Can someone explain the Scottish property buying system please?

kittiej

Hi everyone

Basically I have seen a piece of land with a ruinous building on it that I would like to buy if all goes well, it is in Scotland.

How would I go about making an offer? The EA has a 'register your interest' but do offers have to be made through a solicitor?

What is the next part of the process as the property is sold with x amount to be paid on conclusion of the missives?

How long after this conclusion will it take to 'complete'? Can there be a conclusion of missives and completion at the same time?

Sorry to sound a bit of a dummy but I live in Wales and have no idea of the rules of buying a property in Scotland - help please

scottishblondie

You can put in a note of interest in the first case so that you are notified if anyone else puts in an offer - this is also done through a solicitor traditionally, although many EAs will now accept it from a buyer directly.

You can informally negotiate on price with the vendor, and then make a formal offer through a solicitor, or you can also negotiate via the solicitor. This offer can be unconditional or subject to survey of the property.

The missives form the contract for the sale, and "conclusion of the missives" is equivalent to exchange and legally binds you to complete the transaction. Part of the missives is the "date of entry", which is when the property becomes yours and is equivalent to completion. As in England/Wales this is negotiated between the parties to come to a mutually acceptable date.

I'd suggest engaging a Scottish solicitor to guide you through the process. They'll be happy to explain the entire process to you

warwicktiger

Simples.

This from an Englishman who did live in Scotland. (The words in brackets are to indicate their English meaning)

Largely in Scotland Estate Agent = Solicitor

You see a property for sale, it will either be fixed price (means thats what the seller wants for it, feel free to make an off but unlike England they will probably not negotiate)

If not fixed price it will be offers over £x

If you like it then tel the agent (solicitor)

This is registering an interest.

When the agent has what they feel to be sufficient numbers of registered interest they will invite written offers with a closing date. (Traditionally noon a week on wednesday)

You submit a written offer, which is binding if accepted!!
(So you do your survey in advance, often means several people pay the same surveyor to survey the same property!)

In your offer you include your preferred "date of entry" (completion date)

The vendor is free to accept or not any of the offers, does not have to be the highest!

The offers will be in excess of £x, by how much depends on the market, how much you want the property and which way the wind is blowing.

Hope this helps.

scottishblondie

warwicktiger wrote: »

(So you do your survey in advance, often means several people pay the same surveyor to survey the same property!)

Small correction - as we now have home reports this is rare. The majority of the information you will need is in the pack, including a mortgage valuation. You would make your offer "subject to survey" if you want to carry out further checks such as a structural survey. Then you are still able to pull out of the survey reveals huge issues.

warwicktiger

scottishblondie wrote: »

Small correction - as we now have home reports this is rare. The majority of the information you will need is in the pack, including a mortgage valuation. You would make your offer "subject to survey" if you want to carry out further checks such as a structural survey. Then you are still able to pull out of the survey reveals huge issues.

Thanks for the correction, interesting as I might return!

kittiej

Hey artful, the solicitor might turn out to be female - how novel is that

This is a ruin so no home report and it's offers invited, good info for the future though, thanks everyone.

martindow

Are you intending to rebuild the ruin? There may be planning restrictions that would stop you making this into a house.

agrinnall

Warwicktiger, I'm guessing it must be a while since you lived in Scotland, there have been quite a few changes to the way things work in the last 5 years or so.

While the basic process you outline is reasonable, as scottishblondie has mentioned the Home Report, paid for by the seller, means that multiple surveys are far less likely (although I'm not sure what happens when the property is a ruin as in the OP's case). I's also say that o/o no longer necessarily means that, it's just another way of marketing the property. "Offers in the region of" has become quite common too. In all case the potential buyer is free to offer whatever they feel the property is worth.

Another change is that there are many more stand alone Estate Agents now than there were 5 years ago, some of whom have bought out the agency business of solicitors, and many solicitors now run their agency operation as what is in effect a separate business - I bought and sold using the same solicitor several times between 1997 and 2010, and while at the start I dealt almost exclusively with my solicitor, by the end her only involvement was in the conveyancing, with the marketing people doing pretty much everything else.

In many ways the process in Scotland has become more like what happens in England, although usually quite a bit quicker once offers are in, and with enough differences to still make sure a solicitor is in place early on.

kittiej

Martin I would want to restore it so it looks the same as it once did, externally anyway. Don't really want to say too much in case I jinx it

Thanks Agrinall

Rain_Shadow

kittiej wrote: »

Hi everyone

Basically I have seen a piece of land with a ruinous building on it that I would like to buy if all goes well, it is in Scotland.

I do hope it proves not to be.;)

kittiej

You've lost me rain shadow I am confused .com