What Is Conveyancing And Why Do You Need A Conveyancer?
Buying or selling your property can be an exciting time but things can soon get complicated (and costly) if you are not suitably prepared. From Estate Agents, Mortgage Brokers, Valuations, Conveyancing and Removals can soon add up and become unmanageable. Things can get further complicated without an experienced Conveyancing Solicitor or Property Lawyer on your corner to walk you through the whole Conveyancing Process – however what is Conveyancing and why do you need it?
What Is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is Legal Name given to the process of transferring the ownership of a Property from one entity to another. Conveyancers are tasked with the job of ensuring that is being bought, will (and can be) registered at the Land Registry (HMLR) on completion.
If you are selling a property, your conveyancing solicitor will draft a sale contract and handle a series of legal enquiries made by the buyer’s solicitor.
If you are buying a property, your conveyancing solicitor will carry out a comprehensive check of the subject property’s title, the land upon which it sits and other locality issues. They make sure that the seller does own the property or are authorised to sell, that any mortgage is correctly administered, and that the property is suitably registered with the Land Registry.
If the property has a leasehold tenure, further enquiries must be made about the lease itself, as well as any obligations you will have, as the owner (technical term given to a property owner of a leasehold property is tenant). These can include service charges, ground rent, repair obligations and responsibility for costs of upkeep and maintenance.
It doesn’t end there either, as your lawyer must consider a wide range of other factors unique to the property and its location.
Here Are A Few Of The Things Your Conveyancer Will Be Dealing With While Checking The Title:
Your Conveyancer or Property Lawyer will carefully read through all property deeds and title information supplied by the seller’s solicitors. They will also approve (or suggest amendments) to the Contract and carry out property searches on the property.
Some of the Key points Locality Search results reveal are as follows –
The Impact Of Local Development Projects
All local authorities have development plans for their areas within their planning departments. Unfortunately, these are not included as part of the local search result, although reference is commonly made to their availability for inspection.
It is therefore very important, once you receive your Property Report from your conveyancer, to inform them if you know about or suspect something that isn’t contained in the Report, and could affect your purchase.
Conveyancing on New Build Properties is slightly different to standard property transactions. Since the process differs from Traditional purchases which is the purpose of this article, we suggest you read our relevant page from on the topic.
Planning Permission And Building Regulations Consents
If you believe that additional (retrospective) work have been carried out on the property since it’s original construction on the property you are buying – you must make your conveyancer aware of this as soon as possible.
The Property Information Form your sellers complete will usually detail any work together with Locality Searches (property searches) may also reveal breaches of local authority consents, however, since but it is easy to miss crucial pieces of information such as these, it is strongly advisable you do notify your conveyancer of these.
If it transpires that the work required local authority consent (such as an extension or other structural works), the purchaser’s conveyancer will obtain the relevant copy documents at the seller’s expense.
In addition to extensions, work could include structural alterations such as removal of walls or the conversion of garage or loft space to create additional living accommodation.
Missing Planning And Building Regulation Approval
Where there is no evidence that Building Regulation Approval has been obtained for work carried out by the seller, and in most cases where the work has been carried out more than 12 months ago (and of course assuming the Local Authority has been informed of the work retrospectively), a suitable indemnity insurance policy could be used in place of Planning or Building Completion Certificates.
Though indemnity insurance could be a faster route to remedy an issue, your conveyancer will also give preference to retrospective documents where necessary and time permitting.
Change Of Use Planning Consent
Your conveyancing solicitor will assume that the property is to be used for residential purposes unless you state otherwise. Do tell your solicitor if you intend to use the property for a different purpose, for example, as commercial premises, as you will need to apply for change of use planning permission.
Once the Title has been suitably deduced , your conveyancer will then request the exchange deposit from you; negotiate and agree a completion date with your sellers solicitors and exchange contracts.
It is worth noting that until exchange of contracts have taken place, neither the purchase or the seller is contractually tied down to go ahead with the transaction. It is therefore critical that your chosen conveyancing solicitor can act both with diligence and speed to ensure contracts are exchanged as soon as possible.
Once you have exchanged contracts, your conveyancer will also request Completion Funds from your mortgage lender and transfer the full purchase price to the sellers solicitors, following which completion would have now taken place.
This is the point when you will received the keys to your new property.
Why Hundreds Of Customers Trust Express Conveyancing Each Month With Their Conveyancing?
Our conveyancing service has been designed with one person in mind, YOU.
Fixed Fee Conveyancing with Express Conveyancing is as straightforward as paying what you are quoted, on completion of your transaction. Our conveyancing quote cover all your conveyancing fees – the cost of your conveyancing solicitor working on your behalf and any disbursements.
Disbursements are third party costs, common to whichever conveyancing solicitor you use and include locality searches, land registry registration fees, stamp duty (where applicable) etc. Your conveyancing solicitor will be happy to explain these costs to you.
You can obtain a comprehensive conveyancing quote using the ‘Get Quote’ button, or by contacting our Conveyancing Team on 0800 799 9892.
Conveyancing Solicitors With A Difference
We are a Panel of affordable, CQS-Regulated Solicitors and Conveyancers, specialising in all aspects of Conveyancing and Property Law. In addition to unbeatable conveyancing fees, our exceptional standard of service is recommended by more than 90% of our clients.
No Sale – No Fee Guarantee
With the Express Conveyancing ‘no move, no fee’ promise*, you will not pay any solicitor’s fees should your property transaction aborts. Our ‘no completion – no fee’ conveyancing is available for both sale and purchase conveyancing.
Extremely Fast And ‘Express’ Completion
We work hard to ensure each transaction completes as soon as possible. Our average transactional times for standard residential conveyancing transactions currently sit at 4-5 weeks.
Call us on 0800 799 9892 or request a call back from a member of our conveyancing team.
Think you have found the Best Conveyancing Quotes?
In property conveyancing, cost isn’t always an indicator of quality. Express Conveyancing offer great value conveyancing at affordable prices. We achieve this by working with the best and most efficient Solicitors while making use of technologies that cut out wasted time.
We are also transparent on with our fees and guarantee no hidden fees. Despite our top-notch service, we charge some of the most competitive fees in the industry!
The difference between Quotes vs Estimates
Many conveyancing companies don’t provide a fixed fee quote but instead supply an estimate. Some advertise low upfront conveyancing costs, but when it comes to complete the sale and purchase conveyancing of your home, the final bill will be much higher than expected.
A common justification for this practice is that the exact details of individual cases vary, and your conveyancing solicitor might have carry out additional work to conclude proceedings. We at Express Conveyancing use a different approach. Even if your transaction is one of the rare cases which do become more complex, most additional costs are entirely predictable. These are often expenses which arise during most conveyancing transactions and should be made clear upfront*.
Some Common Hidden Fees Can Include:
- File Setup Fee
- File storage fee
- Arranging Costs associated with Indemnity Insurance
- Costs associated with obtaining duplicate planning or building regulation certificates from councils
- NHBC activation fee
- Completing Transactions sooner than 2 weeks from completion
- And of course, the ‘Admin’ fees
At Express Conveyancing, we say no to hidden fees. All our comprehensive conveyancing quotes are designed to take into account the range of possible fees that you might have to pay.
Though we recognise this might alienate the unwary client, we believe in honest business and refuse to entice customers with cheap, low quotes and charge extortionate amounts at the end of a transaction, leaving clients with no choice but pay.
Contact our New Business on 0800 799 9892 to discuss our service or quote you have obtained, and to find out how we may assist you.
*You may still be required to pay any disbursements that have accrued in the process and our fixed fee conveyancing quote assumes one standard transaction.