When you’re buying a house, there are a lot of things to juggle. Along with the fun bits like browsing and viewing properties, you also need to manage the complicated bits like mortgages, legal fees and all of the documentation that goes with it. A big element of this is conveyancing. “But unless you’ve bought a property before you may not be familiar with the conveyancing process, so we’re going to do our best to explain it today.
What Is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the process of legally transferring property ownership from seller to buyer. Thats it. It sounds simple, but there are a lot of legal bits involved in buying a property, and that can start as soon as you have an offer accepted and ends when you’re handed the keys.
Who Handles Conveyancing?
You can hire either a solicitor or a specialist conveyancer to handle the conveyancing process for you. If you’re not taking out any sort of mortgage then you can technically do the conveyancing yourself, but it’s so hugely time-consuming and stressful, with potentially massive implications if you get it wrong, that it’s very rarely done. Whichever option you choose, ‘conveyancer’ is the term we’ll use moving forward.
What’s The Conveyancing Process?
Generally, there are 6 ‘stages’ to the conveyancing process, and each will be done at a different step of the purchase. Each purchase is a little different, but this is a broad overview of the things your conveyancer will do.
First stages: The very first thing you need to do is instruct your chosen conveyancer to start work for you. This step gives them the legal ability to act on your behalf in the transaction. Often your estate agent will recommend a conveyancer, but bear in mind you don’t have to use them. You can hire an independent conveyancer, which will often end up costing you less.
Your chosen conveyancer will draw up a contract for you to sign to work with them and will generally ask for part of their fee, called disbursements, to cover their upfront costs, and from there they will contact the seller’s conveyancer. They will inform them of your instructions, and request a copy of the draft contract from the seller, as well as any other details about the property, such as title and standard forms.
Legal Work: This is where the heavy lifting can really begin, because there is a lot of legal work in buying a house. Here, your conveyancer will examine all of the documents provided by the seller and raise any queries or concerns. They’ll also do something called a ‘property search’, which allows them to dig up any factors about the property that you might not have been told by the estate agent. Essentially, they’re ensuring you know what you’re buying. The legal property search will include:
- Local authority searches
- Checking the title register
- Checking flood risk
- Water authority searches
- Chancel repair searches
- Environmental searches
- Optional and location-specific searches (for example tin mining searches in Cornwall).
All of these searches can help you understand more about the property and the area, so you can make an informed decision. For example, property searches would reveal if there were plans to build a main road in front of your property.
Mortgages: You’ll still need a mortgage in place before you can go any further in the process. Once you’ve received a mortgage offer, your conveyancer will be sent a copy so that they can review it. They may also be able to arrange mortgage valuations and surveys for you, depending on the type of conveyancer you choose.
Exchange of Contracts: Throughout this whole process your conveyancer should have been in constant contact with the seller’s conveyancers. They will be able to make sure everything has been done, all enquiries answered, fixtures and fittings list is complete and approximate completion dates are set.
They will also be able to make sure that deposit funds are transferred. They will then do the contract exchange. This usually involves both solicitors or conveyancers reading out the contracts over a recorded phone call to ensure they match, and then sending signed copies to each other. This is the point where the purchase becomes legally binding, with a fixed price and move date. The property will become your “risk” and as such your Insurances, such as Building Insurance should be live, known as “on risk”, at this point.
Completion: Between the exchange and completion, your conveyancer will lodge an ‘interest’ in the property. This means that the deeds will be frozen for 30 days to allow you to pay the seller and apply for the deed transfer. The seller will move out, and you’ll get to focus on packing! Before moving day you’ll recieve a statement with the final figure to pay at least 1 day before official moving day.
After Completion: Despite the name, completion isn’t the end of the process! Once you’ve moved in, your conveyancer will still be tying up loose ends, Including:
- Paying Stamp Duty
- Sending legal documents
- Sending copies of title deeds to your mortgage lender
- Notifying the freeholder (if the property is a leasehold)
- Sending you their bill
- Updating the Land Registry
And that’s it! As you can see it’s not a simple process, but that doesn’t mean it’s a long one. If everything goes smoothly, many of these stages can be done in a very quick manner.
GP Norgate Financial Solutions is a trading name of Easy Street Financial Services Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Easy Street Financial Services Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 6430453.
The registered office address is Basepoint, 377-399 London Road, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 3HL. There may be a fee for mortgage advice. The precise amount will depend upon your circumstances.
Your Home (or property) may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other debts secured on it.