It’s really useful to know exactly what a solicitor does for you when you buy or sell a property. This process is called conveyancing and the complexity of it can take even seasoned homebuyers by surprise. Conveyancing involves all the legal aspects of transferring the ownership of a property from a seller to a buyer. Typically it takes at least eight weeks and involves a number of stages. Below we explore what exactly your conveyancing solicitor will be doing.
Initial legal work
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One of the first parts of the conveyancing process involves your solicitor examining the draft contract and supporting documents and raising enquiries with the seller’s solicitor. If you have any questions about the process, it’s best to raise them at this point.
Property searches
This is one of the key stages of the conveyancing process. Your solicitor will conduct a series of legal searches on the property to ensure that there aren’t any hidden factors that you were unaware of. This will include local authority searches that investigate whether there are any development plans nearby. Simultaneously, there will be environmental checks to ensure that your property isn’t at risk of flooding.
The mortgage
At this stage, your solicitor will check to see if you have the financing to be able to take out a mortgage. There’ll be a mortgage valuation before you then discuss the insurance you’ll need once you legally own the property.
Signing contracts
At this point, you should be ready to sign contracts. The conveyancer will ensure everything is watertight though. A completion date is arranged between the two parties. All queries are checked to see if they’re in order. And all fixtures and fittings included in the purchase are investigated to see if they’re in order.
Exchanging contracts
The solicitors involved in the transfer will exchange contracts at this stage. After this, you will be in a legally binding contract to buy the property with a fixed date for moving.
Completion day and the aftermath
A day will be set for moving in. Once you reach this point, you’ll be able to move into your new property as soon as the money reaches the seller’s account.
Although conveyancing can initially appear overwhelming, by getting fully orientated with the process you’ll be able to get peace of mind and informatively oversee the work of your conveyancer.
