What Does Your Conveyancer Do?
When you’re buying a house, it is a stressful time as the process is complex and takes at the very least 6-10 weeks to complete. It is your conveyancer’s job to simplify the legal process and ensure you have all the information you need to buy the property.
What Is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the action of transferring property from one person to another. It is the legal element of buying and selling property that begins when an offer on the property is accepted and ends when the new homeowner receives the keys to their new home.
Your Conveyancer
Your conveyancer exists to make the legal process of buying a new property more straightforward and less stressful. Your conveyancer will communicate with the other party’s conveyancer, your lender and estate agent, on your behalf, and keep you updated and informed throughout the entire process.
What does your Conveyancer do?
Working hard to keep the process as simple as possible and ensure there are minimum delays, your conveyancer does many things.
As a guide, when acting for you in a purchase, your conveyancer will:
- Check all the documents including the contracts, and make enquiries if any details need clarifying
- Check the title register at the Land Registry to ensure the seller is entitled to sell the property and that the money is going to the legal owner
- Assess and understand the property itself, including whether any work carried out has the necessary permissions, whether there are any boundary disputes, or whether there are any financial obligations on the property such as for future maintenance of the roads or drainage etc.
- Conduct a local authority search to ensure that the roads giving access to the property are adopted, that appropriate planning permission and building regulations approval has been given for works on the property, and to ensure that there is no outstanding enforcement action by the Council, or payment due to the Council
- Conduct an environmental search to check for flooding risk, contaminated land, ground stability etc.
- Advise on Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) costs and Land Registry fees
- Negotiate the terms of the contract with the other party’s solicitor before drawing up the draft contracts for each party to sign
- Exchange contracts between you and the seller
- Make sure monies are received and paid out correctly
- Pay SDLT to HMRC
- Register documentation at the Land Registry
- Send a copy of the title deeds to your mortgage lender
Making the Conveyancing Process as smooth as possible
Our conveyancing solicitors have the legal knowledge and experience to help ensure your property purchase happens in the most straightforward and sensible way possible.
Your conveyancer will support you at every step of the process, explaining all the terms in plain English and ensuring you have the information you need to proceed.
To speak to one of our professional conveyancing solicitors about buying or selling a property, please contact us at our Chorlton office on 0161 860 7123 or email chorlton@hlfberry.com or at our Failsworth office on 0161 681 4005 or email failsworth@hlfberry.com
