About Lyons Bowe
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Call us: 01749 345 756info@lyonsbowe.co.uk
Postal Address: 54 High Street, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5AS
Buying a home involves several key players: you, your solicitor handling legalities, the estate agent facilitating the sale, potentially a mortgage broker securing finance, and the mortgage lender providing the funds. Understanding each role streamlines the purchasing journey.
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Throughout the process of buying a property, you will need to:
You will need to instruct a solicitor when your offer on a property is accepted. Your solicitor will be responsible for:
Your estate agent will:
You may not be using a mortgage broker, but if you are, they will:
If you are buying a property with a mortgage, your mortgage lender will:
The property search provider will:
HM Land Registry:
Your New Instructions Team are the first team you will work with when you instruct us. First, they will provide you with a Welcome Pack which includes all of the documentation you need to complete, as well as information you need to know. This Welcome Pack will usually include:
The New Client Form gives us all the information we need to set up your file with us. This form needs to be completed by all buyers and will be used to complete your Anti Money Laundering checks and Source of Funds checks.
The Terms of Business is an agreement between you and Lyons Bowe that explains the service you will receive from us, and what we will need from you throughout your purchase. This also needs to be signed by all buyers.
ID Verification is a legal requirement, however please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your New Instructions Team should you have any questions. Make sure all buyers have two forms of ID ready to go such as a driving license or passport. Your Welcome Pack will include a list of approved forms of ID.
We are legally required to undertake a source of funds check on all of our clients. This helps us to combat property fraud and money laundering. We will request at least 6 months worth of bank statements. If you have transferred your deposit funds over from a savings account, make sure you also provide us with 6 months worth of statements from the savings account, too.
If you are being gifted a deposit, or any money toward your purchase, your giftor will need to undergo source of funds checks, too.
Your payment on account covers the third party costs or ‘disbursements’ that we will incur on your behalf at the new instructions stage of your purchase, such as ordering your property searches and processing your anti money laundering and ID checks. We can’t proceed to the next steps of your purchase without having received this payment first. Luckily, it couldn’t be easier! You can make your payment on account in our app, or by calling your local office.
Your payment on account will also cover our Abortive Pledge, which covers you should your purchase fall through due to no fault of your own. Should the seller pull out, you will not be charged for any of our legal fees, only the disbursements incurred up to that point.
Our Abortive Pledge is included in your payment on account. Should you wish to opt out of the Abortive Pledge, please do let your New Instructions Team know and they will make sure you are not charged. Please note however, that if you opt out of the Abortive Pledge and your purchase falls through for any reason, you will be charged for the legal fees as well as the disbursements incurred up to that point.
The Draft Contract Pack provides information such as the contract terms that have been agreed with your seller, evidence that the seller owns the property that you are buying, information about the property’s legal title and the seller’s Property Information forms. The pack will be reviewed by your Legal Team when your file is allocated to them.
Property searches are searches that we order on your behalf from third parties to obtain information about the area surrounding property you are purchasing. In some circumstances, we may carry out further searches such as mining searches, land charges, and chancel repair searches. If these are necessary for your property, we will let you know.
Local Authority searches tell us if the property is:
Environmental searches highlight any impacts that may affect the property such as:
Water and Drainage searches tell us:
Mining searches give us a report on:
In some circumstances, we may be required to carry out further searches on the property. If these are necessary, we will let you know. The time frame for receiving the results of the searches differs depending on the Local Authority providing the search we therefore cannot guarantee a fixed time frame for property searches, but on average we would expect to receive the searches back within 14-21 days.
Welcome to the next stage of your purchase! Your file has now been allocated to your Legal Team. Your Legal Team will review the legal documentation that we received in the draft contract pack and ensure that everything is in order for you to be able to purchase the property. They are also responsible for reviewing the legal title to the property on behalf of your lender. The time it takes for your team to review the Draft Contract Pack will depend on the complexity of your purchase. We will frequently report back to you with any information we receive as we receive it.
Different solicitors handle this stage of the process differently. Some solicitors will wait until they have compiled all of your documents and then hand it over in one big pack. We prefer to send you the documentation as and when we receive it so that you know what’s happening when, and to keep everything more manageable.
At this stage, we’ve received the Draft Contract Pack from the seller’s solicitor and reviewed the enclosed documents. We will raise enquiries about the information in the pack on your behalf.
Enquiries are questions that we submit to the seller’s solicitor about the documents in the pack. We will raise enquiries regarding:
Whilst we wait for the seller’s solicitor to respond to our enquiries, we’ll get started on your Search Report, Mortgage Report, and Title Report. You may receive these reports in a different order depending on when we receive the information.
