Following exchange of contracts and completion, your solicitor is required to complete a number of tasks to finalise the transaction. Firstly, stamp duty would be submitted within 30 days of completion by your solicitor. The relevant funds would then be transferred over to HMRC and if relevant, notices would be served on the relevant management companies to notify them that you are the new proprietor. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, it is now compulsory to register a transaction with the land registry. Your solicitor would prepare all the relevant documents and make an electronic application to the land registry to amend the register. The timescales with the land registry can differ dramatically depending on the type of application made, a straightforward freehold application can take a couple of weeks however, a new build application can take a number of months. Applications made after October 2003 are now registered electronically and evidence of title is now held electronically with the land registry. Instead of receiving a bundle of deeds from your solicitor you would instead receive an electronic copy of the register, thus making the original bundle of documents you would generally receive in the past obsolete.
