How is buying a house in Scotland different?
Substantially — the offer becomes binding much earlier, the survey is done by the seller, and the tax is a different tax entirely. Advice written for England and Wales can be actively misleading.
The Home Report. The seller must provide one before marketing, containing three parts: a single survey with a valuation and condition ratings, a property questionnaire completed by the seller, and an energy report. Buyers therefore get survey information before offering, at no cost, which removes the main financial risk of the English system — repeatedly paying for surveys on properties you lose.
Offers over. Properties are frequently marketed at an offers over price, with a closing date set if interest is strong. Interested parties submit sealed bids by a deadline, and the seller chooses. Bids are typically well above the advertised figure, so the guide price is a starting point rather than an expectation.
Missives — and this is the big difference. Offers are made formally by your solicitor, and negotiation proceeds through letters called missives. When missives are concluded, a binding contract exists, and either party withdrawing faces liability for the other's losses.
This happens far earlier than exchange in England, and it means gazumping and gazundering are effectively eliminated. The trade-off is that you commit sooner, so finance and survey certainty must be in place before conclusion.
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaces Stamp Duty Land Tax, with its own bands, rates and thresholds, plus an Additional Dwelling Supplement for second properties. The figures differ from the English ones — do not use an English calculator.
Other differences:
Solicitors frequently act as estate agents, and solicitor property centres are a normal marketing route.
Registration is with Registers of Scotland.
Feudal tenure was abolished, and most residential property is owned outright, so long leasehold flats are not the norm — flats are usually owned with shared responsibility for common repairs, governed by title deeds and the Tenement (Scotland) Act.
Date of entry is agreed in missives, rather than a separate exchange and completion.
General information, not legal advice.