The Scottish House Buying Process
The purpose of this brief guide is to provide you with an overview of the house buying process in
Scotland. As you will understand, it is not possible to anticipate all of the issues that you might encounter but hopefully it will
provide you with an insight into the process.
Understanding the house buying environment
For many years professionals involved with the Scottish house purchase system were proud to boast of its speed and efficiency,
especially compared with South of the border. While there have been a number of changes in recent years to improve the Scottish
system, it is fair to say that the house buying environment has become more difficult in recent years. The reasons for this are
many-fold but this brief guide will endeavour to point out some of the areas where care is required.
Understanding the House Purchase Process
The house purchase process consists of four basic elements that are shown on
the timeline on the right.
It is worth seeing these elements as the four paths to house purchase. Importantly
there are only three certain points in these paths: the days you first see the
property, the mortgage offer is issued and the collection of the keys. Let’s
consider the four paths to house purchase timeline in a little more detail.
Viewing, Interest & Offer: You see a property in which you are interested and naturally you are excited. At this
point you may be puzzled at the different methods of marketing a property in Scotland. You may see the expression
"Offers over £X", "Fixed Price of X" or "Offers in the region of £X" or similar terms. It is vital to understand that these are all
marketing terms and have no legal effect whatsoever. It is a negotiation process and generally your approach to the property
will be determined by the following factors:
1 The Home Report (see
"What is a Home Report?")
Calculation: How much do I need to pay?
2 Your needs, finances and
3 The amount of interest
what work requires to be
in the property
carried out to the property
4 How long the property
has been on the market and
the needs of the seller
As soon as you see the property, it is important that you take two actions;
Understanding Home Reports
FIRST advise the selling agent that you are interested in the property, you are
speaking to your lender and ask whether there is a “closing date” (If there is a
“closing date”, speed is of the essence because the seller will have more than one
interested party and has set a closing time for bids) and
Home Reports were introduced to
create a standard seller funded report
on any Scottish property being
marketed and to avoid multiple
surveys being instructed where more
than one person was interested in the
property.
SECOND contact us immediately before you do anything else. This allows us to assist you with
your finances and helping you select a solicitor who specialises in conveyancing. In Scotland,
unlike England, a written offer is submitted by the conveyancing solicitor even if you have
indicated your interest to the selling agent. Generally there is no solicitor’s charge unless your
offer has been accepted.
Once you have spoken to a solicitor and decided that you want to make an offer for the
property, the solicitor will prepare a written offer for the property which includes the price,
your anticipated date of entry and any items that are being left with the property. Although
the offer is written, it is generally subject to so many conditions that it is effectively a formal
indication of your desire to purchase the property. It is often the case, after an offer is
submitted, that there may be negotiation on price or other factors.
If you are told that the offer has been "accepted" by the seller this will invariably mean an
informal acceptance which moves the transaction on to the next stage which is the
adjustment of the contract. Once you have been told that the offer has
If you are interested in a property ask
to see the Home Report. Treat the
Home Report as a guide. In the
current market, properties will
sometimes sell for less than the Home
Report figure.
The Home Report details the condition
of the property in a helpful but not in
depth manner: if you are concerned
the best advice is to make further
investigation.
Generally, though not always, we will
be able to accept the Home Report for
lending purposes
You can find out more at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/BuiltEnvironment/Housing/BuyingSelling/HomeReport
been accepted it is vital to tell us, as your mortgage providers, that you have "in principle" been successful so that we may
start processing your mortgage application on this particular property.
this Contract (Missives) Negotiation: Regrettably there are no fixed rules as to how very important part of the process is
conducted. Sometimes it can be completed in just a few days while in other cases, which is often the case these days, the
contract (known as "Missives" in Scotland) may not be completed until the day you actually take possession of the property
(see the timeline on the previous page). Once you have been told that your offer has been "informally" accepted the majority of
cases will proceed to a completed contract. But there are
many issues that can arise too numerous to mention in this brief guide. Your solicitor will not generally be able to agree an
unconditional contract until a formal offer of mortgage has been issued by your lender which is why it is vital that you keep us
advised of progress. Other issues that often arise at this stage are alterations that may have been made to the property,
common repairs if the property is a flat and any title issues. The important obligation upon you is to understand these issues
and not to assume that "it will be all right on the night" without your positive involvement. Because of the complexity of
Missives it is often the case that the next part of the process – Conveyancing - happens contemporaneously with the efforts to
finalise the issues within the Missives.
Conveyancing: "Conveyancing" refers to the actual "nuts and bolts" of buying a house. Under this heading is the checking of the
title, the examination of the searches and the preparation of the various documents. There are two types of searches involved
which are very important. The first category are the searches in the "property and personal registers" which indicate whether
the seller has a good title to sell and that you can provide your lender with a good security. The second category is the "Property
Enquiry Certificate" which indicates whether the property is affected by any orders or notices issued by the local council; an
extreme example of this would be an road widening proposal affecting the property and possibly meaning that you would not
wish to proceed with the purchase. If you are taking a mortgage it is very important to note that, even if you are happy with
some defect, say, relating to the title, the lender may well not be able to accept the position.
The final part of the "Conveyancing" is known as "the Date of Entry" or "Settlement" in Scotland (in England it is
called
“Completion") when the price is paid for the property and you obtain the keys. One popular misconception is that there is an
obligation on the seller to remedy defects within the property. Other than a New House, this is not the case and generally your
only rights are (a) the property is in the same condition as when you viewed it and (b) items of a mechanical or electronic
nature are working to a standard that you would expect from items of that age and design. Even on these mechanical and
electronic items, you generally only have a few days in which to intimate any issues.
Mortgage Offer: But Settlement cannot take place until the Mortgage Offer has been made. As you can see from the timeline
on the previous page the issue of the Mortgage Offer can occur during the Missives Negotiation and Conveyancing. The
Mortgage Offer is our formal offer of a mortgage secured over the property. Until we have received an undertaking and report
on title from the solicitors whom we instruct to look after our interests (these will often be the same solicitors who are acting
for you) we cannot release the mortgage funds. We will always do our best to issue the Mortgage Offer as quickly as possible
but we cannot do that without having all of the details necessary to process your mortgage application and, therefore, it is very
important that you respond to any requirements that we have.
The Missives are entered into between
solicitors; you do not sign the contract.
Generally, you will only sign documents
relating to the mortgage. Usually it will
not be necessary to see your solicitor
personally. You will have to provide
identification material in every case.
The document that transfers the property
to you is called the "Disposition". It is
signed by the seller
If you have a claim after settlement
because the property is in a worse state
than when you viewed, generally any
claims under £250 are ignored
If you are able to, it is always a good idea to
keep in touch with the seller during
the course of the purchase. Sometimes
difficulties that occur can be resolved by a
quick chat with the seller.
Special rules apply to New Houses, properties
which are repossessed or purchases from
local authorities or similar bodies.
If the property you are buying is a Listed
Building there will be many restrictions on
altering that property. Make sure that those
restrictions do not put you off buying.