The 5 Stages Of The Conveyancing Process Explained

The average time taken from first instructing a conveyancer/solicitor to moving into your new property/completing the sale is between eight and sixteen weeks.

• Instruct your conveyancer/solicitor before you make an offer on a house.
• Conveyancers and solicitors can’t begin work until they have conducted anti-money laundering checks. So by instructing your conveyancer/solicitor first and giving them the necessary ID you’ll start strong.
• Arrange your mortgage as soon as possible
• Before you start property-hunting, do your research into what type of mortgage you want and how much a lender will lend to you. If you’re getting financial help to buy the property from a family member, tell your conveyancer straight away. Your solicitor will need to write a gifted deposit document for the lender. And this can cause delays if it’s left until the last minute.
• Arrange your survey
• Get a move on and arrange your survey. Let your surveyor know any issues you particularly want them to look at.
• Get your paperwork in order
• Answer any queries quickly and promptly

Conveyancing delays often happen when both parties are not as responsive as they should be. Delays also occur in more complex cases, such as if the purchase is part of a divorce case or probate, or a leasehold property (where information and documentation are required of third parties). 

The Government’s target is that searches should take a maximum of ten working days. But in reality, it can take much longer and can be a frustrating cause of delays. Some local authorities are slow to respond.

Other delays could be:

• Building survey revealing problems
• Missing information from the seller
• Issues with the buyer’s mortgage application
• Being in a chain
• Problems with the property title
• Buying a new build property that isn’t ready

Conveyancing fees can be split into two parts: the legal fees (what the conveyancer or solicitor charges for doing the work), and the disbursements (what third parties charge for certain services like searches, obtaining copy title documents from HM Land Registry or in the case of leasehold properties, information packs from any landlord and/or managing agent, SDLT and Land Registry fees). 

Our costs for undertaking residential sale and purchase transactions depend on a number of factors including: 

• the sale/purchase price of the property
• whether the property is freehold or leasehold
• whether the transaction involves either repaying an existing mortgage or securing a new mortgage on a property to be purchased
• whether there are any additional or unusual aspects of the transaction

In the vast majority of cases; we will be able to act on behalf of your existing mortgage lender to repay your existing mortgage on the sale of a property and on behalf of your new mortgage lender in respect of the purchase of a property.

Costs and expenses can vary depending on the particular circumstances of each transaction but we endeavour to keep such costs and disbursements to a minimum. 

Costs depend upon the nature of the transaction but are around £1,000.00 plus VAT charged at 20% and disbursements.

On the day of completion the buyer’s solicitor will send the purchase money to the seller’s solicitor. The seller’s solicitors will then formally confirm completion has taken place and authorise the estate agents to release the keys to the property. In order to provide a vacant possession, the seller must ensure that the property is vacant and that all contents are removed, except for the items referred to on the fittings and contents lists which was provided at the outset of the transaction. Any additional items to be left at the property have to be identified and agreed with the buyer. Once in the new property the buyer might wish to read all of the meters and check that the gas, electricity, and water are working. Notify the utility providers of the change of ownership and of the meter readings. Check the property against the fittings and contents list prepared by the seller and consider changing the locks at the new property.

We will prepare a completion statement for you as soon as possible following exchange of contracts as it is not possible for us to do this beforehand. Therefore, if you wish to know what the net proceeds of sale will be on completion, please refer to the estimate provided to you at the outset of our initial retainer letter and also take into consideration any estate agents’ fees and monies outstanding to a mortgage lender which are secured against the property. We will account to you on the day of completion with a net proceeds of sale. We can send you a check or if you prefer a CHAPS payment can be made into your bank account.

Under no circumstances whatsoever should the keys be handed direct to the buyer unless the solicitor has confirmed that completion has been affected. Usually a set of keys will be left with the estate agents who should be given written instruction not to pass the keys over to the buyer without consent from the seller’s solicitor on the day of completion. This consent would only be given when the balance of purchase monies is received in the solicitor’s bank account. You should always keep a copy of your letter to the agent in this respect. In the event that you are selling without using an estate agent you would need to liaise with your solicitor for alternative arrangements to be made for the keys.

Well, people get very confused about completion dates and they think that the normal time in between exchange and completion is four weeks, but there's no set time. The parties to the contract and the parties, the seller and the buyer, agree between themselves what is a convenient date.

An exchange of contracts is when the contract that you've signed on each transaction becomes binding. So each solicitor, the seller and buyer’s solicitor will have a contract that's been signed that is identical, and it is literally an exchange of contracts in the post. So from the moment that the exchange of contracts is effective, the seller’s solicitor and the buyer’s solicitor undertake with each other that they will put the signed contract in the post to the other.

