TIPS ON BUYING PROPERTY IN SCOTLAND

Finding your property
Take a good look at what is available before setting your requirements as to house and price. 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 web sites only. A good starting point is to look at www.sspc.co.uk .

Buying to let
Ask for our separate leaflet on this topic.

Title conditions
There may be conditions attached to titles, restricting what you can do, but don't assume you have to put up with awkward or out-of-date conditions.

With flats, you need to know what your share is of the cost of maintaining common parts and the roof.

Prices
Most properties in Scotland carry an "offers over" price tag, also known as the "asking price." 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.

A fixed price may be fixed more in despair than in expectation; and it may be the cue for a quick bargain. As the first offer received at this price is generally accepted, it is important to act quickly.

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 over £60,000, it should be split between the building and the contents, since only the former bears stamp duty.

Help in the purchase
You need a solicitor. Most solicitors will give you a free interview to discuss your requirements for house purchase

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" to help ensure the house is not sold before you can bid. 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 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.

You will need a valuation or survey, unless the house is new or nearly new and you don't need a mortgage, or you can assess the fabric of the property yourself or with the help of a friend. If an estate agent offers to arrange the survey for you, decline. It is safer to instruct a survey through your solicitor than one instructed through the seller's estate agent. Don't skimp on surveys. Remember how much money you are thinking of committing for a purchase.

It used to be that offers were made after survey, but the cost of multiple surveys in a rising market has led to the practice of offering "subject to survey" which means that you offer a certain price which you are bound by unless the survey discloses something which you could not have known about. If the survey discloses that repairs have to be done, you can negotiate a reduction in the price.

If the surveyor says that there are no problems, but you offered too much, you are still expected to proceed unless you also stated that the offer was "subject to valuation." Offers which are not subject to valuation may be preferred at a closing date.

Valuations can be 10% or even more than 20% at variance with what people are willing to pay.

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 bargin 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.

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)
ashlar: squared stone
burdens: the conditions in your titles which you must observe
coomed ceiling: a ceiling sloping up from the wall
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
letter of comfort: a letter (for which a fee is payable) from the local council to the effect that no enforcement action will be taken on alterations or extensions work which did not conform to regulations.
completion certificate: the council's approval for the alterations done under the building warrant
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
feu: (verb) to give someone a right in land subject to conditions; (noun) a holding of land subject to conditions
feu duty: a payment to the feudal superior, now largely obsolete
heritage: real estate, ie buildings and land
heritable fixtures: items which are screwed into the walls etc
incumbrances: conditions of title
inhibition: a barrier which creditors put on the sale of any property you own until they are paid
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
matrimonial homes affidavit: a document in which a person swears that there is no spouse with occupancy rights
minerals: any substance that can be got by mining
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
outlays: sums paid out by the solicitor or estate agent
property centre: premises where solicitors display houses for sale
property enquiry certificate: confirmation that the house is not in a detrimental planning or building control circumstances.
public rooms: living and dining rooms
rubble: unsquared stone
rone or rhone: roof gutter
Sasines, Register of: where transactions relating to landed property have been recorded since 1617
search: a note of who has the title to a property, and whether they are free to dispose of it; including mortgages over it.
settlement: payment in exchange for the deeds to the property
standard security: the deed which borrowers sign before they can get a mortgage over the property
solum: soil, including foundations
superior: the person who grants a feu
tenement: a block of flats
under offer: missives have not been concluded
villa: a house of two or three storeys
writer to the signet (WS): member of an ancient society of solicitors who have no longer any special legal rights

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