The short version
- There is no exchange of contracts in Scotland. The binding moment is the conclusion of missives, and it usually happens earlier and faster than an English buyer expects.
- The seller pays for a Home Report before the property is marketed, so you get a survey and valuation without commissioning one yourself.
- Stamp Duty does not apply. Land and Buildings Transaction Tax does, with different bands and a separate Additional Dwelling Supplement.
- Solicitors do the negotiating. There is no separate conveyancer, and estate agents have a smaller role than in England.
- Your date of entry is fixed in the missives, often weeks ahead, which makes booking a removal firm easier here than south of the border.
The single biggest change is when you become committed
In England and Wales nothing binds either party until contracts are exchanged, which is typically days before completion. In Scotland the equivalent moment is the conclusion of missives, and once that happens both sides are legally bound and the date of entry is fixed in writing.
This one difference reshapes everything else. English buyers are used to a long period of uncertainty followed by a very short window of certainty. Scottish buyers get the reverse: a shorter period of uncertainty, then weeks of a fixed, contractually agreed date.
The practical consequences are worth spelling out, because they run against instincts built up over an English purchase.
| Stage | England and Wales | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
| What the advertised price means | Usually an asking price | Often “offers over”, treated as a starting point |
| Who negotiates | Estate agent | Your solicitor, in formal written offers |
| Survey | You commission and pay for it | Home Report provided by the seller |
| The binding moment | Exchange of contracts | Conclusion of missives |
| Gazumping after that point | Not possible after exchange | Not possible after missives conclude |
| Moving day | Completion, agreed at exchange | Date of entry, written into the missives |
| Property tax | Stamp Duty Land Tax | Land and Buildings Transaction Tax |
Nothing on that list is harder than the English equivalent. It is simply different, and the confusion tends to come from assuming the English word applies to the Scottish thing.
Offers over, and why the advertised figure is a floor
Many Scottish properties are marketed at “offers over” a stated figure. That figure is a threshold rather than an asking price, and in a competitive area the sale price can land meaningfully above it. English buyers reading it as an asking price consistently underbid at first.
Where interest is high, the selling agent will often set a closing date. Every interested party submits a single sealed offer by a stated time, and the seller picks one. There is no back and forth and no second chance, which is a very different experience from the English pattern of incremental negotiation.
Your offer is submitted by your solicitor as a formal written document. It contains the price, your proposed date of entry, and conditions covering things like what fixtures are included. This is why you need a Scottish solicitor engaged before you start offering, not afterwards.
One important detail: the date of entry is part of the offer. It is negotiable at that stage and much harder to change later, so think about when you actually want to move before your solicitor submits anything. If you are moving a long way, this is the moment to consider whether you want a month-end date at all.
The Home Report changes how you assess a property
Sellers in Scotland must provide a Home Report before marketing most residential properties. It contains a single survey and valuation, an energy report, and a property questionnaire, and any interested buyer can request it free of charge.
For an English buyer this is a genuine saving of both money and time. You are not commissioning your own survey on every property you are interested in, and you can read a professional assessment before you decide whether to offer at all.
It comes with two caveats worth knowing. The report is commissioned by the seller, so if something in it concerns you, you are entitled to commission your own additional survey, and buyers of older tenement property sometimes do. Second, the valuation in the Home Report matters to your lender. If you offer well above it, your mortgage may be calculated on the lower figure and you will need to cover the difference.
The property questionnaire is the part people skim and should not. It covers council tax band, parking arrangements, any history of flooding, and whether there have been alterations. For a flat it will also touch on the factoring arrangements, which is the next thing an English buyer tends not to expect.
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Land and Buildings Transaction Tax is not Stamp Duty
Stamp Duty Land Tax does not apply in Scotland. Land and Buildings Transaction Tax replaced it, it is set by the Scottish Parliament, and its bands and thresholds are different from the English ones. There is also an Additional Dwelling Supplement on second properties.
The practical warning is simple: do not use an English stamp duty calculator to budget a Scottish purchase. The two taxes are structured differently and the figures will not match.
The Additional Dwelling Supplement catches more people than expected. It applies where you end up owning more than one residential property at the end of the transaction, which includes buyers whose English sale has not completed by their Scottish date of entry. If you are buying in Scotland before you have sold in England, raise that with your solicitor early, because it changes what you need available on the day.
We have set out every cost in a Scottish purchase, including the current tax position, in our guide to what it actually costs to move house in Scotland.
Your solicitor does the work an English agent would
Scotland has no separate conveyancer role. A Scottish solicitor handles the offer, the missives, the title examination, the funds and the registration. Many solicitors also act as selling agents, so the same firm may be marketing property as well.
Engage one before you view seriously. An English buyer who finds a property first and then starts looking for a solicitor has already lost time, and at a closing date that time is the whole game.
Ask specifically whether the firm handles cross-border transactions regularly. If you are selling in England and buying in Scotland, two legal systems and two timetables have to be aligned, and a solicitor who does that routinely will spot the pinch points early. The commonest one is a Scottish date of entry landing before an English completion, which leaves you needing bridging or a gap where your possessions have nowhere to go.
That gap is more common than people expect on cross-border moves, and it is worth planning for rather than reacting to. If your two dates do not line up, storage between the two properties is usually the cleanest answer.
Council Tax, water charges and thirty two councils
Scotland has thirty two councils rather than the English patchwork of county, district and unitary authorities. Council Tax bands exist as in England, but the values behind them and the amounts charged are set separately, and water and sewerage charges are collected alongside Council Tax rather than billed by a separate water company.
That last point catches almost every English arrival. There is no separate water bill arriving from a private company. For most households, closing and opening the Council Tax account handles the water charge with it.
