Selling your house

Selling a home brings together money, paperwork and other people's timetables.

In England and Wales a sale takes about five months on average, and longer in a chain.

These notes walk through the steps, the paperwork and where the money goes, with links to the official guidance. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own process.

The steps in order

Check what you owe on your mortgage.
Find out what your home is worth.
Decide whether to use an estate agent.
Choose a solicitor or conveyancer for the legal work.
Gather the paperwork, including an Energy Performance Certificate.
Accept an offer, exchange contracts and complete.

What your home is worth

Knowing the value helps you set an asking price. It also lets you compare the price with your mortgage and moving costs.

HM Land Registry publishes what homes in your area sold for. Estate agents can value your home, and a qualified valuer can give a formal valuation for a fee.

Your mortgage lender can tell you how much you owe. Ask whether there are early repayment charges or fees to move the mortgage to a new home.

Estate agents

You can sell your home yourself. You can also use a high street, online or hybrid agent. An agent's contract is legally binding, so check what the fee is and what it includes.

If you sign with more than one agent, you may owe fees to more than one of them. Agents must pass on every offer until contracts are exchanged. They must also tell you if they earn a referral fee for recommending a solicitor, surveyor or broker.

GOV.UK suggests asking your agent which redress scheme it belongs to. The two schemes are The Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme. If the agent's own complaints process leaves you unhappy, the scheme investigates for free.

The paperwork

You must order an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) before you market the house. It rates the home from A to G and lasts 10 years. You can check for a valid one and download it free on GOV.UK.

The paperwork for a buyer can also include the deeds, the tenure, planning and building regulations certificates, guarantees and window certificates. Agents should show the price, the council tax band and the tenure in the listing itself.

Offers and exchange

An offer is not legally binding in England and Wales. The sale becomes binding when you and the buyer exchange signed contracts. After that, either side usually has to pay compensation to pull out.

Your solicitor or conveyancer drafts the contract and answers the buyer's questions with your help. Large sums of money bring a risk of fraud. Check that you are dealing with the right person and the right bank account before any money moves.

Where the sale money goes

On completion, the buyer's solicitor sends the money to yours. Your solicitor pays off the mortgage and any other secured debts. Next come the estate agent's fee and their own fee, and any service charges. You receive what is left.

A relief called Private Residence Relief means you pay no Capital Gains Tax on selling your main home, as long as three things are true. The first is that you have lived there as your main home all the time you owned it. The second is that you have not let part of it or used part only for business. The third is that the grounds are smaller than 5,000 square metres.

In June 2026 the government set out plans to require sales packs, with searches and a condition report, before a home goes on the market. Until then, sellers can choose to give buyers that kind of information up front.