When selling/buying a new property, if you have not done this for a while then the process can be a little daunting.
There are many terms used by those in the know and we have decided to help break this down to try and help make things a little clearer.
Selling and buying a house means searches are conducted on your property and the surrounding areas of your property. These can take from 8-16 weeks to complete.
Once all searches are back and any questions raised have been answered, you will be at the point were you can exchange contracts. This is towards the end of the process and means the contracts for all properties involved in your chain (number of partied selling/buying) are swapped and you are then at the point where a completion date can be set. All parties need to agree to this and it is at this point of exchange we would ask you to contact ourselves to check we have availability to complete your move before you agree to the date set.
Once you are happy then a completion date will be set. This means that the monies will exchange between the relevant accounts. On completion day it is a legal requirement that you vacate your property by 1pm. This is the time when all monies should have been moved between the relevant accounts. In some cases this has been known to take a little longer.
You cannot move into your new property legally until the money for that property you are buying has been received into the appropriate bank. The solicitor and/or the estate agents will advise when this has happened and then you may collect your keys to access your new property (if appropriate in your case).