Do you still pay solicitor’s fees if your buyer pulls out? What should you do if your cash buyer is short of the asking price at completion? And how long does the conveyancing process take? Mark Morton answers your questions in his latest legal clinic…
How long does it take to buy or sell a home?
Question
How long does the conveyancing process take when buying or selling property?
Answer
The national average for completing the conveyance of residential property is 12 weeks (but can take considerably longer where the property is leasehold).
Certainly, all conveyancers will look to deal with the matter as quickly as they can and will always look to achieve any completion date that their client has in mind.
That said, certain aspects of the transaction are outside any conveyancer’s control and where the transaction is one of a series of transactions, the matter will only move as quickly as the slowest party in the chain.
Are fees applied if the sale falls through?
Question
If my buyer may pull out of the transaction, do I still have to pay the fees?
Answer
Unfortunately, until contracts are exchanged nothing is binding on either party in a transaction and either party may withdraw without penalty.
If you were to lose your buyer, then your solicitor will usually charge you a proportion of the fee they have quoted calculated by reference to work done and time spent on your behalf.
Cash buyer is £5k short at completion – what should I do?
Question
I had a cash buyer for my property and just as the money was about to be transferred, they came back and said they were £5k short. Could I have put something in place to stop them from doing this?
Answer
If this happens following exchange of contracts, then the purchase price for the property is agreed at the point of exchange and is legally binding.
If on the day of completion, the purchaser says that they are £5,000 short, you are under no obligation to complete the purchase, as they are unable to pay the agreed purchase price.
You can therefore elect to serve a ‘notice to complete’ on the buyer, which gives them a further period of 10 working days in which to complete the purchase and pay the full purchase price.
For every day late they are in completing after the agreed completion date they are liable to interest on the balance due to complete the purchase and this is calculated on the interest rate set out in the contract.
If at the end of the 10-working day period, the buyer is still unable to pay the agreed purchase price you can decide to rescind the contract and the buyer would lose the deposit they paid at exchange of contracts (this is 10% of the purchase price under the Standard Conditions of Sale (Fifth Edition)).
How can I protect myself from fraud?
Answer
What steps do conveyancers take to ensure they have top security around transferring money? I am a first-time buyer and would like some reassurance around anti-fraud procedures.
Answer
Bank details will not be sent by email unless the email is password protected and most firms will send out a hard copy of the firm’s client account details at the start of the transaction. A firm’s bank details will not change during the course of a transaction.
Any letter, email, phone call, text or other communication purporting to come from the firm indicating a change in bank details will be fraudulent.
If you have concerns at any stage regarding bank details, then it is best to speak to the person who has conduct of your matter.
Meet our expert…
Mark Morton joined Parfitt Cresswell in February 2020. A Licensed Conveyancer, who has been qualified since 2006, Mark’s expertise lies in all aspects of residential freehold and leasehold sales, purchases, remortgages and transfers of equity.
With more than a decade of working in prime central London Mark has experience working with all types of property. He prides himself on his common-sense approach and attention to detail. You can read the previous Q&A by Mark here.
If you have a question for Mark please email kate.saines@emap.com
