In This Guide
Apply for a mortgage
Buying at auction
Buying in Scotland
Conveyancing
1. Conveyancing
2. The conveyancing process
3. Exchange and completion
4. Costs
5. Choosing a solicitor
6. Complaining about solicitors
7. DIY conveyancing
Find and view
Negotiate
Plan your purchase
Success and failure
Surveys and valuations
To buy or not to buy
Conveyancing
The conveyancing process
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The conveyancing process is not a strictly regimented one. Different solicitors will have their own way and order of approaching things, as well as an entirely different pace of work. It usually takes around two months from the day you agree the sale to the exchange of contracts, though there are no guarantees that it won't be significantly more or less. The main activities that contribute to the conveyancing work are as follows:
To many observers, this is seen as the official start of the conveyancing
process, but for this to happen you generally need to have appointed
a solicitor. The contract is a legal document that sets out the
terms of the sale process. It is drawn up by the seller's solicitor
using information from the deeds of the property. The contract
will contain details of the property and items that are to be
included in the sale, the buyers and sellers, how much it will
be sold for, and the date on which the transaction will take place.
However, it is not a standard contract and is likely to change
or clarify in detail quite considerably over the course of the
coming weeks, as a result of contract tennis between the two solicitors
involved. The contract has two parts: Particulars of Sale and
Conditions of Sale. The Particulars describe the property and
details of the lease or freehold. The Conditions have information
about the proposed completion date and any deposit required when
contracts are exchanged.
Whilst waiting for the draft contract, your solicitor sends a
list of pre-contract enquiries to the seller's solicitor, in order
to uncover some basic information about the property. This enquiry
will ask a standard set of questions, which amongst other things
should include:
- What is to be included in the sale? Clarify what contents the vendor will be taking with them and what is being left behind.
- What are the boundaries of the property? Who owns and is responsible for any perimeter hedges or fences?
- Whether or not the property is connected to all the appropriate utilities.
In the case of a leasehold:
- Who is the managing agent?
- Who is the freeholder?
- Is the current owner up to date with service charge bills and ground rent?
After receiving the draft contract, your solicitor will check the documentation and raise any specific queries that arise from their study of the paperwork.
Your solicitor may send you a property information form. This
has summary information about many of the things that will go
into the draft contract - boundaries, fixtures, fitting etc. You
should make sure that this is accurate and quickly let your solicitor
know if it is not.
This involves obtaining the title deed for the property, along
with the Land Registry certificate. Careful scrutiny by your solicitor
will hopefully confirm that the seller actually owns the property,
has good title (i.e. is free to sell it) and that the sale includes
any covenants associated with a property or its land.
A local authority search is a check with the local authorities
to establish if any new developments are planned in the vicinity
of the property you are buying and to check the water drainage
systems and other social infrastructure. This can highlight any
public works such as a new motorway, waterworks or alterations
to road systems, as well as anything else that is has had permission
to take place immediately adjacent to the property. The local
search will also tell you whether there are any planning restrictions
that may affect your intentions to renovate or extend the property.
Depending on the area you live in, you may have to undergo various
other searches, such as a coal-mining search or a search from
a local railway network.
The search won't tell you everything, however. It only covers those areas immediately next to the property and not everything in the surrounding area. If you want total peace of mind, then you should visit the planning department of your local town hall and make sure that the search has not overlooked anything.
The local searches can take anything from two or three weeks right up to ten weeks to complete, depending on the time of year, work backlog and overall efficiency of the local authority you are dealing with. To speed this process up, another option is to plumb for a personal search. This is a manual search by a conveyancer or some other specialist, who manually undertakes the same activities as in a local search. These can be completed in a matter of days rather than weeks or months, though they do end up being up to fifty pounds more expensive.
Once both parties are satisfied that all the details of the draft
contract are accurate, and your solicitor has made sure that there
is nothing that should reasonably either preclude the seller from
buying, or warrant your withdrawal from the sale, then the draft
contract is approved and sent to both parties for signature.
This is a required step before you can really pursue the sale
any further.
Although many people arrange for a simultaneous exchange and completion,
whereby contracts are exchanged and keys picked up on the same
day, this is not always possible. If the buyer and seller are
part of a longer chain, then it can be quite difficult to arrange
a completion date that is going to suit all parties. Your solicitor
should co-ordinate this with the estate agent and the seller's
solicitor. Once this has been done, you are all set to exchange
contracts and complete the sale.
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