You’ve found it!

The house. You’ve viewed twelve others, spent several evenings zooming into Rightmove floorplans, driven slowly past this one three times pretending you weren’t looking at it, and had a surprisingly serious marital discussion about whether the dining room is actually big enough for Christmas. You make an offer. It gets accepted. Excellent. So... when do you get the keys? This is normally the point where someone tells you: “Around 12 to 14 weeks.” And then disappears into a cloud of legal terminology. Meanwhile, your three year old is screaming “I WON’T EAT MY PEAS!”, the dog has run off with the mortgage paperwork you just spent two hours trying to understand, and your solicitor has emailed you something containing the words easement, covenant and apportionment. Welcome to buying a house. The good news is that, despite appearances, there is a process. And if you know roughly what should be happening each week, you can spot when things have gone quiet before three weeks mysteriously disappear. So, whether you’re buying a terrace in Peverell, a family home in Plymstock, a flat near the Barbican or a cottage somewhere on Dartmoor where the postcode appears to cover half a mountain, here is our realistic week by week guide to buying a home.

How Long Does Buying a House Actually Take?

A fairly straightforward purchase will commonly take somewhere around 12 to 14 weeks from offer accepted to completion. Some are quicker. Some are considerably slower. Chains, mortgages, leasehold properties, surveys, searches, probate, missing paperwork and legal enquiries can all affect the timescale. There is also one fairly reliable law of conveyancing: The moment everybody assumes somebody else is dealing with it, nothing happens. That does not mean ringing your solicitor every morning at 8:59am.It does mean keeping an eye on progress, replying quickly when you are asked for something and asking sensible questions at sensible intervals. Once a week is usually enough. And crucially, ask specific questions. “Any update?” often gets you:

“Matters are progressing.”

Which tells you almost nothing. “What exactly are we currently waiting for?” gets you somewhere. Right. Offer accepted. Here we go.

Week 1: Your Offer Has Been Accepted

Congratulations. For approximately six minutes, you will experience pure happiness. Then everyone starts asking you for money and identification. Week one is all about getting the machinery moving.

What you should be doing

Instruct your solicitor or conveyancer immediately. Do not spend three weeks comparing a £37 difference between conveyancing quotes while your seller begins wondering whether you actually intend to buy their house. Your solicitor will normally ask for things such as:

• Proof of identification
• Proof of address
• Proof of deposit
• Evidence showing where your money has come from
• Mortgage information
• Details of any related property sale
• Gifted deposit information, if applicable

If you are getting a mortgage, your full mortgage application should now be submitted. If you want a survey, now is also the time to start arranging it.

What your estate agent should be doing

We will issue the Memorandum of Sale confirming:

• The buyer
• The seller
• The agreed price
• Both solicitors
• Any conditions attached to the offer

We should also be checking the chain and making sure everyone actually knows who everyone else is. It sounds simple. You would be surprised.

Your mission this week

Get everything instructed. Mortgage. Solicitor. Survey. Then celebrate with a takeaway because apparently your disposable income belongs to the house now.

Week 2: The Solicitors Get Started

This is where your solicitor starts receiving the legal paperwork from the seller’s solicitor. The seller will normally be completing forms about the property covering things such as:

• Boundaries
• Alterations
• Guarantees
• Fixtures and fittings
• Disputes
• Planning permissions
• Services
• Ownership information

You may start hearing phrases such as: Draft Contract PackTA6TA10Title Documents Do not panic. Nobody expects you to develop a working knowledge of English land law before bedtime.

What you should be doing

Make sure your solicitor has everything they asked you for. If they want a bank statement, send it. If they want identification, send it. If they want evidence showing where your deposit came from, send it. Today. Not after remembering the email next Thursday while brushing your teeth.

Your solicitor check in

Towards the end of the week, ask: “Have you received the draft contract pack from the seller’s solicitor, and is there anything outstanding from me?” Simple. Polite. Useful. Because your purchase is probably the biggest thing happening in your life this month. To your solicitor, it may be file number 36 on a Wednesday. That is not criticism. It is just reality.

