Conveyancing Questions Answered – Part 4

Moving home is listed as one of the most stressful things a person will do in their lifetime, but why is this? A lot of the time it is because of being let down by a Buyer or Seller, or timescales being delayed and target moving dates missed, however it can also be due to the whole process seeming complicated and difficult to understand.

I always say to my clients that there is no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to Conveyancing, as after all some of us may only move once or twice in our lifetimes, and so why would this make us experts in such matters?!

Every day when speaking with my clients, I am asked a variety of questions that come up time and time again, and so I wanted to share some of these common queries with you in order to try and explain the Conveyancing process in more detail, and break down some of the areas that often cause the most confusion.

Each week I will be sharing with you examples of some of the questions that have been raised by my clients* during the course of their property transactions, and the advice and explanations given to them to help them understand the process of moving home.

(*names will be not be shown in full for confidentiality reasons.)

"I'm currently living in a rented property. When should I give notice to my landlord to cancel my tenancy?" - Mr J. - Coventry

Unfortunately until the contracts have been exchanged, there is no guarantee that the purchase will proceed through to completion, as it is the exchange of contracts that makes the purchase legally binding on both the Seller and Buyer. Therefore, our advice would be that you should not give notice to your Landlord until you have had confirmation that the contracts have been exchanged.

It can be frustrating as this can often mean that you need to have a longer gap between exchange and completion than you or the Seller would ideally have liked, to allow for the notice period to elapse with your tenancy agreement, however you can agree the completion date to take place whilst the notice on your rental property is running - it all depends on how much of an overlap of both the rent and mortgage payments that you can afford.

It can sometimes work to your advantage to have an overlap of both properties as you can then move between the two properties whilst your tenancy is still running, rather than to have to do all of the move on the one day.

If however, you do not want to wait until the contracts have been exchanged before handing in your notice, then you must be prepared to accept the risks associated with making this decision, and our advice would be that you should always have a "plan B" in mind, such as moving in with friends or family, should the tenancy expire before you are able to complete your purchase and get the keys to your new property. This is not of course ideal, and there will also be costs such as storage costs for your furniture to take into consideration.

This concludes the FAQ for this week. Visit next week for more answers to your questions. If there are any conveyancing issues you'd like Band Hatton Button's assistance with please get in touch.