TIPS ON BUYING PROPERTY IN SCOTLAND

Finding your property
Take a good look at what is available in your price range before setting your sights on any one property. If you see a property you think you like you must still try to be objective, and remember that beautiful scenery in spring or summer may turn bleak in winter.

Don't miss out on houses that aren't advertised in the press! Some are now sold after being advertised on solicitors web sites only. A good starting point is to look at www.sspc.co.uk .

Title conditions
Your solicitor can advise you if a particular property has unusual title conditions which might affect you if you were to buy. With flats, you need to know what your share is of the cost of maintaining common parts, especially the roof.

Prices
Houses advertised at "offers over" a certain figure may go for less, or much more. It depends on the interest from purchasers at the time, the state of the local market, and the seller's policy, which may range from obstinate to flexible. Your solicitor will use his experience to help you judge these matters.

A fixed price means first come, first served. It may be fixed more in despair than in expectation; and so may be the cue for a quick bargain. Again, your solicitor's experience will be invaluable here.

As solicitors we are members of the FSPC which means we can get accurate up-to-date figures for recent and similar houses sales, providing us and you with a good idea as to the anticipated sale price.

Sometimes, carefully quizzing the seller can help you find out what price may be acceptable.

You cannot bid '£100 more than the highest offer you have received'.

Where the price is around a Stamp Duty threshhold, it should be split between the building and the contents, since only the former bears stamp duty.

Your offer will contain details of the price you are willing to pay, the moveable items you would like to be included in that price and the entry date you would like to achieve.

Help in the purchase
You need a solicitor. Most solicitors will give you a free interview to discuss your requirements for house purchase and to explain the current market conditions in the area.

The main features of the system which solicitors and some non-solicitor estate agents follow are: "offers over", noting interest, and closing date. If you are buying you ask your solicitor to "note interest" in the property for you. This should ensure that no-one else can buy the? property? without you getting the chance to bid for it. BENNETTS make no charge for this. If there is more than one note of interest, a closing date and time (usually at noon) will be fixed for offers to be received. This means you - and all others who have noted interest - are bidding "blind", i.e. without knowing what other offerors are going to bid.

There are some ways, however, in which the likely level of competition can be gauged. Ask the householder who is selling about how many people have viewed, how many official notes of interest through solicitors have been received, and how many surveyors have been in. We can also make these enquiries for you before offering.

All properties for sale have to provide you with a Home Report? which gives you a lot of information about the property. It will advise you as to the condition of the property from a surveyor's perspective and about the services and the fabric of the property and show how these have been maintained.

Most importantly, this will also include a valuation of? the property which will assist you in deciding what you might want to offer. This valuation must be up to date but be aware that your mortgage lender may want you to instruct your own survey before it will lend to you.

Your solicitor will be able to advise you on all details contained in the Home Report.

Depending on the amount of interest in the property you may have to offer a figure in excess of the valuation figure in the Home Report.

If there is some special use you wish to make of the house - such as using part of it as an office or making alterations or converting it - you must tell your solicitor so that he or she can include reference to it in the offer and check that there is nothing to prevent such use in the title deeds or local planning regulations.

Once you have had a verbal acceptance of your offer, there is as yet no legal bargain but both parties are expected to go through with the transaction unless something unexpected turns up.

Once missives (the offer, acceptance and further formal letters) have been concluded by the solicitors, both you and the sellers are locked into a contract and risk substantial penalties on default, even though you have signed nothing. Your solicitor will sign these documents on your behalf.

It may be worth putting the house in one spouse's name alone if the other has a lot of capital in a business or other property.

Ask your solicitor about what will happen if you or your partner / spouse dies while you jointly own the property.

Mortgages and insurance
We can put you in touch with a mortgage adviser who will, for a modest fee, give you impartial advice about what type of mortgage would suit you best.

Life assurance and other insurances are often on offer with mortgages. "Independent" financial advisers cannot be truly independent as long as they are paid a commission by the insurance companies they recommend. A fee-charging agent such as BENNETTS will pass you back the commission. Estate agents may be as keen to sell you an insurance policy as the house they are advertising.

Glossary
agent: solicitor (or estate agent, or both)
burdens: the conditions in your titles which you must observe
discharge: deed acknowledging that a debt (eg a mortgage) has been repaid or some other obligation fulfilled
disposition: the deed giving you the title to the house
conveyancing: the process by which your unfettered legal right of ownership to a house is checked and transferred
entry date: when you get the keys and can occupy the property
heritage: real estate, ie buildings and land
heritable fixtures: items which are screwed into the walls etc
Land Register: map-based register of properties and their owners
matrimonial home: house made available by one or both spouses for them to live in, and which cannot be sold by one without the other spouse's consent, except in certain circumstances
missives: the letters between lawyers which together form the contract for the purchase and sale of a property
moveables: most commonly carpets, curtains, pieces of furniture or household equipment like a cooker
Sasines, Register of: where transactions relating to landed property have been recorded since 1617, now replaced for most matters by the Land Register
settlement: payment in exchange for the deeds to the property
under offer: missives have not been concluded

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