Selling Your Home: On Moving Day And Beyond

Selling a property is rarely an easy task, and there are some circumstances that can cause delays and problems with a sale if not addressed early on in the sale process. If you are working with an experienced solicitor, he or she will advise you on these potential issues and ensure that you have the correct paperwork in place to deal with them, but it’s a good idea to be familiar with the sorts of situations in which difficulties may arise.

When Selling Your Home Is Challenging:

  1. If you do not live at the property. If the property you are selling is not your principal private residence, you may be required to pay non-principal private residence tax. If this is relevant to you, you should instruct your solicitor to look into this, since the penalties for late payment are very high.
  2. If you have tenants. If you are selling a property that is rented in full or in part, you will need to give your tenants notice to vacate the property before the sale closes. Your contract will detail the required notice period, and in some cases this may be as much as 112 days, so it is vital to follow this up as soon as possible.
  3. If you pay management fees. If you are selling a property that is part of a multi-unit development, you may have been paying service charges or fees to the management company. In this situation, you would need to provide recent receipts detailing these charges and the services provided in return. The same applies if you are living in a property for which you pay ground rent to a ground landlord, and this usually affects older properties.
  4. If you have a septic tank. If your property has a septic tank, you will need to provide details of registration with the county council, and of any service contract in place.
  5. If your property has rights over another. Many property deeds contain rights of way over neighbouring properties for access or for water or sewerage. This does not necessarily create a problem, but the existing arrangements must be acknowledged and all details disclosed during the sale process.
  6. If your property has unclear boundaries. If you suspect that another property is encroaching onto yours, or you are concerned that the boundaries of your property have moved over time, you should talk to your solicitor about this to prevent future problems.
  7. If there is any planned development in the local area. If there are any new developments or projects planned in your area, you will probably have received notices from your local authority about these. These will need to be passed to your solicitor so that he or she can inform your buyer of any relevant information.

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