Guide to the Buying Process in Scotland

For many people, buying a property in Scotland is a confusing prospect.  This applies just as much to property buyers of Scottish nationality as well as people from other countries!

These are our top 10 tips for buying a property in Scotland.

 Top ten tips to buying property in Scotland

1.   Find the property that you wish to buy.

2.   Get in touch with a solicitor who is familiar with the geographic area in which you are buying and who is qualified in Scots law.  For help finding solicitors specialising in different geographic areas of Scotland, call us on 0845 217 9780.

3.   If you have sales particulars (also known as a schedule), retain a copy and take these with you when you first speak to your solicitor.  Alternatively, in this day and age, you will be able to email a copy, or a link to a download, of the sales particulars to your solicitor.  These sales particulars will have the details of the seller’s solicitor or estate agent which will help your new solicitor to take the next step on your behalf.

4.   Your solicitor will be able to provide guidance as to the price that you should pay for the property.  The final decision as to how much you wish to pay will be yours of course.

5.   Just because a property is Fixed Price does not mean that you necessarily have to pay the full asking price.  It simply means that if you bid that amount of money, before anyone else does, and all of the other proposed conditions of your purchase are acceptable to the seller, then your offer will most likely be successful.  The property seller/vendor, of course has complete discretion as to whether or not they wish to sell the property, so there are no guarantees, even with a Fixed Price property.

6.   If the property is being sold with an Offers Over price, then the price is only a guide as to the likely selling price.  It is a similar system to the English system of sealed bids.  There is a perception that properties which are Offers Over, will sell for a certain percentage over the Offers Over price.  Many people assume that they have to bit 15% to 20% above the Offers Over price.  In fact, it is not unknown for properties to sell for 50%, and in some extreme cases, 100% over the Offers Over price.  It is therefore crucial to find an advisor who knows the system inside-out, who can explain the system in terms that you understand, and who can give you expert advice that can save you several thousands of pounds.  For more information, see our 'Jargon Buster' in the 'Buying' menu.

7.   For a property that has an Offers Over price, your solicitor will telephone the seller/vendor’s solicitor and ask if there have been any Notes of Interest.  A ‘Note of Interest’ is a way of asking the seller/vendor’s solicitor not to sell the property to someone else without first giving you the opportunity to make an offer on the property.  If there are already Notes of Interest, it is less likely that the seller/vendor’s solicitor will recommend your offer without giving the party who has Noted Interest an opportunity of offering on the property.

If there are several Notes of Interest, the seller/vendor’s solicitor will probably set a Closing Date.  The seller/vendor’s solicitor will inform the solicitor of everyone who has Noted Interest that they must submit their best offer, in writing, by a certain time and on a certain date.  You should engage a solicitor or buyer’s agent to submit your Note of Interest.  Noting Interest is not a guarantee that you will have an opportunity to make an offer on the property - sometimes the seller/vendor will instruct his or her solicitor to accept an offer from a buyer before a closing date has been set, in spite of there being Notes of Interest.  It is safer to make an offer in writing therefore, if you wish to be certain that your offer will be seen by the seller/vendor.

8.   At the Closing Date your solicitor will submit an offer, in writing, on your behalf.  Other potential buyers, whose solicitors have also Noted Interest, will also submit their bids in writing.  The best offer should ‘win’ (although the seller is not obliged to accept any of the offers).  The ‘best’ offer might not necessarily be the offer of the highest monetary value.  Other factors, such as the move-in date or just the fact that the seller/vendor particularly liked you personally, and whether the offer is ‘subject to survey’ or ‘clean’ (see no.9 below) can influence the decision.

9.   It is common in Scotland to submit offers Subject to Survey or Subject to the Lender Accepting the Home Report.  This means that the offer is conditional upon a satisfactory survey of the property (the survey report is carried-out by a surveyor and can provide details of the value of the property and its general condition, with more expensive surveys containing more in-depth information about the physical condition of the property) or subject to the buyer's lender accepting the Home Report for the purposes of extending the mortgage funds.  If a potential buyer obtains a survey report before making the offer, then the offer will most likely not be subject to survey.  Such an offer is described as ‘clean’, and is a stronger offer (and more likely to be accepted) than an offer that is made subject to survey.

10. Your solicitor will then guide you through, and complete on your behalf, the exchange of letters and paperwork necessary for concluding the contract for the purchase of the property.  In Scotland, this is called the ‘Missives’.  The seller/vendor has a concluded contract of sale when the Missives are fully negotiated and then signed by both parties.  This can take a few days, or a few weeks, depending on, for example, whether searches uncover some question about the seller/vendor’s actual ownership of the property.  As soon as Missives are concluded, the seller/vendor has the security of knowing that, if the buyer does not pay for the property on the agreed date, the seller/vendor will be able to charge the buyer money for breaching of contract.

The buyer does not usually move into the property on conclusion of Missives.  Instead, the initial offer usually states a proposed Date of Entry.  This may be several days, weeks, or months after the date of the offer.  Missives may be concluded in March, but the Date of Entry can takes place in June.  The significance of the Date of Entry, apart from being the day on which the keys are handed over to the property buyer, is that it is the day when the property seller/vendor receives the money for the sale.

Assuming everything goes smoothly on the Date of Entry, and the seller/vendor’s solicitor receives the purchase price from your own bank (and very often your mortgage bank), you will receive the keys for your new house.  Then congratulations...you are now a proud owner of property in Scotland!!