Our specialist property lawyers will help you through the complex process of selling your property. Call us at the onset so that we can talk things through with you before you even put your house on the market. We do not charge for enquiries.
Whether you are thinking of selling a house, a flat or a plot of land, you should get in contact with us now so that can help speed up the process for you. If the property is a leasehold flat or managed freehold making the earliest contact with us is even more important as management information will need to be obtained and can take time to collate. As stated above, we do not charge for enquiries.
Russell & Russell Solicitors help thousands of people every year with their property sales. Our ethos is to ensure we make the process as smooth and as stress free as possible, deliver a quality service and at a fair price. From initial enquiry through to post completion, we are on hand to provide expert guidance that meets the needs of our clients.
We deliver a quality service nationwide
We have a wealth of experience and knowledge of all aspects of property transactions. We are accredited under the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) and our conveyancing team all benefit from continuing professional development to maintain their status as specialist experts. Our local knowledge is second to none if you are selling a property in either Greater Manchester or Cheshire but our expertise is such that we routinely act for clients based in or selling in any location throughout England and Wales.
There are lots of things to consider when selling your property and from the onset you should seek our advice – even before you go on the market. We can help you with advice on your options to sell by the traditional method of private treaty or by Auction. We can also advise on valuations and on your choice of Estate Agent. You can also benefit from our advice on collating up front information in advance of going on the market and in anticipation of finding a buyer. Onboarding with us sooner rather than later will help avoid a delay when an acceptable offer is received. Consider asking us to put together a Sellers Exchange Ready Pack for you. Get in front of the curve!
Contact us on 0800 103 2600 or complete an enquiry form and we will call you back. Our expert property lawyers will guide you through the entire process but here are a few things you should know about selling your home:
Selling a property, why choose Russell & Russell?
You should choose us because our specialist expert property lawyers are best placed to help you through the process of selling your property. We have a wealth of experience and knowledge of all aspects of property transactions whether freehold or leasehold, whether a flat, a house or just land. We deal with existing dwellings, new builds and self builds. We are accredited under the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) and have been from its inception. All our staff that will touch your case are specialists in property work, have had training specifically in that area and receive on-going training to keep them up to date with changes. We are a long established practice but have a modern approach. You can instruct us calling into our office, by telephone, by post, by email or through our Portal.
When should I instruct you?
We would strongly recommend that you get in contact with us when you are thinking of selling so that can start to prepare the sale documentation for your property to speed up the process for you once you have a buyer. This is particularly important with managed properties such as leasehold flats where there is more information to collect. We do not charge any more for basic advance preparation. Ask about our Sellers Exchange Ready Packs which go one step further. Do not wait until you have a buyer, get in front of the game and prepare. Call us at the very outset so that we can talk things through with you before you even put your house on the market.
Does my location, or that of the property, matter?
No, your location is irrelevant – we can act for you whether or not you are local to our any of our offices. Verification of your Identity can be dealt by us electronically and you can also fully on-board (instruct us) by completing documents on our Portal. If face to face is needed we also have the facility to use Zoom and/or Teams video conferencing if you cannot call into any one of our offices.
The location of the property you are selling is also irrelevant as the same principles apply to properties across all of England and Wales.
I am thinking of selling my house, what should I do?
Contact us by calling 0800 103 2600, an initial enquiry costs nothing and we can advise you how to prepare for a buyer being found. Once you have an agreed sale you may need to act quickly. Get in front of the curve.
How much will it cost to sell my home?
General information about cost can be found here. You can also ask us for a no obligation bespoke written fee estimate for your particular transaction.
Will Russell & Russell provide a written conveyancing fee estimate for my sale?
We always provide a written estimate of our fees at the outset of a transaction. This will be based on the information provided by you to us at that time. We will give you the best information that we can about costs at that time. This reflects the fact that we know that you need to budget and also to ensure that there's no misunderstanding between us at a later time. We hope you will be delighted with our services and that you will then use us again and appreciate that will not necessarily be the case if you feel that we have let you down over costs. We can write to you with the fee estimate or email it to you.
In the case of residential property transactions, we usually offer a fixed fee. We quote a fixed fee for the work normally undertaken in a standard case and will provide you with a list of additional fixed fees that we would charge if you require additional work to be undertaken. An example of additional work would be if there is a minor issue with your ownership that needs to be rectified or there is a missing deed that needs to be located or insured against.
