How Long Does it Take to Buy a House in Scotland?

There are four main steps to purchasing a house in Scotland:

• Initial viewing, noting of interest and making an offer.
• Acceptance of offer by the seller and the entering into of missives. Missives are a series of letters exchanged between the solicitors in order to negotiate and agree the final terms of the sale.

• This is where your solicitor undertakes several types of searches to make sure the seller has good title and is, therefore, able to sell, and that the property isn’t the subject of any local authority notices or undischarged charges or securities. At this point, your Conveyancing solicitor will also draft the document of sale, known as the disposition. This document is key to the transaction and will detail the terms of the sale, including the parties involved, the consideration (the price paid) and the date of entry.

• The making of the mortgage offer and conclusion of missives. The transfer of title and settlement of the transaction can’t happen until the official mortgage offer has been made (assuming it’s not a cash transaction). The initial issue of mortgage offer can happen much earlier in the process, however the actual release of the mortgage funds won’t usually take place until the mortgage provider has received an undertaking and a Report on Title. Once the funds have been released and transferred, the keys will be released and you can move in.

There are also a few post-completion matters to be dealt with, such as the payment of Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) and the registering of the disposition in the Land Register. These tasks will be taken care of by your solicitor.