01Drafting, and whose wording it is
A draft is written at the counter from the notebook used at the appointment, and it goes to you before it goes anywhere else. That order matters: the wording describes your home, and a sentence you would not have written is a sentence the branch should not publish. You may change a line because it is wrong, and you may change a line because it is right but you would rather it were put another way.
The branch writes in the same plain order for every property, so a reader who has looked at four sets from this office can find the tenure, the rooms and the outside in the same place each time. Adjectives are used where they carry a fact and left out where they carry only enthusiasm, because a buyer who arrives expecting something the property does not have goes away twice as disappointed.
02The measurement convention, named on the document
Two people can measure the same room honestly and print different figures, so the convention is named on the particulars themselves rather than assumed. The schedule below is what the branch works to and what the printed figures therefore mean.
| Figure | How it is taken | What it means to a reader |
|---|---|---|
| Room dimensions | Maximum points, longest by widest, with a laser or a tape at the appointment. | The largest rectangle that would fit, which is why a chimney breast is inside the figure. |
| Restricted head height | Noted separately where a loft room or a dormer is below full standing height. | A room that measures well on paper may still be worked around a slope. |
| Floor area | Worked from the room measurements, printed in both square metres and square feet. | A figure for comparing properties, not a figure to build from. |
| Outside dimensions | Paced or measured to the boundary as it stands on the day. | What is there now; the title plan governs where the boundary legally runs. |
| Plans | Drawn to the measurements taken and marked as an illustration of layout. | An aid to understanding the arrangement of rooms, not a scale drawing. |
03Line by line, what the document states
Every line below appears on a set of particulars from this branch, and every line is one you have approved. Where a line depends on something the branch has not seen, it says so on the face of the document.
| Line | What it states | Drawn from |
|---|---|---|
| Address and type | Where the property is and what it is: terraced, semi-detached, purpose-built flat, maisonette. | The inspection, and the title as you supplied it. |
| Tenure | Freehold, or leasehold with the term left and the service charge last paid. | Your lease and your last demand, read at the appointment. |
| Rooms | Each room named, measured and placed on its floor. | The second pass with the tape. |
| Outside | Garden, aspect, outbuildings, parking and how the property is approached. | The inspection, and what you told the branch about the boundary. |
| Fixtures | What is fitted and staying, and what is being taken with you. | Your instruction, so that the contract and the particulars agree. |
| Energy rating | The band from the certificate, with the certificate available on request. | The energy performance certificate held for the property. |
| Council tax band | The band the property stands in at the time of publication. | The public banding list, quoted as it stands. |
| Viewing | That viewings are accompanied, and how an appointment is made. | The counter diary, and the arrangements agreed with you. |
04The approval run, before anything is published
Five stops sit between the appointment and the first viewing, and you hold the third of them. Nothing goes to a portal, a window card or an applicant list until that stop is passed.
- 01DraftedThe notebook from the appointment is written up into a draft in the branch's plain order.
- 02PhotographedPhotographs are taken and chosen to show the rooms as they are, in the light the property actually has.
- 03Approved by youThe draft and the photographs come to you, and the branch publishes nothing until you have approved both.
- 04PublishedThe approved set goes up, and the same wording is used on every channel so that no two readers see different claims.
- 05AmendedWhere anything changes, the document is amended and the amended version replaces the old one everywhere it stands.
05Lines that wait for confirmation
Some facts belong to documents the branch has not read, and those lines wait. A lease term is printed once the lease is on the file, a service charge is printed once the last demand has been seen, and a boundary is described as it stands on the ground with the title plan named as the place it is settled. Where a buyer's solicitor later asks about any of them, the answer comes from the document rather than from the particulars.
This is also why the branch would rather delay publication by two days than correct a figure in the third week of marketing. A correction is read as a change of story even when it is only a change of source, and the sale is easier when the first version is the one that stands.
Sheet 04 — from an accepted offer to completion · Sheet 02 — how a figure is arrived at