Information

Scottish Legal System

1. When you have located a property of interest, you will require the services of a Scottish Solicitor to act on your behalf. Your Solicitor will be able to “note interest” in the property on your behalf and, if the property goes to a closing date, we shall contact your selected Solicitor, so that an offer can be submitted.

2. We recommend that you obtain a survey report and a mortgage approval on a property before submitting an offer. On many occasions offers “subject to survey” or “subject to mortgage” shall be rejected, until the survey has been carried out or the finance has been confirmed to be in place.

3. It is our normal practice to have a closing date for all properties and if you are interested in a property it is therefore crucial that you advise us of your interest so that you can be advised of the closing date. At that time, you will be asked to submit your offer, all offers are opened and read and their details are passed to the sellers. It is normal that the sellers will select the offer with the highest price with the most suitable entry date However, sellers are not bound to accept the highest or indeed any offer received at a closing date.

4. Should you wish to submit an offer which is to be held until the closing date, we shall undertake to only disclose your offer to the seller at the time of the close.

5. On occasions, if all offers, which have been received, are rejected. All potential purchasers may be asked to resubmit a revised offer for consideration.

6. When offers are received we attempt to obtain an indication of acceptance or otherwise as soon as possible. However, many properties are sold my families and in these cases it may take several days to receive instructions on whether an offer is acceptable.

FAQs

Q: What is a Closing Date?

A – A closing date occurs when more that one party has formally noted interest in a property through their Solicitor. A date and time for the closing shall be set and all parties who have formally noted interest through their Solicitor shall be advised of this. At the time of the closing, all offers are opened simultaneously and normally the highest offer is accepted. There is no second chance at a closing date to increase an offer, so purchasers are advised to offer their maximum price at that time.

Q: What does “Offers Over” mean?

A – The “offers over” system in Scotland is the normal method of selling a property, it is merely an indication of the price the seller is wishing to achieve. The amount you should offer over this price is based on location, condition and the professional advice of your surveyor and solicitor.

Q: What is a Formal Offer?

A – A formal offer is one which is submitted by a Solicitors representing the potential purchaser. It will contain the price, date of entry, the items to be included in the price and when accepted by the sellers solicitor will form the basis of the missives or contract of sale.

Q: What is an offer “Subject to Survey”?

A – An offer which is subject to survey, is an offer whereby the purchaser wishes to obtain agreement on the price, before going to the expense of a survey over the property. In cases of a closing date is set we do not advise this type of offer, however if there is no closing date we normally allow purchasers 72Hrs to instruct a survey so that their subject to survey clause within their offer can be deleted.

In-House Complaints Procedure

We are committed to providing a professional service to all our clients and customers. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint, please put it in writing to complaints@clunys.co.uk or Cluny Estate Agents, Complaints Dept, 5 Thunderton Place, Elgin, IV301BG including as much detail as possible. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint: If we have not resolved it within this time, you may refer your complaint to the First-Tier Tribunal.

What will happen next?

• We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally be dealt with by the office manager, who will review your file and speak to the member of staff who dealt with you. A formal written outcome of our investigation will be sent to you within 15 working days of sending the acknowledgement letter.
• If, at this stage, you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for a separate review to take place by a senior member of staff.
• We will write to you within 15 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final viewpoint on the matter.

If you remain dissatisfied, you can then contact the First-Tier Tribunal to request an independent review:

First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber)
4th Floor, 1 Atlantic Quay, 45 Robertson Street, Glasgow G2 8JB

Please note the following:

You will need to submit your complaint to the First-Tier Tribunal within 12 months of receiving our final viewpoint letter, including any evidence to support your case.

The First-Tier Tribunal requires that all complaints are addressed through this in-house complaint procedure before being submitted for an independent review.