Week 3: Searches, Mortgage Valuations and Surveys

Things should now be moving. Your solicitor will usually begin ordering searches covering areas such as:

• Local authority matters
• Drainage and water
• Environmental issues
• Flood risk
• Other searches appropriate to the property and area

Meanwhile, your mortgage application should be progressing and your survey should ideally be booked.

A mortgage valuation is not the same as your survey

This catches buyers out surprisingly often. Your lender may arrange a valuation. That valuation is primarily for the lender. They want to know whether the property provides suitable security for the money they are lending you. It is not automatically a detailed inspection of the condition of the property. If you want someone to properly inspect the property for you, speak to a surveyor about the appropriate level of survey.

Which survey should you choose?

That depends on what you are buying. A modern house built ten years ago may need a very different level of inspection from a 200 year old Dartmoor cottage containing granite walls thick enough to survive a minor siege. If you are unsure, ask the surveyor.

Your mission this week

Ask your solicitor:“ Have the searches now been ordered?” Ask your mortgage adviser: “Has the valuation been booked or completed?” Check when your survey is happening. Then return to measuring the lounge to establish whether the enormous sofa you bought five years ago will fit. It will not.

Week 4: The Survey Arrives

Here comes the survey. You open it. There are 47 pages. Approximately 39 appear to suggest the building could collapse before lunchtime. Do not panic. Surveyors are professionally required to highlight defects and risks. That is why you employed them. A sentence such as: “Further investigation by a suitably qualified contractor is recommended.” does not automatically mean: RUN. THE HOUSE IS CURSED. Read the report properly. Speak to the surveyor. Understand which items are:

• Urgent
• Normal maintenance
• Typical for the age of the property
• Worth investigating
• Potentially expensive
• Actually important

Common survey findings

You might see things such as:

• Damp
• Roof repairs
• Older electrics
• Boiler concerns
• Cracked render
• Window defects
• Drainage issues
• Missing Building Regulations paperwork
• Structural movement
• General maintenance

A Victorian terrace will not receive the same report as a house built six years ago.Context matters.

Should you renegotiate?

Sometimes. If the survey discovers something genuinely significant and unexpected, speak to the estate agent. But finding £600 worth of ordinary maintenance on a 100 year old house does not automatically justify knocking £15,000 off your offer. Your surveyor can help you understand the severity of any issue. Your estate agent can help establish facts with the seller and, where appropriate, help both sides find a sensible solution.

Weeks 4 to 6: Welcome to Enquiries

Your solicitor is now reviewing the legal paperwork and raising questions with the seller’s solicitor. These are called enquiries. This is often where the transaction disappears behind the curtain. You may hear: “We are awaiting replies to enquiries.” This could mean: “There are two straightforward questions outstanding. ”Or: “We raised seventeen enquiries, twelve have been answered, one needs the freeholder, two require the council, one needs a document nobody has seen since 1998 and another appears to concern a drain running underneath the neighbour’s conservatory. ”So ask.

Your weekly question

Instead of: “Any update?” Try: “How many enquiries remain outstanding, and are any of them preventing us from progressing? ”Much better. Now you know what the problem actually is.

This is also where a good estate agent earns their keep

A proactive agent should be speaking to:

• You
• The seller
• Your solicitor
• The seller’s solicitor
• Other agents in the chain where necessary
• Mortgage brokers when appropriate

We cannot do the solicitor’s legal work. But we can identify where the blockage is. And silence is where property transactions go to grow beards.

Week 6: Check Your Mortgage

By now your mortgage application should be well advanced. Ideally, you will either have your formal mortgage offer or know exactly what remains outstanding. Do not assume that because somebody valued the property three weeks ago everything is fine. Ask.

Speak to your mortgage adviser

Find out:

• Has the valuation been accepted?
• Has underwriting finished?
• Is anything outstanding?
• Has the formal mortgage offer been issued?
• Are there any special conditions?

And until you complete, try not to make any dramatic financial decisions.This is probably not the ideal moment to:

• Finance a new Range Rover
• Take out three credit cards
• Change jobs without discussing it with your adviser
• Borrow £20,000
• Buy a speedboat from Facebook Marketplace because the advert described it as an “investment opportunity”

Your lender may carry out further checks before completion. Behave yourself. The speedboat can wait.

