General
We will be happy to give you an outline of the whole procedure from start to finish. Take advantage of your first meeting with us to discuss all aspects of the transaction - for example the general price range which suits your budget, your mortgage requirements, the expenses you will have to meet, and, the fees and outlays chargeable by Brown & McRae for your particular transaction.

Noting Interest
When house hunting, take advantage of our local knowledge, since this could avoid a lot of wasted effort. When you do see a property you like, simply ask us to note interest for you with the selling agent. A note of interest does not oblige you to buy, so you are not committing yourself in any way. This step simply indicates to the Seller that you are interested in the property and wish to be kept informed of developments, such as the fixing of a closing date for offers.

Surveys
Just about the only thing Brown & McRae do not do in your purchase transaction is carry out the survey, but we can advise you on the options available and the costs involved, and can instruct a surveyor on your behalf. You should discuss the subsequent survey report with us before proceeding further.

Alterations and Additions to the Property
This is an area which gives rise to many problems. If you are aware from the survey report you have obtained, or from your own observations, that the house has been altered, or extended, do please let us know, so that we can check whether planning permission and/or a building warrant were required and, if so, whether they were obtained and a completion certificate issued by the Local Authority when the works were finished. These documents may be of vital importance when, in turn, you eventually come to sell the house.

Making the Offer
Once you decide to take the plunge, we will be happy to discuss with you, and advise you on, the terms of your Offer. Offer documents are long and complex and are designed to protect you against all the pitfalls of buying a house. It is therefore important to get them right first time. Our expertise and experience are vital here. This is the crucial stage in the whole process, because acceptance of your Offer creates a legally binding contract. We will, of course, let you have a copy of the Offer for reference purposes.

Acceptance
Should the Seller decide to accept your Offer, then the Seller's solicitor will send us a formal acceptance, in which the Seller will include conditions which seek to modify the terms of your original Offer. This is because the conditions in your Offer were framed to oblige the Seller to disclose certain facts about the property and the title to it. These conditions by the Seller are called "qualifications" and the acceptance is therefore referred to as a "qualified acceptance". We will discuss the qualifications with you and give you advice so that you can decide on those qualifications which you are prepared to accept and those which you are not. This may lead to a further exchange of formal letters before both parties are in full agreement and your Offer, subject to these negotiated modifications, is finally accepted.

Concluding the Bargain
The Offer, Acceptance and any subsequent letters, which are described as "formal" because they are intended to be part of a legal contract, are known as "missives". When the final acceptance is issued it is said that missives are concluded, which means that you and the Seller have entered into a legally binding contract. We will consult with and advise you at each stage of this process and will furnish you with copies of the formal letters which form the missives.

Investigation
During the course of the negotiations leading to a concluded bargain and in preparation for completing the transaction, we require to investigate numerous matters concerning the property and its title. A lot of this work is done by requiring the Seller to make disclosure of the relevant information and to produce the necessary documents in support.

The Title
It is part of our responsibility to you to carry out a detailed examination of the title deeds to make sure that the seller is genuinely the owner of the property and that his or her right to sell is not restricted in any way. The title deeds also describe the precise extent of the property. We may ask you to confirm that the property described in the title deeds is precisely what you think you are buying. The examination of the title will also reveal whether there are conditions relating to the property about which you should be aware, eg. restrictions on business use, or a requirement to contribute to the maintenance of common ground. We shall advise you of any such conditions.

Local Authority Matters
You will want to know whether the roads are public or private, whether there are any planning proposals which might affect the property and whether the local authority has made any statutory orders of notices affecting the property. We will check all these matters for you.

The Security or Mortgage Transaction
In most cases your lender will instruct us, as your solicitors, to carry out the lenders legal work as well. This saves time and money. You should understand, however, that the security (sometimes called "a mortgage") is really a separate legal transaction in which we, acting for the lender as well as for you, must have the same regard to the lender's interests as he has to yours.While these interests are broadly the same, we will, if possible, resolve any differences which might emerge. The mortgage lender will issue lengthy and detailed instructions to us in connection with the loan, which involve a substantial amount of work. The lender requires that you pay for this work, which is covered in the fee charged to you by Brown & McRae.

Provided that you have completed your loan application form in good time and supplied the lender with all the information it needs, we should be able to ensure that your loan funds are available when the purchase price of the house is due to be paid. If your loan is linked to an investment product, eg. an endowment policy, a pension plan or an ISA, we will need to be satisfied that it has been properly set up before the loan can proceed.

The Deeds
There will be various documents for you to sign in connection with the transaction, the most important being the Standard Security, the deed which secures the loan over your new property. We shall explain the effect of all documents which you have to sign, and ensure that they are properly signed in good time.

Preparing for Settlement
As the date for settlement of the purchase approaches, we reach the stage where we draw together all the strands of the transaction - we must ensure that there are no outstanding queries about the property or the title, that all the necessary documents have been obtained and, if necessary, signed and that your funds (the balance of the purchase price, our fees and outlays) and the mortgage funds are in our hands. We will also explain to you what will actually happen on the date of settlement and how you will obtain the keys to your new house

The Date of Entry
Assuming we have received the necessary funds from you and/or your mortgage lender, we shall ensure that the purchase price is in the hands of the seller's solicitors on the agreed date of entry. In exchange you are entitled to receive the keys for the property and to be given a good title.

