They say that buying and selling a house is one of the most stressful things that a person can do. There are things that you can do, from a legal perspective however, to make sure that your move is as smooth as possible.

WHEN YOU ARE SELLING:

· When thinking how best to present your house for sale give some thought to what a Land Information Memorandum obtained by a purchaser might look like. If you have made alterations to your property and you didn’t get a consent from the local authority when you should have, or you haven’t had the local authority sign off the work you have completed pursuant to the building consent, then tidy up these issues before you put your house on the market. There is nothing like a hiccup or two, even ones that can be fixed, to put potential purchasers off a property.

· Someone needs to take responsibility for preparing an Agreement for Sale and Purchase. Usually, that responsibility lies with a real estate agent, but if there is no real estate agent involved in the transaction other arrangements will need to be made. If a potential purchaser is in your living room wanting to make an offer, you should be prepared with an answer to the question “how do I make an offer?” We suggest that the purchaser have their solicitor prepare an offer, to prevent any problems that may occur if an offer is prepared by someone without knowledge of the possible pitfalls.

· If you are selling in a hurry, it can help to speed up your sales process, once you have found a buyer, if you have already obtained an up to date Land Information Memorandum from your local authority for making available to potential purchasers.

· If you receive an offer for your property that is subject to conditions that may take some time to satisfy, you may feel a little vulnerable in the period between accepting the offer and the conditions being satisfied. An attractive purchaser is, without doubt, a purchaser who has already sold. Just as Rome wasn’t built, neither is a house sold, in a day. There is not a great deal of comfort to a vendor in having an Agreement with a purchaser who still has a house to sell. What happens if you get a better offer while the purchaser is still waiting to sell their house? If you are worried about this scenario, you should make sure that you or your lawyer inserts what is known as a “roll over clause” in the Agreement for Sale and Purchase. A roll over clause will give you the ability to require your first purchasers to confirm their Agreement within a shorter, specified timeframe if you receive another offer upon acceptable terms. If they can’t confirm in that time, you will then be entitled to cancel their Agreement and accept the new offer.

· You do need to allow time to see your lawyer prior to the settlement date as you will have to sign a transfer. A transfer is the legal document which will be handed to the purchaser when they pay for your property, and which they will then register in the Land Titles Office to show that they have become the owner of the property.

· You will also need to leave keys to the property with your lawyer to hand over on settlement.

· On settlement your lawyer will attend to any payment of rates that may be required and repayment of your mortgage. You will need to clarify whether you or your lawyer will take responsibility for cancellation of the house insurance policy and transfer of the contents policy to your new address. You need also to remember that a standard contents policy will not cover damage to your furniture while in transit from one home to another. If insurance against damage is required it will need to be specifically arranged.