Conveyancing - What You Need to Know

Emma Gilroy, Director and head of Residential Property sheds light on the conveyancing process. 

Conveyancing is a crucial part of the buying and selling process, which involves legally transferring home ownership from a seller to a buyer. Your solicitor will carry out the conveyancing on your behalf, and they will be happy to go into more detail with you, but here is a simple guide to lead you through what happens and when.

Once your offer is accepted, you should immediately instruct your Solicitor. There are a number of matters that need to be addressed before any exchange of contracts can go ahead. There are four key things which need to be done:

• The seller’s solicitors will obtain the property’s title deeds and prepare a draft contract, which they will forward to the buyer’s solicitor for approval. The seller will complete standard Property Information forms detailing things like fixtures and fittings and leasehold information.
• Several searches will be carried out on the property, including local, environmental, and water and drainage searches. This process is designed to reveal any information that might adversely affect the property.
• The buyer’s solicitor will send any Pre-Contract Enquiries they have to the seller’s solicitors once they have looked at the title pack. These are designed to reveal more detail about any potential issues with the property regarding,  for example, unusual rights of way issues, or whether the seller has carried out any structural alterations.
• The buyer needs to get a mortgage agreement in place, with a written mortgage offer from a lender before they commit to the purchase.

Once the above have been carried out, the buyer will receive a written report from their solicitor explaining the contract, search results and the mortgage offer in detail. During this part of the process, the buyer’s solicitor will draw their attention to any problems before an exchange of contracts. The buyer’s solicitor will usually also send the mortgage deed to the buyer for signature at this time.

Exchange of Contracts

Contracts will be signed by the respective parties in readiness for exchange of contracts. At this time, a deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price is paid to the buyer’s solicitor.  

The contract is legally binding on both parties once exchange of contracts has taken place. The completion date will be set at this time. If either party refuses to proceed with the transaction or they delay and not complete on the agreed completion date, then they will be liable to pay compensation to the other party.

Once exchange has taken place, the buyer’s solicitor will apply to the mortgage lender for money to be released in time for the completion date. They will also carry out other searches to ensure the seller hasn’t entered into any other contract or obtained another mortgage on the property.  The solicitor will ask the buyer to settle his account prior to completion.

Completion

On the completion date the buyer’s solicitor will ensure that the balance of the purchase price is paid to the seller’s solicitor as early as possible, so the keys are released - usually around early afternoon.

Post-Completion

There will be some loose ends for the buyer’s solicitor to tie up, including paying Stamp Duty Land Tax, and arranging for the registration of the title at HM Land Registry.  The buyer will usually receive their legal documents about 20 days after completion. It may also be necessary to serve notices on a landlord or the bank or building society, to advise them about the completion. 

The solicitor will send a copy of the registered title to the buyer and their mortgage lender. They will also notify the freeholder, if the property is leasehold.

For further advice contact our specialist property solicitors in:

• Swansea: 01792 773773
• Cardiff: 02920 225472
• Carmarthen: 01267 234022
• Caerphilly:02920 860628
• Haverfordwest: 01437 764723
• Fishguard: 01348 873671

Or request a quote for your conveyancing here