We will always honour the fixed fee quoted unless the information relied upon by us at the time of the estimate was incorrect or it subsequently becomes apparent that there is an aspect of the transaction that will significantly affect the amount of time that has to be spent by us. In either case we will notify you of any proposed increase before we proceed further so that you can decide whether to incur additional expense. Examples of circumstances that might change the cost would be if the property is a flat, not a house as you initially informed us, if a lease extension is required or if the ownership is defective and remedial action is needed. For a free quote and breakdown of related third party payments (disbursements) known at this time, please use our quote enquiry form.
In addition to receiving instructions direct from buyers and sellers, we also work alongside brokers, referrers and property agents who refer clients to us. If we've agreed to pay to them a referral fee for recommending us to act for you then we will disclose the amount to you and we will pay the amount involved to the referrer out of our fee.
When do I have to pay all the fees?
In the case of a sale we may ask you for an initial payment towards the cost of our time obtaining documents and preparing the contract. Also if, as the transaction progresses, third parties request fees for providing information in respect of your property we may ask you for monies to pay their fees. An example would be if you own a leasehold Flat and the freeholder or manager imposes a fee for providing information required by the buyer. Otherwise our fees for the sale are payable in full on or before completion. If there are sufficient funds to pay our fees from the proceeds of the sale we will deduct our fees from them on completion.
If I do not sell my property, is there a fee?
You will lose any upfront fees that you have paid but otherwise our approach is that if you lose a sale we will not charge you anything further unless you have exchanged contracts.
Will I need the original deeds to sell my house?
Not necessarily but they may be helpful to us so you should you pass to us any that you do have. As long as your property is registered with the Land Registry (most properties in England and Wales are) we can still act for you without original deeds. If your property is leasehold we should be able to obtain a copy of the Lease from the Land Registry. But please be aware that the Registry does make a charge any documents we need. So if you do have deeds at home it is preferable that you send them to us.
Who pays the mortgage off on the property I’m selling?
As your solicitor we will deal with the repayment of any outstanding mortgage or charges on your property as the buyers’ conveyancer will insist that we do this. We will then account to you in respect of the balance proceeds of sale, after deduction of our agreed fees, your estate agent fees and any other associated costs relating to the property which are authorised by you. Any monies required to complete a related transaction will also be taken into account.
How long does the conveyancing process take?
Unfortunately nobody can say for sure how long the process will take – every transaction has its own different circumstances. The length of the chain of properties and the speed at which other parties involved in the transaction work will all be relevant. You may all have different timescales in mind. Furthermore, if a new mortgage is required by one or more parties involved that can also cause delay as, generally speaking, mortgages are taking longer than people expect.
For a straightforward sale transaction, completion should take place within 8 – 12 weeks of all parties instructing their conveyancers provided there are no major hold ups. The longer a chain, the more likely there'll be delay as if one party or property causes delay it will affect all of the other transactions in the chain. In addition, where a flat is involved the transaction is likely to take longer because of the additional legal work involved.
On our part we deal with all our clients’ transactions in a timely manner. If you have a preferred completion date we will do our best to help you achieve it. What we can also say to you is that there are statistics in the public domain based on Land Registry and other data which show that in January 2025 our average transaction times were two weeks quicker than the average time of the top 25 conveyancing firms in the country.
What is exchange?
This is reference to the point in the process when contracts are exchanged and the parties are then legally bound to proceed with the transaction. You will be asked to sign a hard copy of the contract in advance of the exchange and lodge it with us. We will then undertake the exchange by telephone call with the conveyancer acting for the other party. You would not normally be present at that time. We will let you know once the exchange has been carried out. If you have a related purchase transaction that has to proceed contemporaneously we will link the two to effect contemporaneous exchanges. We would emphasise that signing the contract does not in itself create the legal obligation. The conveyancers must effect the exchange to do that.
The agreed completion date – the date when ownership should actually change hands – is inserted in the contract at the time of the exchange. The exchange can take place days or weeks before completion but sometimes the two events are simultaneous.
What are the key stages of the conveyancing sale process?
