Page 2 - Guide to the house buying process

THE HOUSE BUYING PROCESS

1. Arranging the Finance

Before offering to buy a property it is necessary to arrange how to pay the purchase price. This must always be
done before offering as once an offer is made it can quite quickly become a binding contract. Caesar & Howie
Staff can arrange a loan in principle before clients offer, but occasionally clients make their own loan
arrangements. Usually at the stage when the offer is made, whilst the loan is arranged the actual paperwork will

not have been fully completed. This is quite normal in Scotland, but immediately you hear from Caesar & Howie
that your offer is going to be successful, you should again contact our Mortgage Staff (or the lender direct if you
have made your own arrangements) to ensure that all the necessary steps are quickly taken. If you have any
questions, always feel free to contact our staff for advice.
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2. The Offer to Purchase

The ‘Offer’ is in fact a letter from Caesar & Howie to the selling solicitors offering to buy the property at a certain

price and on certain conditions. There are usually about thirty conditions. These conditions are designed to make
the seller reveal as much as possible about the status of the property and his right to sell it. For example, we will
ask the seller to confirm that there are not at this time, any planning proposals outstanding which might affect the
property. At this stage, the buyer will not have signed the offer; it is signed by Caesar & Howie as agents for the
client. Usually very shortly after the offer has been submitted, the seller’s solicitors will telephone to advise
whether or not the offer is ‘going to be successful’. However, the offer only becomes legally binding when the
seller’s solicitors and Caesar & Howie have adjusted in letters between them what conditions will actually be in
the final contract. For example, the seller’s solicitor might not agree to some of the conditions we put in the offer
and he may also wish to add in some other conditions. It is just a matter of agreeing what parties, buyer and
seller, want to have in the final contract. This process might take a few weeks. When the conditions are all
agreed then we have reached the stage of what is called ‘concluded missives’. This means that both parties are

legally bound to proceed with the transaction and to meet the conditions imposed on them in these letters or
‘missives’ between the solicitors. Once this stage is reached, very few transactions go wrong, but it is still
possible for some not to proceed where, for example, on checking the seller’s title (which can often only be done
after ‘conclusion of missives’) there is some defect found. For example it might be that the seller does not own all
of the property he is trying to sell and this may only become clear on close checking of the title. However, once
the stage of ‘concluded missives’ is achieved only a very small proportion of transactions do not go ahead
normally. We will advise you when the concluded missives stage is reached.
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3. Date of Entry or "Settlement"

The ’date of entry’ is the day the purchaser becomes the legal owner of the property on payment of the price. It is
usually about eight weeks after the offer but it can be longer or shorter. The ‘date of entry’ is sometimes known
as the ‘settlement’ date. This date is in fact included as one of the conditions in the offer. Usually, we as solicitors
for the purchaser will send the full purchase price to the seller’s solicitor the day before the date of entry and the
keys will be made available from the seller’s solicitor’s office or some other convenient place reasonably early on

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