Conveyancing

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property ownership from one party to another. It involves various administrative tasks to ensure the transfer is lawful. While there are no strict regulations on who can conduct conveyancing, it is typically handled by a solicitor or conveyancer. Mortgage lenders may often require professional conveyancing services.

Once a property is chosen and a price is agreed upon, solicitors are usually appointed by both the seller and the buyer. Formal contracts are drafted, outlining the terms of the solicitors’ appointments, including fee details such as VAT and expenses.

The buyer’s solicitor then typically contacts the seller’s solicitor, informing them of their appointment and requesting copies of the draft sales contract. This contract should include vital details like the sale price, property boundaries, included fixtures and fittings, legal restrictions, planning permissions, utility information, and the completion date. Additional requested information may encompass Land Registry entries, lease details, repair history, and neighbour issues.

The buyer’s solicitor conducts legal searches to uncover pertinent information about the property. These searches may involve local authority queries on proposed developments and permissions, flood risk assessments, water authority checks, maintenance responsibilities, and other liabilities associated with the property’s location.

During this process, additional actions may be required, often not part of standard conveyancing services. These can include property surveys, mortgage valuations, arranging property insurance, and coordinating removals.

After the contract is mutually agreed upon and signed, there is an ‘exchange of contracts’, typically involving the payment of a deposit. This exchange signifies a commitment to proceed with the property transfer, and any failure to do so may lead to the forfeiture of the deposit or legal action against the seller.

Subsequently, the purchaser’s solicitor prepares a completion statement detailing the required funds for the final transfer, while the seller’s solicitor drafts a transfer deed to officially transfer property ownership.

Upon payment and reception of the signed transfer deed, the sale is finalised, and the keys are transferred.

Following this, Stamp Duty Land Tax becomes due, and the change of ownership is registered with the Land Registry. Essential documentation, including the title deeds, is provided to the purchaser.

This process can be further complicated by a property chain, where the seller of one property is concurrently the purchaser of another, resulting in an intricate web of interconnected contracts, each contingent upon the others.

NB: Additionally, the term ‘conveyance’ can refer to the ‘measure of the flow-carrying capacity of a watercourse or section of a floodplain.’ (Ref: Culvert, screen and outfall manual, CIRIA C786, published by CIRIA in 2019).