It's always advisable to have your own survey carried out on the property because that will give information about the condition of the property. And you have to remember, when you're buying a house that you buy it in the condition it's in and the seller is not under any obligation to put anything right in connection with that. That's slightly different from a mortgage valuation where the lender will go in, will send a valuer, and basically decide on the value of the property based on the condition but will not give you any detailed information about the property. The valuation is merely to ensure that that property is worth what the lender is going to let you borrow.

Contracts in conveyancing are slightly different in that, in most cases when you sign a contract, you are committed immediately. When you sign a contract in relation to a conveyancing transaction, you will have been given an explanation as to what you're signing, and you will sign in readiness. So, we hold the contract on our file ready, but that contract will not become binding until exchange of contracts.

So, when you start a purchase transaction, we will be asking you for some money on account to pay for searches. And there are various searches that need to be carried out and some of them are essential and your lender will insist on them if you're getting a mortgage. So a local authority search is very important because that will tell you about any plans that the council has for the property. For example, any road widening or there may be flyovers or planning in the vicinity. An enviro-search is also important because that will tell you about any factors affecting the environment, like contaminated land, that may affect your property. Also, you'll be asked to carry out the water and drainage search, which tells you whether the property is on mains drainage and water, and will give you information about where the sewers and drains are. And there's also a very unusual search which is called a Chancel repair liability search, which, generally, we offer an insurance for because it's an extremely antiquated and difficult thing to ascertain. This is to do with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1500s. And then depending on your location of property you're buying, you may also need a mining search or even China clay or tin mining search if you're buying in Cornwall. So it does also depend where you're buying.

There's no simple answer to this because simply each case is different, each transaction is different, the circumstances of each matter is different. So by and large, it does depend upon the number of parties that are involved in the process. In a simple case of a sale and purchase of property where there's a seller and a buyer and no other transactions related to it, we would expect that to go through reasonably quickly, and a lot quicker than a transaction that involves what we call chains where there are several buyers and several sellers all interdependent on the other. As a rule of thumb, if there's just a standalone sale and purchase transaction, we would expect that to be completed within about eight to ten weeks. If it's a sale and purchase in a chain, we are more expectant for that to take about 12 weeks. But as I say, it is only a rough estimate.

Logic would probably say that you should start your insurance cover when you get the keys to the property. After all, that's when you buy the property. That's when you hand over most of the purchase price. That's where you get the keys to the property and that's when you get control of the property. But in actual fact, most solicitors and conveyancers will advise you to ensure the property from exchange to contracts. And the reason for that is that virtual solicitors will use what's called the standard conditions of sale to buy and sell the property. Those standard conditions of sell provide that the risk of the property passes from the seller to the buyer on exchange of contracts. And because of that, the buyer is advised, therefore, to take out insurance as soon as the risk passes to them. Again, there is an exception to that, which is a common exception, and that's where a buyer is buying a property, which is in the course of construction, or is newly built from a developer. In those situations, it's quite common for the developer to maintain business insurance cover on the property until legal completion.

Exchange of contracts is one of the most important stages of the conveyancing process. This is when the seller and the buyer become legally committed to sell and purchase a property. So leading up to exchange of contracts, the seller’s solicitor will supply copies of the title deeds and replies to inquiries and information to the buyers solicitors. The buyer’s solicitor will carry out searches, will raise inquiries of the seller’s solicitors relating to the property, and of course we'll make sure that the finance is in place. Once they are satisfied with all of that, the contract, the final form of the contract is agreed, the seller will sign one part and the buyer will sign a separate but identical part. Exchange of contracts then happens between the solicitors having taken their client’s instructions first, but they then agree to exchange contracts over the telephone, at which point the contract is then dated. The completion date is put into the contract, and it's at that point in that telephone conversation, that the seller and the buyer are legally committed to the transaction. There's no going back from then. Exchange of contracts is then completed by each solicitor sending to his counterpart the contract signed by his client and in the case of the buyer's solicitor, either sending the deposit to the seller's solicitor, which is usually 10% of the purchase price or what's called holding it to order until completion.

You must pay Stamp Duty Land Tax if you buy property or land over a certain price in England. The tax is different if the property or land is in Scotland, you pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. In Wales, you pay Land Transaction Tax. You pay the tax when you buy a freehold property or buy a new or existing leasehold, by a property through a shared ownership scheme or if you've transferred land or property in exchange for payment. If you're buying a residential property there are different rates of SDLT, which is Stamp Duty. If you are a first-time buyer, if you already own a property and you’re buying an additional property, or you are not a UK resident.

You should have either a home buyer’s report or structural survey carried out. The seller is not obliged to disclose defects in the property and that is what your surveyor will look for. It’s the responsibility of the buyer to ensure that the property is adequately inspected. The rule is buyer beware, and as such, the buyer you are deemed to accept the property in the state of repair and condition it's in at exchange of contracts.