Moving Home General Information

Transcription

1 Speaking on your behalf Westgate, Launceston, Cornwall, PL15 9AD Phone: Fax: Moving Home General Information

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. COMMUNICATING WITH YOU 2.1. YOUR SALE 2.2 YOUR PURCHASE 2.3. DEPOSIT 2.4. SURVEYS 3. SEARCHES 3.1. LOCAL AUTHORITY SEARCHES 3.2. WATER AND SEWAGE SEARCH 3.3. MINING SEARCH OR COAL MINING SEARCH 3.4. ENVIRONMENTAL SEARCH 3.5. COMMONS REGISTRATION SEARCH 3.6. CHANCEL REPAIR LIABILITY SEARCH 3.7. PERSONAL SEARCHES 4. OTHER SOURCES FO INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR NEW HOME 5. EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS AND REMOVALS 6. IDENTITY CHECKS 7. MOVING DAY 8. AFTER EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS AND BEFORE COMPLETION 9. BUILDING INSURANCE 10 MORTGAGES 11. HOW WE DEAL WITH THE TRANSACTION AFTER EXCHANGE 12. COMPLETION WHAT WE DO AFTER COMPLETION STAMP DUTY LAND TAX REGISTRATION 13. FURTHER MATTERS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER 14. FINANCIAL ADVICE 15. HOW LONG WILL ALL THIS TAKE? 16. ONCE YOU HAVE MOVED IN 17. WHAT WE WILL NOT DO 1

3 1. INTRODUCTION You have instructed us to act for you in your sale or purchase or both. This leaflet is intended:- to show you how we will carry out your instructions; to give you some idea of the procedures involved in buying and selling a house so you know what to expect; to draw to your attention important matters we would like you to consider so that we can take any further instructions you may have; to give you an idea of the likely timescales involved. 2. COMMUNICATING WITH YOU We know that moving house can be a frustrating process and we want to give you as much information as we can about the legal work we are doing for you. We will copy correspondence to you, to keep you up to date. We will either do you a written report on the contract papers if you are buying, or meet you and go through the papers. We will keep in touch by phone or (if you want) , as there is news to report. At each stage we will try and let you know what you might next expect to hear and when. We try to return your calls the same day, although it may be outside office hours or another member of the property team who calls back. You can track progress through our website, using Casetracker. You may be able to track progress through your estate agent s website. Our aim is for your move to happen as quickly as you want, and as smoothly as possible. BEFORE SIGNING AND EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS 2 (before you are legally committed to completing the transaction)

4 2.1. YOUR SALE 1 We take your instructions including checking whether an Energy Performance Certificate has been prepared. 2 We send to you the Property Information and Fittings and Contents Forms. You can find some explanatory notes to help you fill in the forms on the Law Society s website at ta6-form-explanatory-notes/ 3 We obtain your title deeds (from you or your mortgage lender). 4 We obtain up to date Official Copies of your title from the Land Registry if your property is registered or prepare an Epitome of your title if the property is unregistered. 5 We prepare and send out a draft contract package setting out the terms of the sale. 6 We answer any enquiries raised by the Buyer s solicitors, with your help. 7 The Buyer s solicitors return one part of the contract approved to us for your signature and the Buyer s solicitors then arrange for the Buyer to sign. 8 We arrange for you to sign the contract. 9 We check that all the other parties in the chain are ready to proceed YOUR PURCHASE 1. We take your instructions. 2. We receive a draft contract package including Fittings and Contents Form and Property Information Forms from the Seller's solicitors. You may also find the explanatory notes to the forms on the Law Society s website helpful. You can find them at 3. We make all the searches required by you or your Lender. The searches we make depend on where the property is situated. These include the following:- Local Search with Local Authority Water and Sewerage Search with Water Authority Environmental Search Mining Search Commons Registration Search Chancel Repair Search If you are not having a mortgage you may instruct us to dispense with some of the searches; the decision is yours, but in all cases where you intend to spend more than a nominal amount on the property now or in the future, we strongly advise you to let us carry out all searches which we consider to be necessary. Please note that lenders routinely require us to make all of the above searches. 4. We check that the Seller is the legal owner of the property. 5. We check that there are no problems with regard to, for example, planning, rights of way and boundaries We raise enquiries of the Seller's solicitors on the contract package and any queries you may have.