With your search results in, we have forwarded copies of the results to you for you to review with a search report summarising the key points. If there is anything that you should be specifically aware of, your Legal Team will have highlighted this in the report. Take time to read through the report and write down any questions that you might have for us as you go.
Local Authority searches tell us if the property is:
Environmental searches highlight any impacts that may affect the property such as:
Water and Drainage searches tell us:
Mining searches give us a report on:
The Title Report is a document that we produce once we have reviewed the information in the contract pack produced by the seller’s solicitors. The report provides information on the contract pack and the property itself. Where information is missing, we raise enquiries highlighting the missing information. The enquiries we have raised will be explained in the report.
A crucial part of buying your property is making sure that you understand the terms of your mortgage. We’ll review your mortgage offer and compile a report on its contents including any conditions of the offer. We have also enclosed the Mortgage Deed which you will need to sign.
All the leg work is done, and we’re now ready to begin the process of Exchange & Completion! Your file has been allocated to your Exchange & Completion Team who will support you through the final stages of purchasing your property. This is the most exciting part of buying a property, but it’s also one of the most important so we’ve laid out what everyone needs to do below.
The documents that need to be signed are called the Contract and Transfer. Unlike the rest of the process, you will need to sign these documents in wet, black ink.
Exchange is the point at which all parties become legally bound to the completion of the property.
Completion is the point at which legal ownership of the property is transferred. There will typically be a 1-2 week period between exchange and completion to allow the current owner time to move.
We will send the Contract and Transfer to you via post, or you can arrange to sign the documents in one of our offices. These are the final Contracts for the purchase of your property. Signing these Contracts alone does not make the transaction legally binding, the point at which the Contracts are exchanged makes the transaction legally binding.
We cannot exchange Contracts without all parties of the purchase signing them first.
This is the exciting bit! This is the point at which all parties become legally bound to the transaction of the property. It is safe to start packing boxes – moving day is just around the corner!
We’d highly recommend using the time between Exchange and Completion to take our property insurance, and start moving bills over.
Congratulations! You have completed on your purchase! You officially own your new property. The keys to your property will be released by the seller’s solicitor and you will be able to collect them from the Estate Agent.
Now that completion has taken place, we’ll get started on registering the new ownership status of the property with HM Land Registry. This can take anywhere between 6-12 months. We’ll let you know as soon as the Land Registry has been updated.
Forget the confusing lingo and overly wordy explanations. Our app makes sense of it all - seamless, convenient and designed with you in mind.
Thousands of five-star reviews from clients just like you. We pride ourselves on delivering exceptional service, clear communication, and innovative technology to make your legal journey seamless.
The team at Lyons Bowe have been great, replying promptly to any questions and always helpful. The progress updates throughout the process, has been very helpful and really keeps you informed as to where you are within the timeline.
The Mirror Guy, Firm Review
Excellent service. Quietly attentive, sympathetic listeners, and efficient practitioners, all that a worried applicant could wish for. And especially unusual in this day and age....
Brian, Firm Review
Honestly I've never wanted to review solicitors before, they've been ok and have done their job at varying timescales. From the start, my partner and I have commented every single time when something happened how quick they are, and they're a delight to communicate with too! And their app is brilliant and has made things so much easier. We will use in the future and will not stop recommending.
Chris, Firm Review
I recently used Lyons Bowe Solicitors and had the pleasure of working with Holly as my point of contact. From start to finish, the service was outstanding. Holly was professional, approachable, and incredibly efficient - she kept me updated throughout the entire process and made everything feel smooth and stress-free.
Manuel, Firm Review
Rhea, and everyone so far at Lyons Bowe, have been truly fantastic. Excellent communication, chasing me rather than me chasing them, very pleasant in conversation and always ready to help. Highly recommend to anyone.
Rich, Firm Review
Everything was done quickly and efficiently and the app means you are kept informed every step of the way. Thank you.
Nina, Firm Review
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We have ten offices across the South West & South Wales, but our reach is national.
Whether you visit us in person or prefer to work with us remotely, our team is ready to support. Clear communication, dedicated teams, and real-time updates mean the same high standard of service - no matter how you choose to work with us.
At Lyons Bowe, we do not just give legal advice, we guide you through life’s biggest moments with clarity, care, and confidence. Whether you are buying a home, making a will, or navigating a separation, we make the process simple, structured, and built entirely around you.
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Lyons Bowe is a trading name of Lyons Bowe Limited, a limited company registered in England & Wales (registered number OC11526226) which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority No. 652616. A list of Directors is available at our registered office 54 High Street, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 5AS
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