Around Glasgow, the boundaries are tighter than newcomers assume. Bearsden and Milngavie are East Dunbartonshire. Giffnock and Newton Mearns are East Renfrewshire. Rutherglen and Cambuslang are South Lanarkshire. Paisley is Renfrewshire. You can move four miles and change authority, which means two Council Tax accounts, not one transfer.
Water supply itself comes from Scottish Water, a public body, rather than from one of the regional companies operating in England. You do not choose a supplier and you do not switch.
Flats, factors and the common close
Leasehold effectively does not exist for Scottish flats. Most are owned outright, with shared responsibility for the roof, the close and the back court held in common with the other owners in the building. A factor may manage that shared work and bill each owner a share.
An English buyer used to leasehold will find the absence of a ground rent and a lease term reassuring. The trade-off is that shared repairs are a collective decision and a collective bill. A tenement roof needing work is not somebody else’s problem handled by a freeholder, it is your problem in proportion to your share.
Check the title deeds for how repairs are apportioned, and ask whether the building has a factor and what the arrangement costs. The Home Report property questionnaire should tell you some of this, and your solicitor will check the rest.
There is a physical dimension too, and it is the one that catches removals. Glasgow tenement closes are often narrow, with a half landing turn between floors that limits what will physically go up. Wardrobes, corner sofas and large mattresses are the usual casualties. If you are shipping a full English three bedroom house into a top floor tenement flat, that is worth raising before the day rather than on it. Our guide to Glasgow neighbourhoods covers which areas are tenement stock and which are not.
Send us both addresses, the floors at each end and your date of entry and we will come back with a written quote.
Get a quoteRegistering with services after you arrive
Most administrative changes are the same as any move within the UK, but three are specific to crossing the border: registering with a GP practice under NHS Scotland, opening a Council Tax account with your new Scottish authority, and updating the DVLA, which remains a UK wide body.
NHS Scotland is a separate health service from NHS England. You register with a GP practice covering your new address, and your records transfer. Prescription arrangements differ from England, which is worth checking if you take regular medication.
Schools operate on a different system with different qualifications, term dates and catchment arrangements. If you are moving with children mid-year, contact the council’s education department early rather than assuming an English style application timeline applies.
Everything else follows the standard change of address routine. We have set out the full list, ordered by which ones carry a legal penalty, in our guide to who to tell when you move house.
Booking a move across the border
A cross-border move is a long distance job, which changes the logistics more than the distance suggests. It is usually a two day operation, and the fixed Scottish date of entry works in your favour when booking it.
Because your date of entry is written into concluded missives, you can confirm a removal firm with real confidence weeks ahead. English buyers used to waiting for exchange often leave this far too late. Our guide to when to book a removal company in Scotland explains why the timing is different here.
Practical points specific to moving into Glasgow from England:
- Keys usually change hands around the middle of the day once funds transfer, so an arrival that starts at dawn in England may be unloading in the afternoon.
- If your new street is in a controlled parking zone, a bay suspension needs applying for once the date is fixed, not in the week of the move.
- The city centre Low Emission Zone affects older vehicles, which is a routing question for whoever is driving.
- Managed blocks often require the service lift to be booked with the factor days ahead.
- If your English sale completes after your Scottish entry date, plan the storage overlap before you book anything.
When moving to Scotland is not the easy win people expect
The Scottish system is genuinely more certain once missives conclude, but that certainty cuts both ways, and there are situations where it works against you.
Be careful if any of these apply:
- You are selling in England at the same time. Your Scottish purchase can become binding while your English sale is still capable of collapsing. That is the exposure the Scottish system creates for cross-border buyers, and it is the opposite of the protection it gives everyone else.
- You are buying at a closing date in a competitive area. One sealed offer with no second chance suits decisive buyers and punishes hesitant ones.
- You want to renegotiate after the survey. The Home Report comes before you offer, so the information is earlier but the leverage is smaller.
- You are relying on a fixed timetable to the day. Dates of entry can still be varied if both solicitors agree, so a binding date is not an unbreakable one.
The honest summary: Scotland removes the gazumping risk and the survey cost, and it gives you a real date much earlier. In exchange it asks you to commit sooner and with less room to reopen the price.
Send us your English address, your Glasgow address and your date of entry and we will come back with a written quote.
Get a quoteCommon questions about moving from England to Scotland
Do I need a Scottish solicitor, or can my English one act?
You need a solicitor qualified in Scots law. It is a separate legal system, and an English solicitor cannot conclude missives or examine a Scottish title. If you are selling in England and buying in Scotland you will typically have one on each side, and they will need to talk to each other about aligning the dates.
Is the Home Report the same as a survey?
It contains one. The single survey element is a professional inspection with a valuation and a condition assessment, commissioned by the seller and available to any interested buyer. You can still commission your own additional survey if something in it concerns you, and buyers of older tenement property sometimes do.
Can I keep my existing mortgage when I move to Scotland?
Most UK lenders operate across Scotland, and porting a mortgage across the border is usually possible, but the security is granted under Scots law and your lender will need a Scottish solicitor to handle it. Confirm with your lender before you offer rather than after, particularly if you are buying a flat in a building with shared repair obligations.
Why do Scottish listings say offers over?
It is a marketing convention that sets a threshold rather than an asking price. In a competitive area the eventual sale price can be well above the stated figure, and where interest is strong the agent may set a closing date for sealed offers. Treat the advertised number as a floor, and ask the selling agent what level of interest there has been.
How do I get a quote for a move from England to Scotland?
Send both addresses, the floor at each end, whether there is a lift, rough volume and your date of entry through the quote form. For a long move it helps to say whether your two dates align, since a gap usually means storage rather than a straight door to door run. What is involved in the Glasgow end is covered on our house removals page.
More guides on moving in and around the city are collected in our moving guides.