5 7. Your mortgage offer is received from your Lender and we deal with any special conditions. 8. We return one part of the contract to the Seller s solicitors ready for the Seller to sign. 9. We arrange for you to sign the contract, and prepare a report on the contract papers for you or meet you to go through the contract papers. 10. We check that your seller and other parties in the chain are ready to proceed. At the same time your Seller s solicitors and Buyer s solicitors will be carrying out the same procedures for their clients. When the above matters are completed, we will contact you and arrange for you to call in to sign the contracts or arrange for these to be sent out to you for signature and return DEPOSIT In relation to your purchase, we shall be discussing with you the question of the payment of a deposit, which will be required when the contract for your purchase is signed. If you have a related sale, the deposit received from your Buyer can usually be used for the deposit on your purchase, but it may well be that you are buying at a higher price than your sale price and we may require you to provide us with the difference in the deposit. It is now fairly common for a 5% deposit to be received and paid, but there are occasions when a full 10% deposit will be required. In any event even if a 10% deposit is not paid, under the Standard Conditions of Sale for a contract, the Seller is entitled to a 10% deposit and if a lesser amount is paid on exchange then the Seller will be entitled to the balance from the Buyer should he or she fail to complete. Our bank details are: Sort code Account Number Bank Address International Details Barclays Tamar Group, Launceston Branch, 6 Broad Street, Launceston, Cornwall. IBAN GB97 BARC SWIFT/BIC Code BARCGB22 4

6 2.4. SURVEYS Most dwellings built within the last ten years have the benefit of an NHBC Guarantee or equivalent, but otherwise there is not usually any guarantee as to the physical condition of the building and it is therefore advisable to have a survey carried out as soon as possible, and obviously before contracts are exchanged. Clients applying for a mortgage are advised to check with the lender as to the type of valuation which will be arranged, since most lenders offer a choice between a Basic Valuation, the Property Purchase Survey and Valuation and a Building Survey. We strongly recommend that you obtain a more detailed report than the Basic Valuation prior to exchange of contracts You will appreciate that we do not have the benefit of seeing or visiting the property which you are buying and it is, therefore, very important that if there is some point that you would like clarified you let us know at an early stage in the transaction so that we may raise this with the Seller s solicitors before we exchange of contracts. For example, there may have been extensions and/or alterations to the property that you feel might have required planning permission and/or building regulations approval, shared driveways or similar, footpaths or development in the area. It is also essential that you check the extent of the property carefully against any plans that we send you and let us know if you are not absolutely satisfied that it shows all the boundaries and other features of the property accurately. All Sellers provide an Energy Performance Certificate for the property. You can find more information about the different types of survey that are available on the RICS website at 3. SEARCHES We do a number of searches against the property. Depending on its location there may be other specialist searches to do. Below is a brief description of the most common searches LOCAL AUTHORITY SEARCHES Although the local searches that we carry out on behalf of clients buying a property give us much essential information such as the extent of public highways and planning history, they will not tell us whether or not there are any proposals for the development of any neighbouring land. The search will also tell us whether the property is on the Register of Contaminated Land maintained by all local authorities. 5 If you think that the property which you are buying would be adversely affected if there were to be some building or change of use on other land in the area, or if a nearby road were to be extended, we suggest that you visit the local Planning Office and ask for details of all planning decisions made or pending in the area.

