Buyers Moving Guide
A simple guide to help achieve a smooth and straightforward process.
The Mortgage Process
Welcome to our Mortgage Guide designed to streamline your journey towards homeownership. By outlining each step from application to approval, it demystifies the procedures and requirements involved, ensuring you can approach this significant financial commitment with confidence.
For house buyers, understanding these steps is essential to the process running smoothly and help you avoid delays.
We hope that reading this guide will equip you with the knowledge to efficiently manage your mortgage application process, but if you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to ask us.
01
Submitting your application
The mortgage process can take up to 6 weeks from submitting your application to receiving your offer, so it is best to start the process ASAP.
You should liaise with your mortgage broker, or lender if you are going direct, to ensure your application is submitted promptly.
For this, you will be required to provide your financial documentation, such as, bank statements and payslips.
02 Mortgage Valuation
Your mortgage lender will instruct a valuation of the property to be carried out in order to verify the purchase price.
The valuation company will contact Seymours to arrange access to the property, so there is nothing for you to do here
It is more and more common for the lenders to carry out what is known as a desktop valuation, for this they will not need to arrange a visit to the property.
03
Underwriting (Mortgage Approval)
Some lenders carry out the underwriting before they instruct the valuation, but this will depend on which lender you choose, it doesn’t make a difference which order this is done.
Sometimes the underwriter may request further information or documentation from you before approving your mortgage.
If you are using a broker, they will be notified and will request this from you.
You should respond to any requests as quickly as possible as it could take a further 3-5 days for any additional information to be reviewed.
You may be notified once your mortgage has been approved, but you will need to wait for your formal offer letter to be issued.
04 What happens when your mortgage offer is issued?
Your broker or lender will inform you once your mortgage offer has been issued.
You will receive your formal offer letter via email or post within a few days.
Your lender will send a legal copy of your mortgage offer directly to your solicitor; they should receive this within a week after you receive your copy.
Once your solicitor has received this, they will review the offer and report to your lender.
Your solicitor will send you a document to sign called the mortgage deed, which will need witnessing by someone who is not a relative or family member. Let us know if we can assist with this, then you can pop into our office.
We recommend signing and returning the documentation as soon as possible via next day recorded delivery to ensure safe receipt.
Your solicitor will hold your documentation until the transaction is ready to exchange.
The Buying Process
The Standard Searches Are; Local Authority,
Water / Drainage & Environmental.
Local - provides detailed information about the property and the surrounding areas; typically includes nearby planning applications which could impact the property.
Water and drainage – highlights the proximity of the property to public sewers and whether the property has a sewer running within the boundaries of the property.
Environmental - identifies whether the previous land use of the property creates a potential environmental risk or is risk free.
Step 2: Legal Work Begins
Once your solicitor has received the draft contract pack from the sellers solicitor, they will be able to order the searches. Searches are obtained by a third party company and usually take 2-3 weeks for the results. Therefore, it is recommended that these are ordered ASAP.
Step 1: Instructing Your Solicitor
Your solicitor will send a pack of paperwork to you to complete and return back. This may be sent via email or post, if you don’t receive this within 2-3 days of receiving the memorandum of sale from us, please contact your solicitor. The solicitors cannot start any legal work until your completed paperwork has been returned. You will also need to pay your solicitor the search fees (approx £300).
? Search Results
When your solicitor receives the search results, they may have some further enquiries to raise with the sellers solicitor.
Step 4: Enquiry Stage
Your solicitor will raise some enquiries with the sellers solicitor, which usually consist of around 20 questions. Some of these enquiries, the sellers solicitor will be able to deal with, others may require the sellers responses, and some may require a third party response e.g. management company. The enquiry stage can last anywhere between 2 – 6 weeks, depending on the complexity of the enquiries and the speed in which the sellers solicitor is able to respond.
Step 3: Management Pack
(if applicable)
If you are purchasing a leasehold property, or a freehold property with communal areas maintained by a management company, your solicitor will require a management pack in order to carry out their legal work. The seller and their solicitor will order this from their management company and forward onto your solicitor once received. It usually takes 3-4 weeks for a management company to issue the pack.
Step 5: Signing Documents
Your solicitor will send you a contract and a transfer (TR1) to sign and return. Your signature on the transfer (TR1) document will need witnessing by someone who is not a relative or family member. Let us know if we can assist with this, then you can pop into our office. We recommend signing and returning the documentation as soon as possible via Next Day Recorded Delivery to ensure safe receipt. Your solicitor will hold your documentation until the transaction is ready to exchange, only at which point, the sale will become legally binding.
Step 6: Reviewing & Reporting
Once your solicitor has received all of the search results, replies to enquiries and your mortgage offer, if required, they will report to you with all the information.
Step 7: Agreeing A Completion Date
The completion date will usually be agreed with the seller and the chain via the estate agents. This is quicker and easier than doing it via the solicitors. If you are obtaining a mortgage, your solicitor will likely need at least a week between exchange and completion in order to order your mortgage monies.
Once a completion date has been agreed with all parties in the chain, you should notify your solicitor of this date so they can confirm the same with the other solicitors in the chain.
Step 8: Exchange
Exchange will usually take place once all solicitors are ready, this date is not set in advance. For exchange, your solicitor will require the 10% deposit from you. Your solicitor will also require ‘authority to exchange’ from you before proceeding. This is usually a quick phone call with your solicitor or an email. Once the solicitors have authority from their clients, they will call each other to carry out the exchange, this is usually a 5-10 minute conversation. Your solicitor will then confirm to you once exchange has taken place!
Step 9: Completion
On completion day, your solicitor will send the purchase funds over to the sellers solicitor, usually first thing in the morning. If there is a chain below, this will start with the solicitor at the bottom of the chain and work its way up. The sellers solicitor will call us and your solicitor to confirm once the funds have been received from your solicitor, this usually takes place at about 2pm. At this point, completion will have taken place and we will be in contact with you to release keys.
You’re In!
The keys are yours and it’s now time to get unpacking and finally enjoy your new home!
Buyers Checklist
When it comes to buying your home, there’s a series of events you can expect to happen. We’ll be by your side every step of the way to make sure you reach these key milestones, but for your reference here are the key moments you can expect to tick off along the way.
Receive memorandum of sale from Seymours
Submit mortgage application (if required)
Complete & return solicitors paperwork
Pay for searches
Instruct additional survey (if one is desired)
Solicitor receives draft contract pack from sellers solicitor
Solicitor orders searches
Mortgage valuation carried out (if required)
Enquiries raised & sent to sellers solicitor
Contracts received
Contract signed and returned to solicitor
Search results received
Mortgage offer received (if required)
All enquiries satisfied
Agree Completion Date
Exchange
Completion