Why getting your home ready for sale takes much more than making it look presentable

Hewetson and Johnson.

Overlooking the location of title deeds, failing to check boundaries and neglecting repairs and structural problems could mean losing a buyer.

“Recently we had a house that was due to go on the market, and it transpired that what the owners thought they were selling, turned out to be different on

Land Registry,” Pridden says. “It was a matter to do with the boundaries. If we’d not picked up on this and gone to market first, this would have come up with the buyer’s solicitor did their due diligence.

It would have caused a huge amount of delay and could have resulted in an aborted sale.”A key priority is to locate your deeds. If your home is mortgaged, these are likely to be held by your lender, but if a property has not been sold for some years, they could have been mislaid decades ago.

"Our purchase of a 1920s probate sale house in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was held up by three months because the deeds couldn’t be found,” says one Yorkshire Post reader

"The previous owners had lived in the property for 50 years, the husband had passed away and the old lady was in a care home. We were stuck until our solicitor managed to track the deeds down through the Land Registry.

The house stood empty and damp from October to January, but we really wanted it, so we hung on.”

Ben Pridden says it’s always good practice to check the boundaries you think you have match up with what the Land Registry holds – you can do this yourself in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have different registers)

through www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry, or ask your conveyancing solicitor to do it for you.

"Also, if you have done any works in your ownership subject to planning permission, Permitted Development or Building Regulations, make sure you have the documentation in order,” Pridden says.

This would also include certifications for heating systems and wood-burning stoves; there’s time when you’re in the planning stages of a sale to contact the installation companies and ask for copies if the originals have been mislaid.

Ben Pridden also advises being upfront with buyers about any structural work that has been undertaken and completed, such as under-pinning or other measures to tackle subsidence.

"It’s just a general common-sense check,” he says. “You might have an annex that’s let, for example, so is the lease in place, are there notices necessary to comply with the terms of the lease? Or are you receiving any grants on the property, are they transferable?”

James Brook FRICS, co-founder of Novello Chartered Surveyors, working across West Yorkshire, London and the Home Counties, says “bad surveys” are one of the top reasons why house sales fall through.

He quotes analysis of sale and purchase fall-through rates by house-buying company Quick Move Now, which found 50 per cent of failed sales in 2022 were due to the buyer changing their mind after an unfavourable survey.

His advice to be prepared, especially when it comes to costly repairs flagged up by a buyer’s survey.

“Buyers are really put off by this,” he says. “If sellers want the best possible chance of selling their property quickly, they need to address any significant issues before they list their property on the market."

A recent report by Online Mortgage Advisor shows that the average time it takes to sell a home in the UK is 101 days, but Brook says the mediation process with a potential buyer regarding who pays for repairs can significantly slow down this process, or scupper it altogether.

He urges homeowners to repair any damages or snags before going on the market as if everything is well-maintained and in tip-top condition, you might be able to sell your home for a higher price too.

So before you get carried away with arranging the flowers and brewing the

fresh coffee, it’s good advice to run through everything that you think a buyer, or their conveyancing solicitor, might ask.

Delays can be annoying, but sellers who are helpful, responsive and eager to push the sale through will minimise the risks of everything falling apart, Brook points out.

“Buyers don’t like surprises, of any kind,” says Ben Pridden. “It’s always much

better to flag up whatever an issue might be from the start. It is not creating

problems or extra work, it’s being pro-active and having a thorough understand