Once the valuation has been carried out and you have provided the lender with all requested documentation, a mortgage offer will be issued. A copy of this offer will be sent to your solicitor and once they are in receipt of all the relevant searches on the property that you intend to buy, you are now in a position to exchange contacts.
Until you have exchanged contracts, you are not legally entitled to buy the property just because you have had an offer accepted and you may find yourself in a contract race (There are two or more interested parties looking to buy the property and there is a race to see which party can successfully exchange contracts first.) or you may unfortunately get gazumped. (The Vendor accepts a higher offer even though your offer has already been accepted.)
On exchange of contracts you will probably be required to lodge a deposit of 10% of the agreed purchase price with your solicitor. This will be forfeit under the contract you have signed if you pull out before actual completion and break the contract.
You also need buildings insurance in place for exchange of contracts as once you have exchanged, the property is your responsibility even if it burnt to the ground before you had completed!
Finally, you need to have all your relevant protection policies in place as even in the event of your death, the purchase should still take place once contracts have been exchanged.
If you are moving house then you should arrange for a removal company to give you a quotation to move your contents to the new property. Alternatively, you may wish to hire a van and do this yourself so ensure that you book well in advance once you know your desired completion date.
You should be able to pick up the keys to your new property in the early afternoon on the day of completion from the Estate Agent as this will have given enough time for your solicitor to have sent the funds to the vendor’s solicitor. Once they have confirmation that the purchase monies have been received, they will give authority to the estate agent to release the keys to you. Dependant on the length of the chain and where your transaction is in the chain (the number of properties being bought and sold as a result of your completion) the keys may not be available until later in the afternoon but your solicitor will be able to advise you when they have sent your purchase monies should there be any problems.
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