A Guide to buyers and sellers
If you are planning to sell a property on Delamere Park, there are a few things that you need to think about at an early stage. The guidance document below is designed to assist you with the process. As there are several steps that must be addressed before a sale can be completed the Office staff and Trustees will do all that they can to assist you with this process.
First stage – Inform the Office staff
Informing the Office staff that you are putting your property up for sale at an early stage can save a lot of time later on, as it will give us plenty of time to collate all documentation relating to your property, that your solicitor, or the purchasers solicitor will require. Use the property@delamerepark.co.uk email address for all communications relating to property sales
Second stage -Plot Fees and Property Approval checks
Every property that is sold on Delamere Park must meet the following criteria before the sale can be completed:
- Plot fees for the current year are paid in full
- All relevant property changes have been approved by the Trustees
Plot Fees
The Office staff will check the current status of the plot fees and infom the seller of any outstanding fees that are due. If you are paying your plot fees by standing order the remaining balance for the full year MUST be paid before the sale can complete. It is between the vendor’s solicitor and purchaser’s solicitor to arrange apportionments of the fees for the current year between themselves.
Property changes
All changes to the exterior of the property, work that requires building regulations, work that requires planning permission, work carried out to Trees with TPO’s and relevant changes to the garden all require written approval from the Trustees (see the property change request page for further information). It is now common practice for purchaser’s solicitors to make quite detailed enquiries into these works and as a result we have to provide evidence that all such changes have received Trustee approval.
If you have made any such changes to your property, which required consent but have never been approved, it is possible to apply for retrospective consent. You should start this process as soon as you put your property up for sale as it can take upto 6 weeks for Trustees to consider such retrospective applications. Also, it is possible that retrospective consent may not be granted and you may need to undertake considerable remedial work before the sale can progress, which may lead to considerable cost and delay in the completion of the sale.
Third stage -Pass on your solicitors details
Providing the Office with your solicitors details will allow us communicate with them directly, this will speed up the time it takes to answer questions which they have about the Covenant restrictions. By having a direct channel of comunication it will also allow us to provide the solicitors pack directly to the solicitor dealing with your sale and complete a FME1 or LPE1 form quickly if/when required.
Fourth stage -Provide potential purchasers with info about DPML
It can save a lot of time if potential buyers understand at an early stage what Delamere Park is about and how things such as the Covenant, and Bye-laws work. Below you will find a document intended for purchasers, this explains the effects of the Covenants that they will be signing into and the current plot fee levels. We encourage you to share this with potential purchasers who show serious interest in your property. The document is also freely available from the Office.
Fith stage -Provide your purchaser’s solicitor details
Once you have accepted an offer please pass on the contact details of the purchaser’s solicitor to the Office Staff. The Office staff will then be able to work towards the critical part of completing any property sale on Delamere Park, which is the issuing of a Certificate of Compliance with the transfer of the Covenant. This should be a straightforward process, but experience has shown that some issues come up time and again which can delay completion if a direct communication channel is not available.
Final Stage – Sale Completion and returning fobs
Once a completion date has been set please let the Office staff know so that they can issue an invoice to the purchaser’s solicitor. This is a single fee of £200+VAT payable to DPML by the buyer (via their solicitor) to cover all work involved in carrying out compliance checks and issuing the Certificate of Completion.
Finally return all access fobs for those living at your property so that these can be reprogrammed for use by the new owners. Any refundable deposits that have been paid will be returned to you as long as the fobs are still in working order. To find out how to request a refund please refer to the Fob Access page