Home Buying - The Legal Work

Conveyancing is the legal transfer of a property from one owner to another. It can be quite a confusing process and often very stressful.

This work was formally only undertaken by solicitors. The work is necessary to ensure that the property to be purchased has proper legal title and that there should be no problems for the new owner in the future. Another important aspect of conveyancing is to carry out all the necessary land searches to seek out any problems such as mining subsidence etc.

Until fairly recently most property purchasers used their "family" solicitors to undertake this work. The work would be carried at high costs and may take some considerable time due to the often lack of urgency.

The late eighties early nineties saw a rise in solicitor's firms specialising in conveyancing work, at lower cost and at greatly increased efficiencies. These firms began to advertise their services which began an overall reduction in the cost of conveyancing costs.

It is worth noting that any individual is at liberty to undertake their own conveyancing work, the results of incomplete work on a property purchase do not bear thinking about! That said many individuals have done so in the past but present day conveyancing fees mean few do so any more.

Today there are any number of Internet based conveyancing firms. Their charges are now unbelievably low, their levels of service continue to rise and are a real threat to existing high cost, high street solicitor practices. Many have the facility of the client accessing their "file" at any time night or day. Some send e-mail alerts at important points of the conveyancing process, resulting in their clients being fully aware of all matters.

These reductions in cost and vastly increased efficiencies can only aid the property buying process. As a guide you would expect to pay around £90 to conduct a local search and approximately £80 land registry fee on a £50,000 house as well as your legal fees, VAT may be applicable to their charges so it's always worth checking whether it's included in their quote. Overall your total conveyancers' fees are lower if you're just buying. You will probably have to pay the lender's cost too, although in most cases your conveyancer will complete the lender's legal work and include that in the quote. If you have a house to sell, your conveyancer will take his or her fees from the proceeds.

There are three main stages involved in any conveyancing transaction and we have set out below a summary of what each solicitor does at each stage.

First Stage: Sale Agreed

Sellers solicitor

Applies for your title deeds and asks you to fill in enquiry forms

Prepares a contract and sends this out with a legal information pack

Answers any additional enquiries buyers solicitor may have

Negotiates the moving (completion) date Buyers solicitor

Asks you for money on account of expenses

Receives contract and other papers from sellers solicitor and asks additional enquiries if necessary

Carries out local authority search

Receives mortgage offer

Reports to you with contract for signature and requests deposit (or uses deposit from sale - if any)

Second Stage: Exchange of Contracts

Sellers solicitor

Receives the buyer's deposit

Obtains a settlement figure for your mortgage

Approves the transfer deed and arranges for you to sign it Buyers solicitor

Sends contract and deposit to seller's solicitor

Prepares transfer and mortgage deed and sends them to you to sign

Arranges final searches

Prepares final accounts and requests any monies required from you

Third Stage: Completion
Sellers solicitor

Receives balance of purchase price

Pays off the mortgage

Hands over the deeds

Sends you the balance or uses this towards purchase (if any) Buyers solicitor

Sends balance to sellers solicitor and collects deeds

Pays stamp duty (if any)

Registers purchase at Land Registry

Sends deeds to Bank or Building Society (if any)

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