Legal Advice from your Wickford Solicitors

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property, and it happens whenever UK property is bought, sold or remortgaged.

The conveyancing process for each transaction is different, and generally involves liaising between buyers, sellers, mortgage companies, local councils and the Land Registry.

If you are buying property:
We contact the seller’s solicitors to check the title deeds and contract, then conduct a variety of searches depending on the location, check the formal mortgage offer, collect together documents that require signing, organise the handing over the deposit, ensure all monies are in the right accounts, arrange completion of sale, ensure the correct stamp duty is paid, instruct the land registry of the change in ownership, then send the deeds to either the buyer or the mortgage lender.

If you are selling property:
We obtain the title deeds and up-to-date information from the Land Registry, arrange the contracts that outline the sale, liaise with the buyer’s solicitors, find out the balance on your mortgage if necessary, send deeds for signing, arrange for estate agents’ fees to be paid, collect all funds due to the seller, submit statements and send dees and keys to the new owner.

If you are remortgaging:
We obtain the title deeds and up-to-date title copy from Land Registry, deal with any searches, receive mortgage offer, ask you to sign mortgage deed, arrange for the delivery of the new loan, get up-to-date statement from current lender, run searches at the Land Registry, receive the loan and repay existing mortgage, and register the new mortgage with the Land Registry.

In brief, conveyancing has a number of stages and differs according to the purpose of the transaction, the finances of the buyer/seller/remortgager, the geographical location of the property, and the number of other transactions in the chain.

Talk to your conveyancing solicitor throughout the process and they’ll keep you up to date with this important process.

When you use a solicitor for conveyancing you can be sure that they are regulated by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA), a member of the Law Society, have degree-level qualifications and at least two years on the job training before qualifying as a conveyancing solicitor.

Whereas a conveyancer tends to be regulated by the Council for Licenced Conveyancers (CLC) and is usually less highly qualified, although can still be perfectly competent.

The standard searches your conveyancing solicitor undertakes are:
– local authority,
– water/drainage, and
– environmental.

There are a number of other searches to undertake depending on the locality of the property. For example, in mining areas a mining search is also always obtained. There may also searches for Gypsum in areas where gypsum mining has taken place, Lead Mining, China Clay, and Limestone.

Check with your property solicitor to find out which searches they are intending to undertake.

All our conveyancing quotes are free and you are not obliged to use our conveyancing services.

However, we have found that most people who receive a quotation for our conveyancing services are happy to use us and remain loyal customers for future moves!

The short  answer is yes.

When dealing with leasehold transactions, there are many more things to check during the conveyancing process, including ground rent, service charges, licences under the Lease and leasehold covenants (obligations).

For this reason we charge an additional fee for dealing with leasehold transactions.

We do not generally recommend using an online conveyancer; although you often pay a lower fee, the level of service will also be lower.

You will rarely speak to the same person twice, and you have to be wary of the extras they add on.

When you are dealing with something as valuable as your home, it is important not to take risks. And the potential small savings to be made by using online conveyancing don’t add up – yet. You should meet the solicitor who is working on your case face-to-face.

With such large amounts of money changing hands, there can be attempts to steal them in transit.

It is easy to avoid fraud if you follow simple rules:
1 – Never ever disclose bank account details by email.
2 – Never pay money into an account whose details you have received by email.
3 – Both you and your solicitor should pay into accounts whose details you have received by phone or in person.
4 – Ideally, test the veracity of bank account details by making an initial payment of £1 – which you then verify by telephoning your conveyancing solicitor – before paying any more.

As most home moves depend on a number of different factors, it is impossible to predict how long your conveyancing will take. However, on average the process will usually take about 8 weeks for a freehold property, and slightly longer for a leasehold.

But as there can be a number of transactions going on at the same time, usually with a chain of strangers all buying and selling their homes and getting mortgages in place – the process rarely depends on just one person.

That’s why moving home is a great time to practice calm and patience, as it is out of your control.