Conveyancing

Conveyancing, the legal transfer of the ownership of a leasehold or freehold property, is a procedure filled with complications. Although in principle it can be accomplished in one afternoon, it will more often than not take months to complete. The sale and purchase of a leasehold property is more complicated than with a freehold property. If the property you are selling is leasehold, you should find out what the financial limitations imposed by the leasehold are as well as any conditions and restrictions.

You must be absolutely sure that you will have exclusive rights over the land, so a solicitor or licensed conveyancer should be used for the transfer of property ownership. These legal professionals will not only have the knowledge that it takes to check into every feature of your ownership, but will also be insured against something going wrong in the process. That means you have recourse to compensation should they make a mistake in the process that costs you money.

A Conveyancing expert will charge you anything from a few hundred pounds to several thousand pounds to complete a purchase or handle a sale. The price depends on the transaction's complexity and the value of the property.

The Conveyancing process starts with the investigation, in which draft documentation is provided by the seller's conveyancer to the buyer's conveyancer. Then comes the local authority search, which involves looking at the register of local land charges to find out about any plans that could affect the property. This could take between four and six weeks and is required by the mortgage lender.

The next stage in the process is the assessment of draft contracts, in which the conveyancer checks that the wording of the contracts is correct and unambiguous. With a leasehold property, the apportionment of expenses is checked thoroughly and the terms of maintenance and management of the property are also checked.

At the point of exchange of contracts there is a binding contract between the buyer and seller – the terms of the sale and the price are set and neither party can pull out of the transaction without incurring substantial financial penalties. The completion date is set and at this point you need to take out buildings insurance. Your conveyancer will check that neither the buyer nor the seller has a bankruptcy notice against him. Finally, title searches at the Land Registry are carried out.

On completion day, funds are transferred and the buyer gets access to the property. Finally, stamp duty is paid and the purchaser is registered with the Land Registry as the legal owner of the property. Title deeds are then sent to the mortgage lender and with this the process is complete.