7 Please bear in mind, however, that the Planning Office would not be able to anticipate any applications which might be made in the future and also that often no planning application is necessary for garages, extensions under a certain size, agricultural buildings, agricultural change of use, change of use from one type of shop to another or one type of office to another. LOCAL SEARCHES GENERALLY TAKE BETWEEN 1 AND 3 WEEKS DEPENDING ON THE LOCAL AUTHORITY WATER AND SEWERAGE SEARCH We need to establish that the property has mains water and drainage and all necessary easements for those services. This search also gives information about water quality. Sight of the Seller s most recent water and sewerage rate demand may be sufficient to prove that the property is connected to the mains. WATER AND SEWERAGE SEARCHES TAKE ABOUT 1 WEEK DEPENDING ON THE WATER AUTHORITY 3.3. MINING SEARCH OR COAL MINING SEARCH If the property is in the West Country, we always enquire of the company we use for mining searches (Cornwall Consultants, which is based in Redruth) whether or not a mining search is recommended and act on their advice. You will perhaps be surprised to learn that there has been mining activity in the past in several areas in Launceston itself. You can check on Cornwall Consultant s Minescanner facility whether a search is recommended. We make a Coal Mining Search where recommended by the Coal Authority. WE USUALLY RECEIVE ADVICE BY RETURN AS TO WHETHER A MINING SEARCH IS RECOMMENDED AND THE SEARCH ITSELF TAKES A COUPLE OF WEEKS 3.4. ENVIRONMENTAL SEARCH Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, an owner of land which is designated as contaminated as a result of its past use, can be liable for the cost of cleaning up the contamination. This is true even if the owner did not originally cause the contamination. The cleanup costs can be very substantial. Past uses of the land that may have caused pollution or contamination will not always be obvious from looking at a property. The search checks planning history and environmental features to advise on the likely environmental risks to the property. It also checks the risk of flooding. It is NOT a physical inspection but a desk based assessment. Lenders may insist on an environmental search being done. You can also take out a search combined with insurance to protect against environmental liabilities. 6

8 We advise you to check prior to exchange of contracts that you can obtain buildings insurance including flood cover at a reasonable premium. Even properties that are insurable now may not be so in the future. You can obtain further information on the government scheme for insuring high flood risk properties here COMMONS REGISTRATION SEARCH This only applies to properties in rural areas and is usually made with the County Council. It establishes whether any part of the property is common land or registered village green and is particularly important for properties overlooking village greens or on the edge of moorland for example. A COMMONS REGISTRATION SEARCH USUALLY TAKES A FEW DAYS 3.6. CHANCEL REPAIR LIABILITY SEARCH The Church of England has the power, in some parishes, to charge the costs of repairs to the Chancel of the Church to the current owners of former church land. The liability generally only arises in parishes with a Rector (like Launceston). It is very rare indeed that the Church of England exercises this power, but if and when they do the repairs can be costly. With effect from October 2013 to be enforceable, chancel repair liability has to be registered against the property. It is still possible though for the liability to be enforced against a property, even if not registered, until the property has been sold or transferred for the first time after October There will therefore be a transitional period of potential risk. There are several searches available. One is a search of the central records, which is slow and will not necessarily reveal any liability accurately. The second possibility is a Chancel Check search which is inexpensive and is very quick, but again is not guaranteed to give a definite answer. The Chancel Check search only looks at the area rather than the specific property, and identifies whether there could be a liability rather than whether there actually is. In Launceston, for example, a Chancel Check search is likely to say that there is a potential liability. Chancel Check then offers an insurance policy protecting the home owner against the possibility of having to pay a Chancel Repair bill. The insurance does not fully protect you, however, against all eventualities. If you are mortgaging your property we will always take out an insurance policy against chancel repair liabilities. This costs about 15. The insurance is transferable and runs indefinitely. We will take out the insurance on exchange. If you do not need a mortgage, please tell us if you want us either to do a search or take out insurance FLOOD RISK SEARCH 7