Weeks 7 to 8: Searches Should Be Coming Back

Your solicitor should now be receiving and reviewing the search results. This is where you may discover wonderfully obscure information about your future home. Drainage. Planning history. Rights of way. Nearby development. Flood risk. Old covenants. Occasionally something written in 1937 by somebody who had extremely strong feelings about chickens. Again, most things are manageable. The important question is whether anything materially affects:

• Your use of the property
• Your mortgage
• Your plans for alterations
• Your future resale
• Your legal ownership

Your weekly solicitor chase

Ask:“Are all searches now back, and have they raised any further enquiries?”Then ask:“What specifically remains outstanding before you can report to me?”That second question is gold.Because now we are no longer asking whether things are “progressing”.We are asking what actually stands between you and exchange.

Week 8: Start Thinking About Completion

You can now cautiously begin discussing dates.Cautiously.Do not book a non refundable removal company, give notice on your rental property and invite thirty people to a housewarming because someone said:“We should probably complete around the 18th.”Until contracts are exchanged, dates can move.If there is a chain, everybody needs to agree.One person wants Friday.Another cannot do Friday.Someone is away.Someone’s mortgage funds need five working days.Someone else has to collect the cat.Welcome to property chains.

What you can start doing

Gather quotes for:

• Removals
• Buildings insurance
• Broadband
• Utilities

Start decluttering.If you are moving with children, start deciding what goes where.This will eventually result in twelve boxes labelled:MISCNobody knows what is inside them.This is part of the process.

Weeks 8 to 10: Your Report on Title

Eventually your solicitor should be satisfied with the searches, enquiries, mortgage offer and legal title.They will normally send you their Report on Title.Read it.Yes.All of it.This is not one of those documents where you scroll to the bottom and click I Agree.It explains what you are actually buying.It may cover:

• Boundaries
• Restrictions
• Rights of way
• Covenants
• Planning matters
• Fixtures and fittings
• Search results
• Mortgage conditions
• Lease terms
• Service charges
• Legal responsibilities

If you do not understand something, ask.This is not the moment to nod confidently at the phrase:“Rights reserved for the benefit of the dominant tenement.”and hope it means parking.Ask.

Documents you may sign around this point

These can include:

• Contract
• Mortgage deed
• Stamp Duty paperwork
• Transfer documents
• Other legal paperwork

Keep them somewhere safe.Preferably somewhere higher than the dog.He has contributed nothing financially to this purchase and therefore has no legitimate need to inspect the mortgage deed.

Week 9 to 11: Are We Ready to Exchange?

This is the moment everyone has been waiting for.Your solicitor should now be able to tell you whether you are legally ready.Your mortgage should be ready.Your deposit should be available.The seller should be ready.And, if there is a chain, everybody else needs to reach approximately the same point.This is why chains can become frustrating.You may be completely ready while somebody three houses away is trying to find a planning certificate from 1998.

Ask this exact question

“Is there anything outstanding that prevents us from exchanging contracts?”If the answer is yes:“What exactly is it, and who are we waiting for?”Now your estate agent knows who needs chasing.Not everybody.The correct person.There is a difference.

Exchange of Contracts: This Is The Big One

Once contracts are exchanged, you are legally committed to buying the property.The seller is legally committed to selling it.Your completion date becomes fixed.Pop the kettle on.You have earned this one.

Before exchange, make sure you understand

• Your completion date
• Your deposit requirements
• Your mortgage conditions
• Your buildings insurance requirements
• Any outstanding agreements
• What fixtures and fittings are included

This is normally the point where you stop saying:“If we move...”and start saying:“When we move...”Tiny word.Massive difference.

The Week Before Completion

Things suddenly become very real.You are surrounded by boxes.Nobody can find the scissors.The scissors are inside a box.Nobody knows which box.

Your solicitor will be

• Requesting mortgage funds
• Preparing completion statements
• Carrying out final checks
• Arranging transfer of the purchase money

You should be

• Organising removals
• Preparing your remaining funds
• Sorting utilities
• Sorting broadband
• Organising insurance
• Redirecting post
• Packing
• Wondering why your household apparently owns 47 mugs

If you are renting, make sure your tenancy arrangements have been properly dealt with.Try not to create a situation where a delayed completion leaves you temporarily living in your mother in law’s spare room with two children, three suitcases and a Labrador.

