Frequently asked questions about Conveyancing

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring ownership of a home from the seller to the buyer. The process starts when the buyer’s offer is accepted and finishes when they receive the keys.

A solicitor or licensed conveyancer is usually instructed to carry out the conveyancing process. Although it is possible for the home-mover to do it themselves, a mortgage lender will normally insist that a professional conveyancer is used.

The average time taken for the conveyancing process is currently around 20 weeks, although this can vary according to various factors such as the length of the chain, the time it takes to receive local authority searches, whether the sale is through probate, and many other things.

Enquiries are questions about a property, raised by the buyer’s solicitor to the seller’s solicitor. They are an important part of legal due diligence to ensure that any potential issues are dealt with before contracts are exchanged.

At exchange of contracts, buyer and seller exchange signed contract documents, which means both sides are then in a legally binding agreement to complete the deal on an agreed completion date. The buyer’s deposit is usually transferred to the seller at the same time. If you are in a chain of transactions, everyone in the chain normally exchanges contracts on the same day, which means the entire chain can be held up if one transaction is not ready to exchange.

Completion is the point at which ownership of the property is formally transferred from seller to buyer. The seller must vacate on or before this point, and the buyer may then have access.

Pre-completion searches are requests made to the Land Registry, which prevent charges being registered against the property between exchange of contracts and completion.

A restrictive covenant is a legal agreement, written into the title deed, that limits what you can do with your property. These might include things like preventing you from making certain alterations to the property.

The certificate of title is a document created by the buyer’s conveyancer, and given to the buyer’s mortgage lender, to confirm that there are no legal problems with the property. It details who will own the property once the sale is completed, and specifies the completion date, which is the date when the mortgage funds are needed.

The completion statement is effectively a bill from a conveyancer, laying out what needs to be paid and when in order to complete a purchase (when buying) and how much will be received when a sale is completed (when selling).

The freeholder of a property owns it outright, including the land it’s built on. A leaseholder owns a property for a fixed period of time, after which the lease must be extended or ownership returns to the freeholder. Many flats and maisonettes are owned leasehold, which means that you lease the property in the building, but do not own any part of the building itself. As a leaseholder, it is also possible to buy a share of the freehold.

The draft contract is a short document written by the seller’s solicitor, covering basic information about the sale, such as the price and deposit amount. The reason it’s a draft is that the sale is not legally binding until the exchange of contracts, which happens during the final stages of the process.

Title deeds (or title register) are the legal documents which record the ownership of a property and any accompanying land. Most deeds are stored by the Land Registry.

The title plan shows a detailed outline of the property in relation to its surroundings.

The transfer deed is a legally binding document that transfers ownership of a property from the seller to the buyer, and which allows the new owner’s details to be recorded at the Land Registry.

Sometimes as part of a home move, another company will charge a fee that your conveyancer cannot predict or control, and your conveyancer will arrange to pay this on your behalf and pass the cost on to you. Examples include the fees charged by a management company relating to a leasehold property, or a redemption fee charged by a mortgage provider.

Your conveyancer will incur some administrative costs on your behalf, such as bank fees for transferring money or the cost of verifying your identity. Some conveyancers will categorise these as third-party costs so they can quote you a low headline price then add them back as hidden extras later. A reputable conveyancer will include all expected fees in their quote upfront.