9 The Environment Agency estimates that one in six homes in England (approximately 5.2 million properties) are at risk from flooding. It may not always be obvious that a property is at risk of flooding. Surface water, ground water and overflowing sewers are increasingly common causes of flooding. It may be difficult, expensive or even impossible to insure a property at risk of flooding. We will enquire of the Seller whether the property has flooded or buildings insurance terms been affected by flood risk but we would advise that you ask your valuer or surveyor to advise you on the flood risk. A general environmental search will include some information on flood risk. You can also do a basic flood risk search for free on the Environment Agency website at floods/. We will not do this search for you. We can also carry out a specialised flood risk report if you want us to. The RICS have a consumer guide to flooding which you can find at We advise you to check prior to exchange of contracts that you can obtain buildings insurance including flood cover at a reasonable premium. Even properties that are insurable now may not be so in the future. You can obtain further information on the government scheme for insuring high flood risk properties here PERSONAL SEARCHES We recommend to buyers that you use official searches rather than personal searches. An official search is a search issued by the local authority and guaranteed by them for accuracy. A personal search is issued by a search company and may or may not be backed by insurance to support it. The search company should visit the local authority s offices and will collect much more limited information. They may also use other data sources. Personal searches are cheaper and may be quicker. Some mortgage lenders will not accept a personal search at all. Some accept personal searches backed by insurance. Some accept personal searches at the solicitors risk. In these cases we would insist on an official search. 3.9 INDEMNITY INSURANCE Sometimes our investigations on a purchase, or the buyer s solicitors investigations, reveal a problem or defect in the property title. Examples include services crossing neighbouring land without any formal easement in place, gaps between the property boundary and the public highway and work that may have been done to the property in breach of covenant. The easiest and quickest way to deal with problems like this is usually by taking out an indemnity insurance policy, insuring against the risk of the defect. If we need to do this, we would advise you of the problem, how we could insure and the likely cost OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR NEW HOME

10 There are many other sources of information about your new home, often available free of charge. These are just a few:- The Land Registry, the national database of registered properties, including prices paid. The Environment Agency, including a postcode flood risk check. Local Authority websites which will often include the planning history of a property, neighbouring properties, as well as the local planning framework documents and road building proposals. a useful guide to when planning permission and building regulation authority are needed, and includes an interactive house to help you check. Some insurers offer insurance cover against wasted costs if your sale or purchase falls through. We do not offer such insurance but you may be able to obtain it through your insurance broker or in the general market. where you can check for wind turbines in the UK which either have been built, are under construction or (hardest to spot) where planning permission has been granted but not yet implemented. 5. EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS AND REMOVALS We will report to you on the title to the property that you are buying and let you have copies of all relevant documents. If anything is unclear, missing or you think the information we have is incorrect, please let us know as soon as possible, since it may be too late to resolve any problems once contracts have been exchanged. In relation to the contract on a sale, the Fixtures, Fittings and Contents Form is part of the Contract and you must leave all items that you have stated will be left. If there has been any alteration in this (even if it has been agreed between you and the Buyer direct), please let us know as we will arrange for this information to be given to the Buyers solicitors and the form amended before exchange. Once the Contracts have been signed by you (and the other parties in the chain of transactions), the completion date is discussed between the parties and their solicitors. The completion date is the date on which legal ownership is transferred and is usually the date on which the parties move. We do our very best to achieve your chosen completion date, but there are often several parties in the transaction and a compromise often has to be reached. With this in mind, it does help us considerably if you can give a choice of dates and let us know if you have a holiday or other important dates to be avoided. 6. IDENTITY CHECKS The law requires us to check all clients identity and the source of any funds you are putting into your new home. We have to do this before we can start work for you. The easiest form of identity is, of course, your valid 9