Completion Day: WHERE ARE MY KEYS?

You wake up at 5:43am.Today is the day.The van is loaded.The children have asked fourteen times whether you own the house yet.You do not.Completion happens when the purchase money reaches the seller’s solicitor and they formally confirm that completion has taken place.This might happen in the morning.It might happen around lunchtime.Sometimes it happens later.

Important

Your estate agent cannot release the keys until the seller’s solicitor confirms completion.So if you are sitting outside our office staring through the window at 9:02am, we admire your enthusiasm.But we still cannot give you the keys.Once confirmation arrives, however...That is it.You own a house.Come and get your keys.Try not to lose them before reaching the car.

The Weekly Buyer Checklist

If the transaction feels quiet, work through these questions:

1. Have I provided everything my solicitor needs?
2. Has my mortgage valuation been completed?
3. Has my formal mortgage offer been issued?
4. Have my searches been ordered?
5. Are all searches back?
6. How many legal enquiries remain outstanding?
7. Who are we currently waiting for?
8. Is my survey complete and have I dealt with any concerns?
9. Is there anything preventing exchange?
10. Has everybody discussed completion dates?

You do not need to chase everybody every day.But once a week?Absolutely.Property transactions rarely suffer because somebody politely asked what was happening.

Property Buying Terminology: Solicitor English Translated Into Normal Human English

At some point during your purchase, somebody will use a word you have never heard before and everyone else on the email will behave as though it is perfectly normal.It is not.So here is our unofficial translation guide.Conveyancer

→ Another word for the property solicitor dealing with the legal side of your move.Memorandum of Sale

→ The estate agent's document saying: These people are buying this house for this much money, and these are the solicitors dealing with it.Draft Contract Pack

→ The seller's solicitor has sent your solicitor the paperwork needed to actually start the legal process.Title

→ The official record showing who owns the property and what legal baggage comes attached to it.Title Plan

→ The little red line on a Land Registry plan that everyone will suddenly examine like they are analysing satellite intelligence.Easement

→ I’m allowed to use or cross this bit even though I don’t own it.For example, you may have permission to walk across your neighbour’s driveway to reach your garden.Right of Way

→ I’m allowed to walk or drive through there.Usually simple.Occasionally the beginning of a thirty year argument involving wheelie bins.Covenant

→ A legal rule attached to the property saying you can, cannot or must do something.Restrictive Covenant

→ You’re not allowed to do that.Could be anything from building another property in the garden to keeping livestock.Some are important.Some appear to have been written by somebody in 1923 who had extremely strong feelings about fences.Positive Covenant

→ You are responsible for doing or paying for something.For example, contributing towards maintaining a shared driveway.Searches

→ Your solicitor asking various organisations:"Is there anything we should know about this house before my client spends several hundred thousand pounds on it?"Local Authority Search

→ Checking planning, roads, Building Regulations and other council information connected with the property.Drainage Search

→ Finding out where the water goes and whether somebody else’s sewer is quietly running underneath your future extension.Environmental Search

→ Checking things such as flood risk, contaminated land and other environmental concerns.Enquiries

→ Your solicitor asking the seller’s solicitor questions.Sometimes there are five.Sometimes there are thirty seven.Sometimes enquiry number eighteen is waiting for a document nobody has seen since Tony Blair was Prime Minister.Outstanding Enquiries

→ Questions that still need answering before your solicitor is happy.Report on Title

→ Your solicitor’s big summary explaining exactly what you are buying and anything important you should know before becoming legally committed.Read it.Mortgage Valuation

→ Your lender checking that the house is roughly worth enough to justify lending you the money.It is mainly for them.Survey

→ Someone inspecting the property for you and telling you everything they can find wrong with it.They are very good at this.Down Valuation

→ The lender saying:"You agreed to pay £300,000. We think it’s worth £285,000."Cue several phone calls.Mortgage Offer

