the day of completion, your buyer’s solicitor will send us the balance of money from your sale and we will forward funds on to your seller’s solicitor to complete your purchase. We will notify you as each transaction completes. Once your seller’s solicitor has received the money, they will let the estate agent know that the keys to your new home can be released to you once they are available. You will then be able to liaise with them to pick the keys up.

Post-completion

On the day of completion, we will send funds to your former mortgage lender to redeem their charge over the property you are selling.

After completion, we will arrange for registration of your purchase and new mortgage at the Land Registry and confirm to you when this has been done.

How hard is it to complete a house sale and purchase at the same time?

It is very common to complete a house sale and purchase together. The only point you really need to be aware of is that the more parties there are in a chain, ie. the more people selling and buying together, the longer it might take. This is because the transaction will move at the pace of the slowest sale. If there is a hold-up, for example, someone is waiting for a survey or search results, then everyone will need to wait until they are ready to proceed.

Tying in a sale and purchase does not always mean the process will take longer however. At Lockings, we always work proactively to move a transaction forward as quickly as possible, checking in regularly with the solicitors for your buyer and your seller to see if they need any further information from us and how their related transactions are progressing. Estate agents should also speak to parties in the chain to make sure that progress is being made and keep everyone focused on reaching exchange of contracts promptly.

Contact our East Yorkshire and York area conveyancing solicitors

If you are considering buying and selling a house at the same time and you would like help with conveyancing in East Yorkshire or beyond, we will be happy to help.

You can ring us for a FREE initial chat on 01482 300 200, email us at welcome@lockings.co.uk or fill in our Free Online Enquiry and we will call you back promptly. We have offices in Beverley, Hull and York and represent clients across the East Yorkshire and York area.