Conveyancing Solicitors

Conveyancing is the legal process that occurs when the ownership of a property is transferred from a seller to a buyer. A conveyancing solicitor is a highly trained individual who can help you to work your way through all of the legal language that is involved and ensure that the sale from one person to another goes without a hitch.

Moving house can be a stressful process for anyone, but it would be even worse if you had to deal with all of the paperwork yourself. A conveyancing solicitor works for you from the moment an offer is accepted on a property, right up until the moment that the sale or purchase is completed. They will help to order searches on a property as well as interpret the results. They can draft and check contracts and offer expert advice throughout the process.

Not only will they deal with mortgage companies, but they can also work with estate agents and HMRC to make sure that everything involved in the property sale runs as smoothly as possible. This makes your life easier and avoids any unnecessary delays.

As a conveyancing solicitor, it is very important to have a good knowledge of the local area. By doing so, we can understand how the local market works as well as knowing of any local laws or covenants that might affect a property. We know what to look out for on searches and whether these are things that you need to worry about or not, so we can take the guess work out of much of the process.

You will need a conveyancing solicitor when you have an offer on a property accepted. We will then order any searches that need to be made on the property to give both you and your mortgage lender that all important peace of mind.

We will then go through your contracts for you, looking at both your mortgage agreement and purchase contract, and will talk to you about any points that you should be aware of or concerned about. If there are any queries, we will raise them with the seller’s solicitors and feed back any response to you.

Once everyone is happy, it’s time to sign the contracts and exchange them. This will allow us to agree a date for completion and we can then ensure that you have the funds for your purchase and Stamp Duty Land Tax in place. On the day of completion, we will transfer the funds at the appropriate time so that you can collect your fees, and we will make sure that you are registered on The Land Registry as the new owner of the property.

If you are selling a property, then you will also need a conveyancing solicitor to take you through the process, and they should be instructed once you accept an offer on your property. You will then be required to complete a number of detailed questionnaires about your property which we can help you with.

These will look at things such as boundaries, disputes, proposed developments, building works, utilities, council tax and sewerage. There will also be forms allowing you detail what fixtures and fittings will be included with the property, and a technical questionnaire which will also aim to establish the details for completion.

All of this information will then allow us to draft a contract which will be sent to the buyer for approval, and any queries resulting from this can be dealt with. The exchange of contracts can then take place and you will be in a legally binding contract to sell the property. On completion, we will receive the outstanding balance of the sale price, pay off the mortgage and hand over any legal documents that prove ownership.

One of the most common situations in house sales is to be buying and selling a house at the same time. This often creates a chain where exchanges and completions can only take place once everybody in the chain is ready, and it means that swift action and communication are key to avoiding delays. It is possible for us to represent you in both the sale of your existing property and the purchase of your new one, and this can often speed the process up as there are less people to deal with.

Often, it is easier to buy a house when you have agreed on an offer for the one you have – this puts you in a better position in the eyes of the seller. Your solicitor can then juggle the searches and contracts for both properties, ensuring that you understand the process throughout. Once these have been completed on all properties in the chain, contracts can be exchanged, and completion dates can be agreed. It is worth remembering that this will often start with the people at the top of the chain and then trickle down.

As your conveyancing solicitor, we will keep an eye on all elements of the chain and keep you up to date with the latest situation.

If you are buying a property in order to rent it out, then you will need assistance from a solicitor as this will be classed as an investment property. The legal process for a buy-to-let property can be quite different as there are additional checks which need to be run and a specific type of mortgage that is required. You will need to discuss with your solicitor whether you will be buying as a private individual or as a limited company, before going through the contract from the seller.

When the searches are conducted, there will be extra checks for any restrictions preventing the buyer from putting a tenancy agreement in place. Your solicitor will also need to ensure that you have the appropriate landlord’s insurance in place before the exchange of contracts can occur.

Completion day will continue as it would with any other property purchase, however, if there are tenants in situ then the property will not be left vacant.

If you are a first-time buyer, then the legal process can be extremely daunting. Your conveyancing solicitor will be able to explain everything to you and can ensure that understand the entire process. They can guide you through everything, with regular updates and explanations to make sure you know what is happening and what to expect.

A conveyancing solicitor will make the entire process much easier and will ensure you are not caught up in any legal minefields.

When buying a property, a mortgage is often needed. To buy a new property, you will need a Mortgage in Principle from your lender, which confirms how much they would be prepared to lend you and under what terms.

A conveyancing solicitor can check through your mortgage deeds and check that everything is correct and that there are no terms which could present a problem. Once your sale is underway, you will need to apply for the mortgage in full, so that you can prove that the funds are in place. When you are due to complete, your mortgage company will release the funds to your solicitor so that they can be transferred at the appropriate time.

Remortgaging through your existing provider can be relatively straight forward, as the mortgage details that the Land Registry needs will not change. However, if you are moving to a new lender, then a conveyancer will be needed to ensure that your new mortgage is registered against your house. You solicitor will gather your mortgage details and tell you what is outstanding as well as any redemption fees.

Your new lender will then send you a valuation of the property and a mortgage offer which your conveyancing solicitor will check through and raise any issues before you sign it. Once the funds are received, your solicitor will use these to pay off the existing mortgage and the Land Registry can be updated.