→ Your lender formally confirming that, subject to the conditions in the offer, they are prepared to lend you the money.Very important piece of paper.Do not let the dog eat it.Mortgage Deed

→ The document confirming your lender gets legal security over the property because, understandably, they would quite like their enormous pile of money back one day.Deposit

→ The money you are putting into the purchase yourself.At exchange, the word can also refer to the contractual deposit sent through the solicitors.Same word.Slightly different context.Because apparently buying a house was not complicated enough.Gifted Deposit

→ Someone, usually a family member, is giving you money towards your purchase.Your lender and solicitor will normally want to know who, why and where it came from.Source of Funds

→ Where did this money come from?Salary?Savings?Sale of another property?Inheritance?Your solicitor needs evidence."I’ve just had it for ages" rarely concludes the investigation.Proof of Funds

→ Show us that the money actually exists.Exchange of Contracts

→ The point where both sides become legally committed.Before exchange:"We’re buying the house."After exchange:"WE ARE BUYING THE HOUSE."Completion

→ The money arrives, ownership changes and you finally get the keys.This is the day you have been asking about since Week 1.Completion Statement

→ Your solicitor’s final calculation showing what money is coming in, what is going out and exactly how much you need to send them.Usually followed by several minutes staring silently at your bank account.Completion Funds

→ The giant pile of money needed to actually buy the house.Vacant Possession

→ The seller needs to leave.Preferably taking themselves, their furniture and the twelve broken plant pots behind the shed with them.Fixtures and Fittings

→ What stays and what goes.Curtains?Fridge?Wardrobes?Garden shed?That suspiciously expensive light fitting?The paperwork should tell you.TA6 Form

→ The seller answering a very long list of questions about the property.Essentially:"Tell us everything."TA10 Form

→ The official:"What are you leaving behind?"form.TR1

→ The legal document that transfers ownership of the property from the seller to you.Important.Not exciting.Indemnity Policy

→ Insurance taken out because a legal paperwork issue exists, but everyone has decided it is easier to insure against the risk than try to solve something that happened twenty years ago.Property law’s version of:"It’ll probably be fine, but here’s an insurance policy just in case."Retention

→ We’re keeping a little bit of money back until we know this issue isn’t actually an issue.For example, money might temporarily be held back to cover an unknown service charge bill.Deed of Variation

→ The wording of an existing legal document needs changing because somebody, quite often the mortgage lender, does not like what it currently says.Apportionment

→ Working out who owes what when a bill covers a period before and after completion.Basically:"You owned it for twenty days. I owned it for ten. Who pays which bit?"Disbursements

→ Costs your solicitor pays to other organisations on your behalf.Search fees.Land Registry fees.Other third party charges.Not, unfortunately, complimentary biscuits.Leasehold

→ You own the property for the remaining length of the lease, while somebody else owns the freehold.Usually comes with more paperwork.Sometimes considerably more paperwork.Freehold

→ You generally own the property and the land it stands on outright.Still plenty of paperwork.Just usually fewer people involved.Service Charge

→ Money paid towards maintaining communal areas, buildings or services on some developments.Ground Rent

→ Rent payable under certain leases to the freeholder.LPE1 Pack

→ A large bundle of leasehold information everyone needs and nobody appears able to produce quickly.It contains information about things such as:

• Service charges
• Insurance
• Management
• Planned works
• The lease

It can occasionally travel at approximately the speed of continental drift.Management Pack

→ Generally the same idea.Information supplied by the freeholder or managing agent about the building.Redemption Statement

→ The seller’s mortgage lender saying exactly how much money is needed to repay their mortgage.Not really your problem.Very much your seller’s solicitor’s problem.Chain

→ Everyone whose property transaction depends on somebody else’s property transaction.You buy from Sarah.Sarah buys from Tom.Tom buys from Janet.Janet is buying an empty bungalow.Congratulations.Janet is now the most important woman in your life.Chain Free

→ Nobody needs another property sale to happen first.Usually simpler.Not automatically faster.Property will always find a way.Probate

→ The legal process allowing someone to deal with the property and belongings of someone who has died.If the necessary legal authority has not yet been granted, the transaction may need to wait.Flying Freehold

