moonie2011

Yeah we've had an offer on our UK house and we are praying it doesn't fall through in the 12week process when their isn't a chain either end
The lawyers are saying we need to provide originals of passport, house bills etc for proof of ID, I really don't want to send this stuff in the post, what do we do please? Thanks

jmh

Yes I did. I was able to send a copy of the passport id page with a statement witnessed by my NZ solicitor (a JP would probably do) saying that it was me. I didn't have to send the actual passport. This was the UK solicitor's suggestion, so I don't see why it should be a problem.

I had no chain either. The sale was agreed in Feb and by July we still hadn't exchanged contracts, despite me prompting my solicitor over there. I then contact the sales agent and threatened to put it back on the market which got a sudden response. Obviously they all miss out on their commission if it doesn't go through so the agent laid it on the line to to buyer who pushed his solicitor.

They then sent me a form to fill out which I should have been sent months before. Complete incompetence on behalf of someone, I'm not sure who. Even on the day of completion the buyer's solicitor tried to sting me for a GBP50 indemnity. I refused and pulled out of the sale, then they dropped it and went ahead with the completion. Neither side liked the fact that I had threatened to pull out of the sale. The solicitors like to operate to their own timeframes. It's disgusting that they can't process the sale of one freehold house with no chain, in less than six months. It was unnecessarily stressful for both the buyer and me.

Sorry to rant like that, but I missed out on several properties because of this delay. The NZ house purchase was completed in 8 weeks and that was because it was delayed due to the completion delays in the UK.

Regarding sending originals bills, I scanned in everything in case it got lost. You can send it signature required. I took a risk and just airmailed it and it arrived fairly quickly.

I would advise sending the original corgi certificates as well - that was what the indemnity thing was about. The sale almost fell through because they didn't have the original.

Selling a house shouldn't be this hard.

Ping Pong Pom

You should be able to send copies which have been certified by a kiwi solicitor so you can retain the originals. The kiwi solicitor will take photocopies, sign the copies and write on them that they are certified as a copy of the original documents. They also stamp the copies with the firm's official stamp. This allows the UK solicitor to verify the kiwi solicitor's status. The UK solicitor may prefer the copies to be sent directly from the kiwi solicitor accompanied by a letter on their letterhead.

If I were you, I'd just email your UK solicitor and ask if the above is acceptable, as its obviously unreasonable for them to ask you to part with your passport when you're overseas.

moonie2011

Does it have to be a solicitor from a firm, or will a qualified lawyer do? Anybody know? Thanks

Ping Pong Pom

A Legal Exec can do this for you, but not a Secretary or Receptionist from the firm.

Other things for you to consider, is to make sure your UK solicitor emails the usual Sale forms to you, such as the Property Information Form and Fixtures, Fittings & Contents list etc. Also, ask for the Contract itself and Transfer deed to be emailed to you too, as these will require your signature.

An alternative to all the above, would be to consider appointing an Attorney in the UK to act on your behalf. You can specify that they are to act SOLELY in relation to the sale of the property and the transfer of the net sale proceeds to your designated account. You can appoint a family member or friend, but I would recommend asking your UK solicitor, just so you have the comfort of another level of assurance as they will be acting in a professional capacity. That way, they can sign relevant documents without the possible delay of postage to or from you.

Stormer999

We sold our UK house 3 weeks ago we had been renting out through an agent and recently made the final decision that we were both more than happy with NZ life. We had all docs certified by a local solicitor, no charge for doing that. we then, after completing all of the scanned forms from our UK solicitor put everything into courier fast post. Cash was transferred into a UK bank account and moved here by Moneycorp. We wanted all assets in NZ before the 48 months were up and before Cameron did anything stupid. So now we have swapped one house for another.

Robbo25

You can certified copies of documents for free by visiting a local Citizens Advice Bureau as they have JP's in to do it once a week or so.

jmh

Oooh, lots of good advice here.

One thing I wanted to add. There was a week of delay from completion to the money arriving in my account, although the solicitor did pass on the interest for the period. Then I couldn't get Halifax to send it to Moneycorp in any greater amounts than GBP25k a day. Moneycorp were fine with that and gave daily updates on the amount I held with them. It took about 10 working days for me to get the money from Halifax to my Kiwibank account for this reason. Every step of the way was delays, delays, delays.

Chocoholics

This might help for getting certified copies of documents in NZ

Who can certify copies of my documents? - Immigration NZ Knowledgebase

Stormer999

That's NZ end...better check UK end, money laundering is a bigger concern in Europe.

Tom H

It took 4 weeks for our house sale to go through but that was down to appointing my mum and dad as power of attorneys

I thoroughly recommend to anyone that is considering this to do so. That way there is no lengthy delays in responses due to time differences. It certainly helped us having them as POAs

Ours expired during our house sale but we went and got a solicitor to do one for us free of charge and sent it over. All fine and arrived very quickly. Didn't delay the process at all

Ping Pong Pom

Just another word on the Power of Attorney route....
The authority needs to be extremely specific, leaving no margin for error/misunderstanding. You can say that you're appointing 'Joe Bloggs' to act on your behalf and in your interest in connection with the sale of (insert property address) and the transfer of the net sale proceeds to (insert bank details of relevant account). Obviously, your UK solicitor is able to draft a General Power of Attorney for you, but I recommend that you ensure it contains the destination details for the funds.

moonie2011

Thanks for all the advice, lots to think about and like the power of attorney idea, we shall be looking into that

toolpath

We sold our house from NZ, to get certified copies of legal documents go to the court and the registrar will sign / stamp them for free.