Selling whilst living abroad

samk1

Hi all, looking for some advice on selling my house in the UK whilst I am living abroad answers to following:

Is there anything I need to consider before instructing a solicitor?

Can I service all paperwork via email? and post originals to solicitor?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Sam

eddddy

samk1 wrote: »

Hi all, looking for some advice on selling my house in the UK whilst I am living abroad answers to following:

Is there anything I need to consider before instructing a solicitor?

Can I service all paperwork via email? and post originals to solicitor?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Sam

So where are you in the process? Have you got a buyer lined up - or have you instructed an EA?

If you haven't got an EA (or want to change EAs), they'll want to appraise the property - so you either have to get somebody local to let them in, or post a key to them.

A solicitor will need to check your ID (typically by seeing a passport and utility bill). So ask your prospective solicitor how they would check ID for somebody abroad.

Or if you happen to be visiting the UK at some point, you could arrange to do the ID check then.


Apart from that, it should be possible to do all the paperwork via email and courier.

alumende27

I bought my current house from someone that lives in Australia. House had been empty for several years. they seemed to cope ok.

mrschaucer

You are hopefully aware of the latest CGT rules for non-residents?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/capital-gains-tax-for-non-residents-uk-residential-property

AlexMac

We bought our current London house from a seller who'd moved to Spain. No problem or delay. Even the matter of sorting out the fact that it was still notionally rented out to someone else; a tenant who had also left early and moved abroad, was easily done. Just make sure the solicitor you choose is capable of answering the phone and using email (not a joke; our is e- savvy, but many aren't. I recall ours insisting we find an internet cafe in Italy in the days before portable devices, so we could read and acknowledge their report on title before authorising completion on an earlier London purchase ). So that probably rules out a cheap "so-called online" conveyancer