→ Part of your property sits above or below somebody else’s property.No.It does not actually fly.Disappointing name.Party Wall

→ A wall shared between two properties.There are specific rules surrounding certain building works affecting it.Chancel Repair Liability

→ An ancient potential liability connected with repairs to a church.Yes.Really.Welcome to English property law.Undertaking

→ A formal promise made by a solicitor which they are professionally bound to honour.A considerably more serious version of:"I promise I’ll sort it."Requisitions on Title

→ Final questions and arrangements dealt with between solicitors shortly before completion.Think of them as the legal pre flight checklist.Transfer of Equity

→ Adding or removing somebody from the legal ownership of a property.Building Regulations Approval

→ Confirmation that certain building works complied with the relevant Building Regulations.Planning Permission

→ Permission from the local authority for certain types of building work or development.Planning Permission and Building Regulations are not the same thing.Your extension may require one, both or neither depending on the circumstances.No Further Enquiries

→ Three of the most beautiful words in the English language when you are buying a house.Closely followed by:“Ready to exchange.”

What Can Delay Your Purchase?

Here are some of the classics.

• Your solicitor is waiting for the seller’s solicitor
• The seller’s solicitor is waiting for the seller
• The seller is convinced they already sent the document
• Nobody can find the document
• The management company takes weeks to answer
• A lease contains something the lender does not like
• Planning paperwork is missing
• Building Regulations paperwork cannot be found
• The lender asks another question
• The property is down valued
• The survey discovers something unexpected
• Somebody elsewhere in the chain loses their buyer
• Probate is still required
• A boundary does not match what everyone thought
• A septic tank appears
• A historic right of way appears
• Somebody buys a camper van on finance halfway through their mortgage application

That last one is remarkably avoidable.

A Small Word About Solicitors

Your solicitor is not necessarily ignoring you.They are probably dealing with dozens of transactions alongside lenders, searches, enquiries, contracts, completions and approximately seven hundred emails.But that does not mean you should be frightened to ask for an update.Be polite.Be specific.Ask useful questions.

Bad question:

“Any news?”

Better question:

“What specifically remains outstanding before we can exchange?”One produces:

“We are progressing matters.”

The other produces an actual answer.Use the second one.

Your Estate Agent Should Be Doing More Than Opening the Door

Once your offer is accepted, the estate agent’s job should not disappear.At Hindhead Property, this is where a large part of our work actually begins.We follow the sale through.We speak to both sides.We chase solicitors.We monitor mortgages and surveys.We check the chain.We identify delays.We translate legal sounding updates into normal English.And when something goes wrong, because occasionally it will, we try to solve the problem rather than simply forwarding you an email containing it.Buying a house is stressful enough.You should not also need to become an amateur conveyancer, mortgage broker, surveyor and private detective.

Finally: Try to Enjoy It

House buying has a strange habit of making people forget what they are actually doing.Between the mortgage application, survey, solicitor emails, packing boxes and explaining for the seventeenth time that no, we do not have the keys yet, it is easy for the process to consume the excitement.But at the end of all this paperwork is something pretty significant.Your home.The place where birthdays will happen.Where furniture will be assembled incorrectly.Where somebody will eventually draw on a wall.Where Christmas mornings will happen.Where the dog will immediately identify the most expensive piece of carpet.Where you will stand on completion day, surrounded by boxes, eating pizza from the lid because you cannot find the plates.So keep chasing.Keep asking questions.Keep the process moving.And when somebody finally emails:“We have exchanged contracts.”You are absolutely allowed to punch the air. Just check the three year old is not standing behind you first.

Buying a Home in Plymouth, Devon or Dartmoor?

If you are buying through Hindhead Property, we will guide you through the process from your first viewing right through to collecting the keys. If you are confused about what is happening with your purchase, ask us. If your solicitor has sent you something that appears to have been written in medieval Latin, send us a message.  And if you simply want to know: “Louis, should something actually be happening by now?” Ask. There is normally a perfectly sensible explanation. Usually.

As always thanks for reading, 

Louis Lopez 

P.S. Remember – Hindhead Property is not your typical estate agent and we’ll beat any fee! For more info call the team on 01752 875075, or email us at: q@hindheadproperty.com