Conveyancing

To keep it simple, it’s the process of transferring home ownership from seller to buyer. It is essential that you hire a professional to carry out the conveyancing on your property purchase or sale. The process of buying and selling property up to completion can be rather baffling and stressful at times, so here we explain in brief the conveyancing process in an attempt to make that journey just that little bit less confusing!

If you are selling, your conveyancer will prepare the contract to transfer the ownership of the property to the buyer.

If you are buying, your conveyancer will thoroughly check all details of the contract and will deal with any issues on your behalf.

Typically, the conveyancing process takes somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks, but it can be shorter or longer, depending on a number of factors such as any queries raised by either side and the complexity of those issues. In addition, a leasehold property is a more complex process and will most likely take a little longer.

As a seller, you will need to fill out a number of standard forms with information about the property. Your solicitor will use these to create the draft contract for your buyer. Throughout the whole process, do try to answer any queries your conveyancer asks and fill out any forms as quickly as you can, as you don’t want to be the one holding the process up. It’s vital that you provide all information to the best of your knowledge. If you’re found to have deliberately left out information or lied on the questionnaires, you could risk losing the sale or even be sued for compensation.

If you are buying, your conveyancer will thoroughly check the contract from the seller’s conveyancer in detail. This is the time when your conveyancer can discuss with you any issues that you will need to be aware of and to make sure everything is in order.

Nothing is legally binding until the exchange of contracts takes place.

If you are the buyer, then searches will be conducted to check the title of the property to ensure that the seller is indeed the legal owner of the property.

Other searches will also be conducted, such as checks on any planned works within the area that may affect the property and boundaries, and also if there are any legal or planning restrictions that may affect your decision to purchase.

If the property is leasehold, you will also need to check how long is left on the lease. If there are fewer than 80 years remaining, the property could quickly go down in value, and any future buyers would have difficulty obtaining finance. If you are the buyer and find that this is the case, you can either ask the seller to extend the lease before they sell it to you or try to negotiate the price accordingly.

It’s best to ask the seller to extend it themselves, as you won’t have the automatic right to do so until you’ve owned the property for two years. If you are the seller, it is best to sort this issue quickly and seriously consider extending the lease before you market the property.

At the same time, a mortgage valuation survey will be conducted, and also a more detailed survey, such as a homebuyers survey (see our guide), will be carried out if you (as the buyer) or your buyer decides to instruct.

We recommend that all buyers commission a RICS surveyor. A comprehensive survey will identify any problems with the property. The mortgage valuation survey is conducted in the lender’s interest rather than yours, and won’t include structural checks.

Depending on the results of the searches and surveys, your conveyancer may raise several enquiries with the buyer/seller’s conveyancer. The enquiries tend to include questions about rights of way, which home contents will be included in the sale, and any planning constraints that the seller is aware of.

If you’re buying or selling a leasehold property, there will be additional enquiries relating to the terms of the lease. These will include factors such as the upkeep of common areas, restrictions on what you can do to the property, and whether there’s a managing agent.

Additionally, responding to any enquiries you receive as soon as you can will help to keep things moving, meaning that you reach that all-important exchange of contracts as quickly as possible.

Once everybody confirms they’re happy, your conveyancer will send you your final contract and any other documents to sign. You will, at this point, exchange contracts and set the completion date.

Your conveyancer will then arrange to collect the deposit funds from you for the property you’re buying, and provide you with a transfer deed to sign for your current property.

Once funds have been transferred and received by the seller’s solicitor, legal completion will take place, and you can collect your keys!

Congratulations and the very best of luck!