11 passport, photocard or driving licence, and we will also need a proof of address, such as a recent utility bill. We also do an electronic identity check. If you are buying, we will also ask for proof of your funds and the source of your funds. 7. MOVING DAY Completion can only take place on a working weekday. You must give vacant possession of the property that you are selling on the day of completion (i.e. clear it of your possessions yourselves and any rubbish) and you should remember that you will not get the keys to the property which you are buying until the day of completion, and often lunchtime or later. It is advisable that you check the proposed dates at this stage with your chosen removal company. As soon as everyone in the chain is ready and a completion date is agreed between all parties in the chain then contracts are exchanged. Once contracts are exchanged the transaction is legally binding upon you (including the date arranged for completion) Before contracts are exchanged the completion date is just an estimate. 8. AFTER EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS AND BEFORE COMPLETION You will now have a date for completion and you should make arrangements with your removal firm and with your Seller and Buyer to have the gas and electricity meters read and telephone transferred from the day of completion. You should also contact all the service authorities as they will deal with the apportionment of charges such as Council Tax and Water Rates. 9. BUILDINGS INSURANCE Under most forms of contract the Buyer should arrange for their buildings insurance to start on exchange of contracts but Sellers should not cancel their insurance until completion. Although this means that a property may be doubly insured between exchange of contracts and completion, double insurance is better than no insurance. There are standard provisions in sale and purchase contracts to cover the possibility of claims being made against two different insurance companies. If you are having a mortgage the insurance may be arranged by the lender but it is more common for Buyers to arrange their own insurance. If this is the case, please pay very careful attention to your lender s requirements. If you are having a mortgage we will need a copy of your buildings insurance policy schedule noting the lender s interest before we complete. 10 The main exceptions to our general recommendation are where the property is leasehold and insurance is arranged by the landlord, or where it is a new building covered by the builder s insurance whilst in the course of construction.

12 10. MORTGAGES If you need a mortgage to buy your new home we will usually act for your Lender as well as for you. The Lender is our client in exactly the same way as you are, even though you pay our costs, not the Lender. We have to comply with the Lender s instructions and this will sometimes mean we have to take action where we find an imperfection in the title to your new home, even if you are not concerned about it. Be aware that although it is very rare, a mortgage Lender is entitled to withdraw your mortgage offer, even after exchange of contracts, at any point until the mortgage has actually been completed. We will not advise you on the financial terms and suitability of your mortgage offer. 11. AFTER EXCHANGE WE CONTINUE WITH THE TRANSACTION AS FOLLOWS:- YOUR SALE 1 We approve the final legal document of Transfer, usually a Land Registry Transfer. 2 We obtain a redemption statement from your Lender if you have a mortgage. 3 We request a commission account from your estate agent, and ask you to check it. 4 We will either forward the transfer to you for signature or invite you to call into the office to sign this. 5 We prepare our invoice and completion statement. The completion statement includes apportionments of, for example, rent or service charge payments. YOUR PURCHASE 1 We draft the Transfer and submit this to the Seller s solicitors. 2 We carry out some final searches to include a bankruptcy search if you are having a mortgage (the lender will not advance the mortgage monies if you are registered as a bankrupt). 3 We request your mortgage monies from your Lender (if applicable). We will prepare completion statements in relation to your transactions, including any apportionments such as rent or service charge payments, which will include payment of our account and the various legal expenses. If we need funds from you to complete, then we would ask you to bear the following points in mind:- 1 If you propose paying by a personal cheque, bankers draft or building society cheque then we must receive this at least seven clear working days before completion so as to allow for clearance You may transmit funds electronically from your bank to our bank on the day before completion (a CHAPS transfer). Your bank will charge for this.

