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Business Information
Selling a Property
We hope that the background information given below will be helpful in understanding how Green2Blue conducts its business with vendors and house purchasers. This information is provided as we aim to be as transparent as possible about our service and the way we expect to deal with people who contact us.
Information is also given about legislation and regulations that apply to the process of selling and buying houses.
If you have any questions please talk to Peter Vreede.
Property Descriptions
We endeavour to make our sales details accurate and reliable but they should not be relied upon as statements or representations of fact and they do not constitute any part of an offer or contract. The seller does not make any representations or give any warranty in relation to the property and we have no authority to do so on behalf of the seller. Services, fittings and equipment referred to in the sales details have not been tested and no warranty can be given as to their condition. We strongly recommend that all the information that we provide about the property is verified by yourself or your advisers. If there is any point of particular importance to you, we will be pleased to provide additional information or make further enquiries.
As the seller, we'll explain our obligations to you under the law when preparing your property details, and ask you to approve and confirm the accuracy of those details, to ensure everything we say about your property is true. For this reason, we may not be able to include certain information unless you can back up the details with proof, e.g. planning permission documents. We also ask you to tell us about any changes that affect your property details, as they happen.
Best Interests
An estate agent's primary responsibility at all times is to act in the best interests of the seller, while being fair to all prospective buyers.
This means that if you ask us to sell your home for you, we work for you in return for an agreed fixed fee and look after your best interests. To successfully sell your home, we need to attract buyers by offering them a good service and a fair deal. We naturally help potential buyers as much as we can, so that our sellers get a good outcome to the selling – buying process and everyone is finally satisfied.
Security and Privacy
We will use your personal information to contact you by mail, telephone, mobile, email, SMS or by personal attendance at your home address.
Your personal details will never be passed or sold to any third party unless you give your specific agreement.
No Sale - No Fee
A fixed fee will be agreed for Green2Blue Properties to sell your property but if the sale of your property does not proceed for any reason, a fee will not be charged.
If you agree to pay for particular separate items this will be confirmed by a letter & copy and these costs will be payable as they are completed.
Conveyancing
We are not able to recommend any particular Solicitors, but we have good relations with some local Practices with whom we are in regular contact. If you need advice please ask, however we are happy to work with any Solicitor or Conveyancing company you appoint to act on your behalf.
Sole Agency
Please note that if you enter into an agreement with Green2Blue Properties to sell your property and have a similar agreement with another estate agent you may become liable on the sale of your property to pay fees to both of them.
Green2Blue normally expects to have a minimum duration of 26 weeks as sole agent as this is the usual period of time that houses take to sell in this area.
Complaints
Our aim is to please - but we know that sometimes things go wrong. If you have a problem, we want to know at the earliest opportunity.
Complaints that remain outstanding and cannot be settled between us may be referred to the Ombudsman for Estate Agents by either side.
The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991
The Property Misdescriptions Act is a major part of legislation affecting estate agency, which gives you added protection. The aim of the Act is to ensure that everything said or written by an estate agent about a property is accurate, and not misleading. The act is enforced by the Trading Standards Authority.
Money Laundering Regulations
Money Laundering is the way in which criminals conceal the origin and true ownership of the proceeds of their criminal activities so that it appears to come from a legitimate source. In order to combat this activity, all estate agents are now subject to Money Laundering Regulations and are required to obtain some additional personal details from customers who instruct Green 2 Blue Properties to sell a property on their behalf.
Therefore, we will need to see and copy original documents such as a passport, driving licence or a recent utility bill. We also need to collect vendor’s date of birth, country of residence and nationality.
Selling process
An important part of the service provided by Green 2 Blue is that we check that potential buyers are genuinely interested in your property and are in a position to buy before giving you any advice. Once we feel we've found you the right buyer, we'll check in detail about the circumstances of the potential buyer's offer, usually by a face-to-face interview.
If there is more than one competing offer on your property, we'll advise you which offer we think you would be better off accepting, based on our assessment of each individual buyer's circumstances and your own moving needs. But the final decision is entirely yours.
BUYING A PROPERTY
Making an offer on a property
When you are sure you want to buy a particular property you must make a verbal offer to Peter Vreede at Green2Blue. Your offer is subject to contract, mortgage valuation and satisfactory survey.
We have an obligation to vendors of property for whom we are acting to make sure that potential buyers are able to proceed with the purchase through to Completion. This means we have to be sure that you have the finances available to buy the property and as a matter of routine therefore, we ask you for information about your finances and whether you are in a chain and whether you can move immediately.
We will then submit all offers to the seller up to Exchange of contracts.
Sometimes, more than one offer is received on the same property. When this happens, we are obliged to submit all other offers to the seller, even after your offer has been accepted, until contracts have actually been Exchanged and the deal becomes legally binding. But as the prospective buyer, we'll advise you of the existence of any other offers made, keep in regular contact and discuss the action you may want to take.
It's up to the seller to decide whether to accept an offer or not. A seller can accept or decline an offer at any time up to the Exchange of contracts. Both the seller and the buyer are legally entitled to change their minds before Exchange.
Once the sale and purchase of a property is underway, we'll liaise with the legal representatives of both buyer and seller to ensure that the transaction process runs smoothly through Exchange to Completion.
Offer Accepted
If your offer is accepted, this will normally be on the basis of either Offer Accepted Subject to Contract or sometimes Offer Accepted Conditionally. If your offer is accepted Subject to Contract your conveyancer is instructed to go ahead with the legal work. There is however no legal commitment at this stage, just a moral one.
If your offer is accepted Conditionally this means there is a condition that, for example, you the buyer receives a satisfactory mortgage offer or survey report, or obtains a Subject to Contract offer on his or her own property.
Exchanging contracts
This is where signed contracts are swapped between the seller's conveyancer and the buyer's conveyancer. Your deposit is paid at this point and you are now legally bound to buy the property.
Being in a 'Chain'
You are in a 'Chain' if you are awaiting the sale of your current home before you can afford to buy your new property.
The person buying from you, and the person whose home you intend to buy may also be in a chain, creating a chain of dependencies affecting your own home move.
STAMP DUTY LAND TAX
Stamp duty land tax, often just called Stamp Duty, is tax you have to pay to the government on most, but not all properties you buy. If your property is worth £125,000 or less, then you are typically exempt from Stamp Duty.
Current Stamp Duty rates as at September 2007 on properties of £125,000 and over are:
£125,000 to £249,999 - 1% of the sale price
£250,000 to £499,999 - 3% of the sale price
£500,000 and over -5% of the sale price
Green2Blue Properties hope you find this information useful.
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