Buying With Us

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from the existing owner to a purchaser.

The timescales involved in either the process of buying or selling a property vary depending on the complexity of the sale. Normally, you can expect the process to be completed reasonably quickly – between 4-10 weeks from the moment of the offer being accepted to keys being handed over (settlement) . If your transaction is complicated or there are issues identified it may take longer than this. Our team of experienced conveyancing solicitors will give you an estimate of how long they think that the process will take after your initial meeting.

The date of entry is the point at which the keys to the property are handed over to the new buyers. Ownership and risk pass from the seller to the purchaser on the date of entry. On the date of entry the purchaser’s solicitor will send the funds to the seller’s solicitor who will carry out any final checks and settle the transaction on their client’s behalf. The seller’s solicitor will make arrangements to discharge and repay any existing mortgage and pay out the sale proceeds to their client.

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) is the tax payable when you purchase land or property. There are a number of exemptions and reliefs which relate to very specific types of transactions. Your solicitor will usually deal with the payment of LBTT as part of the transaction. It is necessary for the LBTT return to be submitted to Revenue Scotland, and the tax paid, before the property title can be registered. The LBTT Return form is a Tax Return so it is important that this form is correct as there are penalties for late submission, submitting an incorrect return or failing to complete the return. The return must be submitted to Revenue Scotland within 30 days of the date of entry of your purchase, but is usually submitted much earlier than this.

A contract is created between the seller and the purchaser agreeing the terms of the sale. This contract is referred to as the missives. The missives are a collection of legally binding letters which are exchanged by the purchasing and selling solicitors negotiating the terms of the contract on behalf of their clients.

A Sale or Purchase becomes legally binding on conclusion of missives. The Sale or Purchase process begins with the submission of an offer to the selling solicitor setting out the terms of the contract of sale. If the seller is happy with all the terms of the offer then their solicitor will go back to the purchasing solicitor and accept their offer. The offer and acceptance form the contract of sale and these letters are your missives. The unqualified acceptance of all the terms of the offer concludes the contract.

The process can be as short as an offer and acceptance however it is not unusual for the seller to qualify the terms of the original offer and go back with a qualified acceptance. If either side is changing the terms of the contract then the onus moves to the other party to accept the new contract terms. Once either side receives a missive they are happy to accept unconditionally then they are in a position to conclude the contract. Once the contract is concluded the seller is legally obligated to sell and the purchaser is bound to purchase.

The missive letters are usually signed by solicitors on behalf of their clients. Your solicitor will discuss the terms of the missives with you and take your instructions. Once they have your instructions they will sign the missive letter on your behalf.

There are some circumstances where a purchaser or seller will be required to sign a missive. Where a solicitor firm is acting for both the purchaser and seller they are unable to offer and accept on their client’s behalf so either the purchaser of the seller will need to sign their own missives.

The Land Register of Scotland is the public register of property titles. Not every title is registered in the Land Register, as many properties remain in the much older Register of Sasines. Whenever a property changes hands, or is mortgaged, it is re-registered in the Land Register of Scotland. Eventually the Register of Sasines will be closed and all titles across Scotland will be found solely in the Land Register.

The solicitor purchasing the property will draft a document called a disposition which is then revised by the selling solicitor. Whilst it is usually not the most complicated part of the process the disposition is arguably the most important as this is the document which – when registered in the Land Register of Scotland – transfers ownership of the property.

The contract will normally require the seller to provide a number of searches. As part of the conveyancing process your solicitors will review the searches checking that there is nothing prohibiting the seller from selling the property and the purchaser from purchasing. The searches also include a search over the property checking various items which would be of interest to a potential purchaser and potentially highlighting problems which may need to be addressed.

Ordinarily as part of the conveyancing the purchasing solicitor will review the title for the property to ensure that it meets the requirements of their clients, the purchasers. The purchaser will be shown what title conditions affect the property. More or less all properties are affected by title conditions. These include servitudes, which are rights for one property over another, such as rights of access or rights for services; and also real burdens, which are restrictions or obligations imposed on a property in favour of another, such as restrictions on use, or obligations to contribute towards maintenance of shared parts.