13 3 There are other forms of electronic transfer. In broad terms if there is no fee payable, the transfer may take a couple of days to reach us. If you want to move quickly we may do a lot of this work before exchange of contracts. 12. COMPLETION You will not need to see us on the day of completion. We arrange the transfer of funds and pay money to and receive money from the lenders and pay the estate agent. We would suggest that, once you have moved out of your existing property, you hand the keys to your estate agent. You should aim to vacate your property by midday. You should read all the meters before you leave. Please ensure that you remove everything that is not included in the sale from the property. Leave behind everything you said you would leave on the fixtures and fittings list. Likewise, the keys to your new property should be available for you to collect from the estate agents who sold you your house between midday and 2.30pm but your sellers solicitors will not release the keys until they receive the purchase monies from us by telegraphic transfer from our bank. However there are often several transfers of funds if there are several parties in a chain of transactions and there is sometimes a delay in the receipt and transmission of funds, which is outside our control as we are totally reliant on the banks involved to process the transfers. You may rest assured that we do everything in our power to ensure that the keys to your property are available as early as possible but we feel it only fair to warn you that there may sometimes be a delay. These times are our best estimates based on our experience. As soon as we know completion has taken place we will ring and let you know WHAT WE DO AFTER COMPLETION STAMP DUTY LAND TAX Stamp Duty land tax is a tax payable to HM Revenue and Customs within 30 days of completing your purchase. The tax is usually based on the purchase price. We submit a complex and lengthy form which includes information we are unlikely to have or to have access to but which we will need from you. This includes, for example your National Insurance Number. We will complete the form for you, and submit it to HM Revenue and Customs. However, its completion and the payment of the tax are legally your responsibility (much like your Income Tax Return). The Stamp Duty Land Tax Return (SDLT1) must be completed, signed, the tax paid and the form sent to HM Revenue and Customs within 30 days of the completion date of the transaction. Even if no tax is payable the form still usually has to be completed. 12 HM Revenue and Customs sample about 3% of the forms they receive and can raise enquiries on SDLT1 for up to 9 months after completion. You must be aware of this possibility, and if HM Revenue and Customs were to launch an investigation, the costs of dealing with that, if you wanted us to act, would not be included in our original conveyancing fee.

14 REGISTRATION Once we receive from HM Revenue and Customs a certificate confirming that the tax has been paid, we arrange to register the transfer of your new property with the Land Registry (together with any mortgage). The Land Registry does not issue certificates but rather an Official Copy of the Land Registry Entries. If the property is mortgaged this may be sent to your mortgage company together with such documents as they are prepared to hold. We will then supply you with a photocopy of the Official Copy Entries and forward to you any original documents which your mortgage company is not prepared to hold. Most lenders do not want to store deeds. Many of the documents we send you following completion will needed when you sell your home. You should store them safely and securely. Replacing them may be time consuming and expensive some may be almost impossible to replace. We will make clear which documents need to be kept safely. 13. FURTHER MATTERS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER IF YOU ARE BUYING THE PROPERTY IN JOINT NAMES In English law you are able to hold property in one of two ways:- 1 as JOINT TENANTS which means that upon the death of one of you, the property automatically passes to the survivor regardless of any provision made in a will and; 2 as TENANTS IN COMMON which means that you hold specific shares in the property (which does not necessarily mean half each it can be whatever shares you agree) and upon your death, your share is dealt with under the terms of your will or, if there is no will, pass to the next of kin under the rules of intestacy and does not automatically pass to the survivor. We shall be seeking your instructions on this point and we are happy to discuss this more fully with you. When acting for a husband and wife who are buying property together we shall assume that they wish to be joint tenants unless we hear to the contrary. Inheritance Tax may be a consideration and we recommend that you consult either our Private Client Department or your accountant about the advantages of the different types of joint ownership. All clients are asked to consider the types of joint ownership very carefully. Where buyers contribute unequally towards the purchase price of the property or where there are children from a previous relationship, a tenancy in common may be more appropriate. Whatever arrangement you settle on, your joint ownership can in the future be converted by service of a notice. We can advise further on this. We advise that, particularly if you are not married, you consider entering into a Trust Deed. This records the agreement between you as to what is to happen when the property is sold. This is particularly important if one of the parties is putting in more funds than the other or if you have agreed to hold the property in unequal 13

