Here’s a free and easy to understand guide to buying a house/ property to let.
Mortgages
When you get a mortgage to buy a property which you want to let to a tenant, the lender will usually have their own requirements, such as that you should be registered as a landlord with the Council. If you need a mortgage and don’t have a mortgage advisor, please let us know and we can put you in touch with a reputable company. You should ask your mortgage advisor if you have a mortgage in principle. This means that the mortgage company would in principle be willing to offer you a mortgage, but they can only begin the process properly, once you have a specific property to buy.
When you find the property you want to buy
When you find the property you want to buy, you should ask the estate agent for a copy of the Home Report and then give us a call. We will contact the estate agent to find out if there is a closing date or if anybody else has noted interest in the property. Even though the properties will be marketed often at an “offers over price”, we can negotiate the price with the estate agent. There are many factors that can affect the price that you will pay. Our dedicated team will give you advice and discuss with you, all the relevant factors.
Making an offer on a property
Once you have decided how much you wish to offer, we will submit the offer on your behalf in writing. If your offer is successful the estate agent will confirm that your offer has been verbally accepted by the Sellers. The offer is then passed to the Sellers’ solicitors and the process of negotiating the “Missives” can then begin.
ID and Source of Funds
We will ask to see two pieces of ID from you at the outset. If you are providing a deposit, we will need to know at the beginning, where the money is coming from eg savings or a gift from a family member and we will ask you to provide evidence of the source of funds, such as bank statements, wage slips etc.
Mortgage offer
As soon as you have been told your offer has been verbally accepted, you should contact your mortgage advisor. They need to submit your mortgage application to the lender, so that you can get the mortgage offer as soon as possible. Tell them if you are getting a gift towards your deposit.
If we also act on behalf of your mortgage lender, the lender will send us the mortgage offer as well as to you. We will let you know what documentation you need to sign. Later in the process, when we are ready to, we will request your mortgage funds from the lender in time for the date which your transaction will settle.
Missives
The written offer that we submitted on your behalf, sets out the suggested terms and conditions of the contract. These terms and conditions are then negotiated and amended throughout the process by us on your behalf in conjunction with the Sellers’ solicitors.
The Sellers solicitors will send us a written acceptance which is called a Qualified Acceptance, in response to your written offer. It will often contain amendments to the initial terms and conditions in the offer. We will discuss these amendments with you. The offer and the Qualified Acceptance form part of the contract (otherwise known as the Missives) to purchase the property. The contract is then further negotiated by us with the Sellers’ solicitors on your behalf. This process can take time.
We will make sure that the contract reflects your instructions. Once the contract reflects the wishes of both you and the Seller, the Missives are then concluded. When this happens, it means that you and the Seller will have entered into a binding legal agreement, from which you cannot withdraw without incurring penalties, apart from in certain circumstances.
Checks on Title Deeds and Reports
As part of the process, we will check the title deeds and various reports and searches on your behalf, that the Sellers solicitors will provide to us. We will also send you a copy of the title deeds so you can read through them yourself. If anything unusual comes up throughout this process, we will let you know.
Payment
We will send you a breakdown of what you need to pay us in advance of when you move. This will include not only your deposit, but also our Fees, VAT and outlays. We will ask you to pay us by bank transfer to us, no later than one working day before you move.
Settlement
On the Date of Entry and once we have received your mortgage funds from the lender and also the deposit from you, we will pay over the purchase price to the Sellers’ solicitors on your behalf. We will then tell you when your house purchase has been completed and let you know where you can get the keys to your new home from.
Steps after your House/ Property Purchase has been completed
We will register you as the new Home Owner and send you a copy of your new Title Deed called a Title Sheet. This step can take time.
We hope you have found this guide easy to understand and that it will make the process easier for you.
Contact our Conveyancing Solicitors, Glasgow, Coatbridge, Edinburgh and the whole of Scotland
Please call our Property Law team today on 0141 404 6575 (Glasgow) or 0131 358 4231 (Edinburgh). Alternatively, please fill out our online contact form.