Tips to maximise your chances of a smooth property sale

It’s a new year and perhaps you’re thinking of a house move in 2026 but concerned about the hurdles you have to
jump through when selling a house or flat?

All those involved in the conveyancing process – such as mortgage companies, surveyors
and solicitors – are operating in a risk averse world requiring more checks and due diligence
than in the past.

If you are thinking of selling in the near future, consider asking a conveyancer at this stage to
give your property title the once over and to review any property papers you have such as
guarantees, planning and other consents. You should not wait until you have found
somewhere to buy, as at that point it is likely that you will have to start the selling and buying
process at speed.

Transactions can start with a bang but then face hurdles during the process which leads to precious time lost due to lack of pre-market preparation. On the legal side of things, the best prepared sales are ones where the sellers have worked with their solicitors beforehand to ensure there is nothing in the title which might make a buyer, or their solicitor, hesitate or delay matters with further investigation.

Another cause of delay is where there are missing planning and building regulation consents, guarantees or other certificates. The best run sales are the ones where a planning history is complete, and the seller is completely on top of all detail. It also gives the best impression to, not only the buyer, but their solicitor that there is nothing else about the property’s history that has not been disclosed.

Issues to iron out before a property is marketed include:
• Boundaries generally eg: gaps ‘between the boundary of the property and the nearest public highway’
• Sellers’ worries over what should be disclosed about troublesome neighbours or minor
disagreements with them
• Whether some restrictions in the title about matters such as building, need to be raised at
the negotiation stage or not
• What to do, if anything, where a seller thinks they may have breached a title obligation or
restriction
• What to do if building works carried out without necessary planning permission, building
regulation consent or conservation area consents and so on

While it may be tempting to leave all these things until you have agreed a sale, it is very
common for a solicitor acting for a seller, to receive calls from the selling agents or the seller
themselves about points like these raised by a prospective buyer at the point of negotiation.
This can sometimes cause the negotiations stage to falter which could be avoided, if any
potential issues have been considered well beforehand.

At Godwins, our Residential Property Team would be very happy to take a look at your title
and accompanying documents and for a relatively inexpensive fee, we can provide an MOT
with suggested solutions where needed.

If you want to find out more, please contact Clare Dove for an initial chat with you prior to
your making any decisions about work you would like us to carry out at this stage.