15 shares. This is an extremely important aspect of a joint purchase and we would suggest that you take the opportunity of discussing this with us. If you do require us to prepare a prepare a Trust Deed setting out your respective financial contributions then please let us know and provide us with the necessary details as soon as possible. We do make a small additional charge for this. We strongly recommend that you should carefully consider the importance of making a will or reviewing your will following completion of your purchase particularly if you decide to purchase as Tenants in Common or if you are an un-married couple. PROTECTING YOURSELF AGAINST FRAUD, AT THE LAND REGISTRY Now that the Land Registry no longer issue certificates for properties, it is easier for fraudsters to impersonate a property owner and mortgage or sell your property. This is particularly true of properties which are empty or are let out. We can register a form of restriction at the Land Registry which is designed to protect against this type of fraud. If you will be an owner occupier there is a fee (as at April 2015) to register the restriction. If the property will be empty or you live away (if for example you move abroad to work, or you have a buy to let property) then the restriction is free. Please let us know if you want us to register a restriction, and we will deal with it when we register your purchase. We would routinely register a restriction when we know the property is not your main home or is a buy to let. 14. FINANCIAL ADVICE Although Peters Langsford Davies is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we cannot advise on investments or the suitability of any financial arrangements. Neither can we advise you in any detail on indemnity insurance policies. Any comments which we make on your financial arrangements will be confined to factual explanations of their legal content and we leave it to clients to satisfy themselves as to the suitability of any proposed investments or borrowing arrangements. Any clients who feel that they would like advice on the choice of mortgage, life policy or other investment are strongly advised to contact an independent financial consultant. 15. HOW LONG WILL ALL THIS TAKE? 14 We have given you an idea of the time taken for various aspects of any sale or purchase above as far as we can. Delays are caused mainly by:-

16 waiting for search results; waiting for Mortgage Offers to be issued. This varies from Lender to Lender; waiting for other parties in a chain of sales and purchases. We have no control over such delays and you will appreciate that where there is a long chain of transactions, the problem can be magnified. People in a chain are not always open and straightforward about their true position. Increased use of electronic searching may help reduce the former but not all local authorities are yet able to reply electronically. In an ideal world it should be possible to complete a sale and purchase within one month of our receiving your instructions. However, realistically, if you are involved in a chain you can expect to exchange contracts, on average, between 6 to 8 weeks from the date of our instructions, but you should not be disappointed if it takes longer. We do understand that, once you have made up your mind to move, and have found a new home you like, you will want to move as soon as can possibly be arranged, that is our objective. 16. ONCE YOU HAVE MOVED IN Ensure that you store all the documents relating to your new home carefully. If you do work to your home keep any planning or building regulation documents, guarantees or certificates. If you have electrical work done, a new boiler or heating system or windows, keep the certificates. Consider whether you should make a will or update your will. A new will is inexpensive and makes life easier for your family in the event of your death. We hope you enjoy a trouble free new home, but if you have a legal problem do ask, to see if we can help. 17. WHAT WE WILL NOT DO 15 We won t give you any tax advice on the transaction We won t visit the property. We rely on you to confirm the boundaries from the plan we send you and to tell us about alterations, extensions or any rights other people seem to have over the property, from your own inspection. If you are buying a plot or a property with planning permission, you will also need to check that the permission is capable of implementation. We won t advise you on value.

17 If any exceptional additional work was needed, if for example a deed of easement needed to be completed, that work would not be included in our fixed fee quote. Thank you for instructing us. We hope this summary gives you an insight into the work that we carry out on your behalf. If you require any help, please telephone us, or arrange an appointment. Our office hours are at least 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday. Casetracker is available any time. It does help us considerably if you telephone to make an appointment if you want to call in as it saves any disappointment if we are not available. April 2015 Speaking on your behalf Westgate, Launceston, Cornwall, PL15 9AD Phone: Fax: