Why Do You Need A Solicitor When Buying A Property?
Buying a house is often an exciting but stressful experience and to complete the property purchase in the most efficient, legally protective way, you need a residential conveyancing solicitor to help you through the whole process.
Why You Should Instruct A Conveyancing Solicitor
You’ll be able to buy more quickly and with total peace of mind, when you use a property solicitor to carry out the legal conveyancing process.
Residential conveyancing is the process of transferring ownership of a property from one person to another – and a professional solicitor will manage this entire legal process of buying a house.
Whilst you can carry out the process yourself, it is risky as conveyancing is complex and there are often issues that arise along the way. Also, if you’re buying with a mortgage then it’s likely that your mortgage provider will insist you use a professional property solicitor.
Using a solicitor means ensuring that due diligence is carried out on the property you want to buy.
As a guide, your conveyancing solicitor will do the following:
- Handle all and any problems that arise
- Advise on the searches needed
- Raise enquiries with the seller
- Check the contract from the seller
- Make sure you understand the title you are buying
- Manage the exchange of contracts
- Oversee completion
- Ensure all legal requirements are met
- Protect your rights throughout
The Conveyancing Process
There are many stages involved in buying a home, including:
- Choosing your conveyancing solicitor
- Instructing your solicitor once your offer on the house has been accepted
- Carrying out proof of identity and funds checks
- Requesting the draft contract from the seller’s solicitor
- Obtaining the fittings and contents form from the seller
- Obtaining the copies of the title documents from the seller
- Conducting the required searches
- Checking the draft contract and handling any enquiries
- Completing any legal work on behalf of your mortgage provider
- Handling the exchange of contracts
- Overseeing the completion
- Managing the transfer of funds
- Ensuring stamp duty is paid
- Registering transfer of ownership at Land Registry
How Long Is The Conveyancing Process?
As a very rough guide, the process usually takes between 8 and 12 weeks to complete.
How long the conveyancing process of your property purchase takes, depends on many factors, such as:
- Whether you’re part of a chain
- How complex your purchase is
- If any queries from the draft contract need to be investigated
Searches
Your residential conveyancing solicitor will advise you on the searches you need to have carried out on the property you intend to buy.
Searches provide key information on the property and reveal whether anything may affect its value in the future that you should be aware of. Issues may include the property being built on contaminated land, flooding risk, or an obligation by the property’s owner to pay for repairs on the local church.
The most common searches carried out as part of the conveyancing process are:
- Local authority
This covers all information on the property that is held by the local authority, such as planning permissions and building regulations approvals and any restrictions imposed by the local authority - Land registry
This checks the seller is in fact the legal owner of the property - Water authority
This confirms whether the property is served by mains water and drainage - Environmental
This covers all the local factors that may affect the property, such as flooding risk or land contamination history
Advantages Of Using A Conveyancing Solicitor
There are many reasons to use a conveyancing solicitor, not least to ensure a far more efficient property purchase and for peace of mind.
Advantages of using a conveyancing solicitor include:
- Making sure all the legal necessities are met
- Ensuring your rights are protected
- Using the same solicitor for both the sale of a property and purchase of a property if both are happening at the same time
Purchasing Your Property The Right Way
By using a professional property solicitor to help with the purchase of your house, you will ensure the process is as straightforward and stress-free as possible. Your solicitor will handle the whole process for you, including raising any enquiries with the seller on your behalf, conducting searches on the property, and thoroughly checking the details of the draft contract for you.
Our conveyancing solicitors have the experience and legal knowledge to make sure your property purchase process is as fast and efficient as possible, and that your rights are fully protected as a result.