Taking Entry
We will discuss with you the steps you should take immediately after the date of entry entry to check that the property is in good order, that any extras (carpets, curtains or other items) which you are buying are present and that items like the central heating system are in working order (if indeed that is what the missives provide). We can also explain what has to be done should you discover any problems in this regard and what legal remedies, if any, you have.

After Settlement
Following conclusion of the transaction we will report to you detailing any matters that remain to be dealt with and in particular any financial matters which might still be outstanding. We will also report to your lender and will check that all the documentation is in order before sending the title deeds for recording in the Register of Sasines or registration in the Land Register of Scotland, this being the final step to complete your title. Eventually when the registration process is complete, we again check the documentation before sending it to your lender for safe keeping.

General
Solicitors are uniquely placed as the only property professionals who can carry out the entire sale procedure for a house including the estate agency and the conveyancing - indeed in many parts of Scotland, most estate agency work is carried out by solicitors. Our property staff will at the outset give you an outline of the whole procedure from start to finish, describe the services which we can offer and arrange for you to be furnished with a detailed estimate of the costs and charges involved. At this stage, you should ask your lender how much is required to pay off your existing loan, as this is an essential part of the sale transaction. You also need to have a clear idea of what the free proceeds of sale are going to be if you are working out the budget for the purchase of a new property, bearing in mind all the costs associated with moving house and the fees, taxes and other charges payable.

Pre-sale Procedure
As soon as you have decided to sell, please ask us to obtain the title deeds for your house from your mortgage lender so that we can check that all the necessary documents are present. You should also tell us about any alterations or extensions which you know have been carried out to your house.

We can advise you on how to deal with prospective purchasers, on the procedure for noting interest and the rules which Scottish solicitors adopt in relation to closing date procedures

Sealing the Deal
When you receive an offer with an acceptable price and date of entry we will advise you on all the conditions attached to the offer. It is important that you and your solicitor give this very detailed consideration as you are effectively being asked to give various guarantees about the property and its title, which the purchaser is going to rely upon when deciding to conclude a contract. We will respond to the conditions (known as "qualifications") which you wish to include in the contract. This may involve further negotiations with additional conditions and qualification being set out in formal letters between this firm and the purchaser's solicitors until all terms are finally agreed and a binding legal contract concluded.

The Title
Between the conclusion of the contract and the date when the transaction settles, we will mainly be engaged in dealing with enquiries received from the purchaser's solicitor regarding the various aspects of the title and other matters affecting the property in order to comply with the conditions of the contract. These enquiries deal with the title and local authority matters described in the paragraphs headed "Investigation", "The Title", and "Local Authority Matters" in relation to buying a house.

We will also revise and approve the terms of the disposition - the actual title which will transfer the property from you to the purchaser - before it is presented to you for signature. In most cases Brown & McRae will also act for your lender in preparing the discharge - the deed by which the lender releases your property from its mortgage security.

Bridging Finance
Should you a require a bridging loan due to the fact that you are buying a new house before the finance becomes available from the sale of your existing property, we can will advise you as to the liabilities which you are undertaking in relation to the bridging loan.

Redeeming the Loan
We will obtain a redemption statement from your mortgage lender (which indicates how much is a require to pay off the loan secured over your property as at the date of entry), check the figures in this statement with you and explain what you should do in a relation to any remaining monthly instalments which fall due on the loan prior to the date of settlement.

Settlement
On the date of settlement we will obtain a cheque for the purchase price from the purchaser's solicitor and in exchange will hand over the disposition and the other title documentation, and arrange for the purchaser to obtain the keys.

Budgeting for Costs
At Brown & McRae, it is our policy to give written estimates of fees, and of the other costs which are necessarily incurred in a conveyancing transaction. These costs include V.A.T., fees payable to local authorities, fees payable to the Registers of Scotland, search fees and, when applicable, stamp duty. If you are taking out a loan you may also have to pay the lender a survey fee, and in some cases an arrangement fee.

Your Solicitors Fees
The fees charged by solicitors for similar transactions can vary significantly. In assessing the fee to be charged, the solicitor will take into account a number of factors, but the most important of these are the time taken on the transaction, and the value of the property (which determines the risk which the solicitor undertakes). It follows that there may be a correlation between the fee which you are charged and the amount of time the solicitor is prepared to spend on the case. This may be reflected in the standard of service provided. As with any price, the lowest a fee is not always compatible with the best service.

Client Satisfaction
As professionals, Brown & McRae are always concerned to ensure that our clients are satisfied with the work carried out for them. This page of our web site has tried to explain the nature and the scope of the work which you can expect your solicitor to undertake for you in a conveyancing transaction. This work requires knowledge, professional and technical expertise, skills in communication, organisation & management and sustained attention to detail, very often while working under the pressure of tight time scales. The high standards of the profession ensure that the vast majority of conveyancing transactions are completed to the satisfaction of all concerned.