Buying Your Home

Our legal conveyancers at Purdie Maclean Solicitors have helped thousands of people to purchase their home or investment property.

Purdie Maclean are committed to providing exceptional service and a first class customer experience to make your purchase as stress-free as possible – but we need your help to do it.

The following is a brief guide to the conveyancing services we will provide and it also highlights the assistance you can provide us with to bring the transaction to a successful conclusion:-

1. THE OFFER And “THE MISSIVES”

Quite often the first contact Purdie Maclean will have with you is when you ask us to submit an offer to the sellers’ estate agent or solicitor to buy a new home.  A contract to buy a house in Scotland must be set down in writing.

Purdie Maclean’s legal conveyancers are skilled in placing offers and negotiating with the sellers’ agent.  After your written offer is initially accepted there will usually be an exchange of contractual letters lawyers call “the Missives”.

The “missives” comprise the legal letters that pass between us as your lawyers and the sellers’ lawyers and which together spell out the full written contract between seller and buyer. The first stage in the missives is the submission of an offer to the buyer lawyers or estate agents. When lawyers refer to “conclusion of missives” they mean the point at which the legal contract is binding on seller and buyer.  If either seller or buyer fail to fulfil their part of the contract once this stage is reached there can be serious financial consequences for the defaulting party.  The conclusion of missives is therefore a crucial stage in the conveyancing process as it crystallises what a seller is obliged to provide and what a buyer expects to receive.

Purdie Maclean will:-

• Take your instructions to offer and submit a written legal offer on your behalf
• Advise you if your offer has been successful
• Advise you to ensure your finances, including your mortgage, are all in place before concluding “missives”
• Advise you through the missives and proceed to conclusion of the contract

You should:-

• Make sure you obtain and read the Home Report fully
• Raise any queries you have on the Home Report with us
• Deal with all requests from your Broker or Mortgage Lender promptly
• Read the documents we send you and advise us if you think anything is inaccurate or incorrect
• Contact us with your instructions as soon as we ask you

2. Title Deeds And Searches

We will receive the deeds and associated documents relating to the property from the sellers lawyer.  Quite often we receive these before the contract is finalised and examine them in tandem with advising you on the contract terms.

Purdie Maclean will:-

• Examine all titles and searches provided by the sellers solicitors and ensure they are complete and in order
• Send you a copy of the existing or newly prepared title plan for your property
• Advise you on all relevant title conditions

You should:-

• Read all the documentation we send you and if you think anything is wrong or inaccurate let us know immediately

3. Your Mortgage

Purdie Maclean will normally be asked to carry out the legal security work for your lender.  The cost of this will be included in the fee quotation we will have provided you with.

Purdie Maclean will:-

• When nearing your entry date notify you if we don’t have mortgage papers from your lender so that you can contact your Broker or Lender to have the mortgage papers progressed
• On receipt of the mortgage offer prepare the legal security documents and arrange for you to sign them
• Request release of the mortgage funds

You should:-

• Sign and return any security documents we or your Lender send you as quickly as possible
• Make sure that you have buildings insurance in place and let us have a copy of the Policy Schedule

4. Your Deposit

As well as your mortgage funds we will also require to obtain your deposit and any fees, Land and Building Transaction Tax and statutory outlays

Purdie Maclean will:-

• Let you have an account showing the sum we will need from you as early as possible (ideally we like to do this at least 10 working days before your entry date but this is dependent on obtaining your mortgage papers in good time to do so)
• Ask you to let us have the balance due as cleared funds at least 2 working days before the entry date
• Take into account any surplus available from the sale of your property that is happening simultaneously with your purchase

You should:-

• Let us have the balance due as cleared funds at least 2 working days before the entry date.  By cleared funds we mean direct transfer of the funds from your bank to our bank (if paying by personal cheque please allow an additional 5 working days)

5. Entry Date And Key Release

This is the day you have been looking forward to when your purchase completes and you pick up the keys

Purdie Maclean will:-

• Pay the price by cheque to the sellers solicitor.  Occasionally a seller will ask you to pay the price by Direct bank Transfer.  If they have requested this we will have discussed this with you at the contract stage.  If buying a new build home you must pay by Direct bank Transfer
• Receive the signed title deed in your favour
• Let you know where and when you can pick up the keys (if you are part of a chain of buyers and sellers all settling on the same day we cannot often give a guaranteed time but we will try and obtain release of the keys to you at the earliest time possible)
• Pay any LBTT you are due to HMRC and complete and submit the relevant tax forms
• Register your title in the Land Register

6. Post Completion

Most mortgage companies no longer require to hold your title deeds so if your Lender is one of those Company’s (or you have no mortgage)

Purdie Maclean will:-

• Send you the title deeds of the property and any associated documents.  The Land Register gives no guarantee of timescales so we cannot confirm when this will be

You should:-

• Store your title deeds in a safe place as you will need them when you sell the property.  If you wish we can, for a small fee, store the documents in electronic format