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What is Conveyancing?

Conveyancing is defined as the legal transfer of property from one party to another, or the registering of a mortgage or other charge against a property. When you sell, purchase or remortgage a property there are various different stages to the legal process which your conveyancing solicitor will deal with on your behalf.

Finding a Conveyancer

As part of our service we can arrange a reliable and reasonably priced solicitor firm to carry out your conveyancing. We obtain quotes from major firms of solicitors that cover the whole of the UK. All firms are user-reviewed and have a feedback rating so you can be sure of a reliable service. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your requirements or click the link below to produce your own personalised quote.

Click here to generate your personal conveyancing quote

There is no standard for conveyancing quotes in the UK and so you don’t always know that all costs have been included. Many firms will simply quote for the cost of the “legal work” involved which simply means the solicitors’ time. The final bill is frequently a lot higher when all the relevant Land Registry fees, search costs, and VAT have been added on.

We ensure all quotes provided are inclusive of all standard costs and VAT so there are no nasty last-minute surprises. We will make sure the cost of your conveyancing is factored in when we calculate your new mortgage. All our solicitors work on a no-completion no-fee basis so there is no risk to you in case your transaction does not proceed.

Any extra work will usually add to the cost, such as dealing with a leasehold property, gifted deposits, transfers of equity or government schemes like Help to Buy. Our quoting system allows all “extras” to be selected at the outset so that you have a realistic idea of the total cost.

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The conveyancing process explained

There are many areas of conveyancing which may be required for your transaction and over the years we have dealt with virtually every scenario imaginable! You really don’t have to an expert as we have guided hundreds of clients through the process and will be on hand to answer your questions throughout.

If however you really want to know the ins and outs, read on for a breakdown of a “straightforward” property purchase. There are many extra stages that may be involved but these are the main parts.

Instruction

Your conveyancer is formally instructed to act for you, and in most cases the lender also. Their role is to make sure both you and the lender are protected from any adverse legal situations and to work towards the smooth completion of your remortgage or purchase. To begin with they will get in touch with you to collect some basic details and to verify your identity.

Contracts

Your solicitor will request contract paperwork from the seller’s solicitors. They will check these carefully on your behalf and request any changes that need to be made. You will sign a copy of the contract which your solicitor will hold on to for now.

Searches

Various searches must be carried out on the property you are buying to make sure you are not buying any major problems. A Search Agent is usually used who will collect and collate all the information for your solicitors. The searches will include details on flood risks, land contaminants, locations of old mines, proposed developments that could affect the property, services connected to the property etc. The last thing you want is for a motorway to be built through your back garden!

Enquiries

Once your solicitor has reviewed the contract and search results they will compile a list of enquiries for the other side’s solicitors to answer. These enquiries may include requests for planning permission or buildings regulations paperwork on work that has been carried out to the property, guarantees or certificates for window, door, electrical and gas installations and anything else of concern that has been highlighted. Further enquiries may be raised if more issues are brought to light.

Mortgage offer checks

Your mortgage offer may contain “special conditions” that your lender requires the solicitor to fulfil before they may request the mortgage funds. They will have to report to the lender that all conditions have been met when they come to complete the mortgage, for example that you are selling your previous property at the same time as buying your new property.

Reporting to client

Once your solicitor has received the search results, all answers to enquiries and your mortgage offer they will compile a report to you with all of the information that they have collected. This will draw your attention to any details they feel are important to highlight. They will also send any final documents for you to sign and return, usually the Mortgage Deed and any Land Registry forms that need to be signed and witnessed such as Transfer of Equity forms.

Exchange of Contracts

Your solicitor will send your signed contract (agreeing to buy) to the sellers and will receive in return a signed contract from the sellers (agreeing to sell.) This is exchange of contracts and is the point at which the transaction is legally binding in England and Wales. The contracts will specify a Completion Date which will be the day you legally take ownership of the new property.

Completion

The final stage of the process is Completion Day. You will need to make sure you have transferred any deposit monies to your solicitor as this is the day when they will have to send the full purchase price to the sellers. To make up the rest of the purchase price the solicitors will draw down the mortgage funds from your lender and register the new mortgage against the property being purchased. You are now the legal owner and may collect the keys to your new home!

Chains

If you are also selling a property in order to fund your onward purchase then you will have to complete your sale on the same day as your purchase as you will be relying on the funds from the sale to pay for your new property. This means your buyers must also agree to complete on the same day.

Your buyers may also be selling a property in order to fund the purchase of your property, and their buyers may also be selling a property, and so on and so on… This is called the downward chain. All parties in the chain must agree to complete on the same day if each transaction relies on the one before it. Things can get a bit complicated when there are many solicitor firms all trying to coordinate completing on the same day.

There may also be an upward or onward chain – if the people you are buying from are in turn buying a new property, and the people they are buying from are also buying a new property, and so on and so on…

The ideal situation is a “chain free” transaction, for example first-time buyers purchasing a vacant property. There are no other parties involved and so the process can potentially be a lot faster and less complicated.

Sometimes one party may agree to “break the chain” by completing their sale before they are ready to complete their onward purchase. They may move into rented accommodation or move in with family temporarily.

If you have any further questions or would like to discuss your specific situation, please get in touch to see how we can help.

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