Because J & H Mitchell, WS has a solicitor’s office and an estate agency office under one roof, we are able to offer a seamless estate agency and conveyancing service to our clients. This can be an enormous benefit because our solicitors can identify any potential problems with your title at an early stage, and can help to answer questions from you and from prospective buyers about the title deeds and other matters related to your sale.
Once a satisfactory written offer has been received for your property, it will be passed directly to one of our solicitors, who will then contact you to explain the terms of the offer and the legal implications of it to you, and to provide you with information about the conveyancing process. The solicitor will then take the transaction through to completion for you.
If you are looking to purchase a property we are marketing for sale, we would recommend that you appoint a solicitor at an early stage to act on your behalf. We can, in some limited circumstances, act for both parties, but in most cases you will need to appoint a solicitor from another firm. If you do not already have a solicitor, we can help with recommendations.
When you decide you wish to offer for a property we are selling, your solicitor will need to submit the formal written offer on your behalf. If that is then accepted, the property would be marked as “Under Offer” and the conveyancing process will start.
We have compiled the following list of terms which are used in conveyancing and which may be helpful to those who are not familiar with the process, particularly those who are moving to Scotland from elsewhere in the UK.
Noting Interest: This is where your solicitor will contact the estate agent to let them know that you are interested in a particular property. Noting interest does not guarantee that the seller will not sell to somebody else, but it does ensure that you will be given an opportunity to submit an offer if a Closing Date is set.
Closing Date: where multiple parties have all noted interest in the same property, rather than negotiating with each individually, it is common for a seller to set a Closing Date. This is a date and time by which all offers for the property must be received if they are to be considered. It is a blind bidding process, so you do not know what other interested parties may have offered. After the Closing Date, the seller will usually choose his, her or their preferred bid, and all other bids will be rejected.
Offer: An Offer is submitted in writing by the purchaser’s solicitor. You may choose to make a verbal offer in advance of this, but the property will not be marked as Under Offer until a formal offer has been submitted in writing.
Missives: The missives are the contract between the seller and the buyer. The missives are made up of letters sent between the purchaser’s solicitor and the seller’s solicitor. Unlike in England, the parties themselves do not require to sign or exchange contracts, because it is all done by the solicitors.
Conclusion of Missives: This is the phrase used to describe the point at which a contract for the sale has become binding on both parties. It is the equivalent of exchange of contracts in England.
Date of Entry/ Completion Date: This is the date on which the price of the property must be paid in exchange for the purchaser receiving the keys. In Scotland (unlike in England) the date of entry is usually one of the first things to be agreed between the seller and the buyer. Whilst the date sometimes can be changed or delayed, this at least gives the parties an idea of the date around which they should try to make their plans.
51 Atholl Rd,
Pitlochry,
Perthshire,
PH16 5BU,
Scotland
2 The Square,
Aberfeldy,
Perthshire,
PH15 2DD,
Scotland
9 The Cross,
Dunkeld,
PH8 0AN,
Scotland