Moving Home and your Conveyancing
The government issued advice on 26 March 2020 on moving home during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The government guidance states, ‘Conveyancers should advise their clients who are ready to move not to exchange contracts on an occupied property unless they have made explicit provision for the risks presented by the virus’.
Our legal work for you can continue, investigating title, raising any enquiries and submitting and reviewing search results. We can continue to prepare your matter ready for when your house sale and purchase can go ahead. However, people are advised not to enter into contracts which might create obligations which would conflict with the current public health advice set out here:
Prioritising the health of individuals and the public is our priority.
Our Conveyancing Team will actively support and progress matters on your behalf during this period and ensure your property sale or purchase is ready to complete once the advice from the government changes.
If you are selling or buying a property currently, here is a summary of the implications:
Unoccupied Properties
We can support your move into an empty Property, which includes new build properties.
If you complete on an unoccupied property, you must follow the government guidelines on social distancing. You should consider that you will have to move yourself, rather than have help from others or a removal company.
You must follow advice from Public Health England and Public Health Wales on social distancing and must not endanger yourself or others during your move.
You should complete a deep clean if you are moving to a new home and must follow the advice given for decontamination of your new home if you know, or have reason to believe, that the previous occupants, or someone which they had been in contact with, has Coronavirus.
Anticipated Completion
Property Buyers and Sellers have been asked by the government to be flexible and delay completion where possible.
If you have made specific provision to adhere to the guidelines, we will support your move as far as we are able to. We will only recommend a simultaneous exchange of contracts and completion on the same day, to be able to check with you during the morning of the proposed completion date that you are still able to complete and that all other parties are able to complete, in line with the government guidance. We will ask you confirm this in writing.
Exchanged Contracts
If you have already exchanged contracts and the property is occupied, you will need to work with us and all parties to defer the home move to a later date. We will help you with this following the guidance from our regulator and assist you with varying the exchanged contract. We will treat every case on an individual basis and any suggested clauses or processes will be amended and tailored to your individual needs.
If contracts have been exchanged and the move is critical, we will work with you and all parties to ensure government guidelines can be followed whilst supporting you through the process.
Mortgage Offers
UK Finance have confirmed that they will do everything they can to assist extending mortgage offers by up to three months when contracts have already been exchanged. For ongoing and new matters, we will also assist you by contacting the mortgage lender on your behalf and ask them to confirm in writing that an extension will be granted and request an amended mortgage offer to reflect any agreed extension.
How We Can Help You
No house move is the same and we are here to support you through the process. Please keep in regular contact. We can help you delay and explain your reasons to all parties.
We still taking new instructions for all property and conveyancing matters. Our award-winning conveyancing team are working tirelessly from home making full use of our excellent cloud-based case management system, VoIP telephone communication, email and video conferencing. We are in touch with one another other daily, sharing information and ideas and ultimately ensuring your matter can progress to the point where you are ready to complete your home move, once government guidance changes.
In this fast-changing environment, we will monitor the situation closely and provide you with any updates as soon as we can.
Please call Gaddes Noble Property Lawyers on 01484 451066 or email mail@gaddesnoble.co.uk with any queries or for anything that we can help you with.