You should instruct us once you go to the market so that we can be prepared and ready to take action immediately when you receive an acceptable offer. Do not wait until you find a buyer. Once you've accepted an offer and instructed us to proceed there are several steps which must be completed before you can hand over the keys to the new owners. The key stages included in the work we undertake are:
On-boarding - you instruct us and the usual identity checks are undertaken;
The title, any relevant deeds, mortgage redemption figures (if you have a mortgage) and replies to Property Information Forms are gathered;
A Contract pack is prepared by us and submitted to the buyer’s conveyancer for their approval;
The buyers’ conveyancer should raise any enquiries arising from the contract, your title and the Property Information Forms you have completed. Enquiries tend to be more complex for leasehold and managed properties particularly leasehold Flats;
The necessary conveyancing searches and checks are carried out by the buyers conveyancer. That work may give rise to further enquiries that you may need to assist us in answering.;
Once the buyer has everything in place – including a written mortgage offer (if one is required) and an offer to exchange on any related sale – your buyer will be in a position to offer to exchange contracts with you through conveyancers;
In anticipation of this we will arrange for you to sign a copy of the contract and will obtain and check your mortgage redemption statement to ensure there is enough money to redeem your mortgage. Again, please be aware that signing the contract does not in itself amount to an exchange. The parties conveyancers will effect the exchange once both seller and buyer have signed their separate copies of the contract and have both authorised an exchange with an agreed specific date for completion;
Possible completion dates are discussed and then agreed one is agreed between you and the buyer through your respective conveyancers;
You might wish to make preliminary arrangements to move out of the property such as booking a removal firm but be aware that these should only be preliminary as until the contracts have been exchanged the proposed date is not definite;
The contracts are deemed exchanged by the conveyancers during a telephone conversation that takes place between them and the agreed completion date is fixed and entered into the contract. Once contracts are exchanged, you will be legally obliged to go through with the sale on the agreed completion date and the buyer has a similar commitment. The buyer pays a non-returnable deposit in support of that commitment. Any deposit paid at exchange of contracts will usually be under our control pending completion of the sale unless you have a related purchase and it has to be utilised by us in relation to that transaction;
Next – after exchange - firm up your plans to vacate and empty the property on or before the agreed completion date if you have not already done so;
A Transfer deed will be received from the buyer’s conveyancer and needs to be signed by you and lodged with us in anticipation of completion;
A financial statement will be prepared by us and sent to you for your approval
The buyer's conveyancer will carry out final pre-completion searches to check there have been no changes to your ownership at the land registry and will obtain the balance purchase monies from the buyer and any mortgage provider;
On the day of completion the buyers’ conveyancer sends the purchase monies to our bank account. When the monies are received the transaction is complete and we will attend to repayment of your mortgage and will notify you that the sale has satisfactorily completed so that you (and/or your estate agents) may hand over the keys and other essential information to the new owners;
Following completion we will attend to the distribution of the balance sale proceeds to you by transferring funds to your bank account. Time permitting this will be dealt with on the same day.
What is completion?
The completion date is the day when ownership of the property is transferred from you to the buyer and the date by which you need to move out. The contract states the specific time by which this should happen on the day. Completion can take place on any working day (Monday to Friday) but not on a Bank Holiday. This is also the day the keys should be handed over. Informal arrangements where a buyer does not get possession on the date that the mortgage funds are passed over are frowned upon by lenders.
Will I have a direct contact number and email for my conveyancer?
Yes, we will let you know the name and direct contact details of the person who is primarily dealing with your case when you become our client. That person will have support and also a Supervisor.
What happens if I need to speak to someone out of office hours?
We operate an out of hours, seven days a week service so you can speak to us in the evening or at weekend if you need to. The number to call is 07884 067 920.
“Having come back to work for a rest, I just wanted to thank you both again for your help and support throughout. As mentioned to you last week Michelle, Adina has been absolutely superb and has worked hard to maintain good communication between all parties, including the NatWest. Her helpful attitude and willingness to go that extra mile was very much appreciated and although I didn’t deal with you very much Michelle, I understand Adina can only work as fast as you did, so a BIG thank you to you too for your efficiency throughout the process.
“It’s very often the case that you’ll hear how solicitors can be slow in turning these things around so I was very pleased to have had such a good experience with Russell and Russell and would highly recommended your services in future to friends and family.”
Conveyancing
"May I take this opportunity to thank you so very much for the efficient professional and courteous manner with which you have conducted this matter. Your patience and helpfulness have made our dealings run so smoothly. I am grateful to you"
Conveyancing
"Thank you very much. I was extremely happy with the way you handled this sale. I would highly recommend Russell and Russell and will be in touch as soon as I find a property to buy."
Conveyancing
"If ever I move again I will endeavour to instruct you. THE most efficient service from any legal practice I ever worked with."
Conveyancing
"Thanks for all you've done and for making the whole process so much easier than it could've been, I really appreciate it. End of a huge era for all of us and your professionalism and empathic approach really was amazing."
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