Services

Our Services

We can provide you with advice and support in many aspects of residential conveyancing. 

Principally, our work is in the following areas:

  • Buying or selling freehold and leasehold residential property.
  • Re-mortgages
  • Transfer of Equity
  • Changing the ownership of a property following an Order made in matrimonial or other civil proceedings
  • Gift of land
  • Severance of Joint Tenancy
  • Buy to Let
  • Lease Extensions

Key Stages

The key stages of buying or selling a property are as follows:

Sales

We will:

  • arrange for you to complete our instruction paperwork and to provide your identification documents.
  • arrange for you to complete a standard form of enquiries about your property;
  • obtain your title deeds and prepare the Contract;
  • issue the Contract papers to the buyer’s conveyancer.

Once the buyer’s conveyancer has approved the Contract and is satisfied with the replies to enquiries and with the results of their searches, we will send you the Contract for signing.

Once you have signed the Contract, you will need to agree a completion date (i.e. the day upon which the balance of the money is paid, you vacate the property and title to the property is transferred to your buyer). Your estate agent will normally liaise with your buyer and any other parties in the chain to agree this date.

Once you and all other parties in the chain are ready to proceed, we will exchange contracts, at which point you will become contractually bound to sell and your buyer contractually bound to buy the property.

After exchange of Contracts, we will deal with the following:

  • apply to your bank/building society for details of the amount required to repay your mortgage;
  • provide you with a financial statement, advising you of the sale proceeds due to you after repaying your mortgage and deducting the selling agent’s fees and all other costs and expenses;
  • agree the form of Transfer of the property with the buyer’s conveyancers and send this to you for signature.

On the day of completion, the balance of the sale price is paid by the buyer’s conveyancer. You will not need to attend our office, as the monies are paid direct through the banking system. Once we receive the money from the buyer’s conveyancers and you have vacated the property, the sale is formally completed and your buyer may take possession.

Purchases

We will arrange for you to complete our instruction paperwork and to provide your identification document and evidence of the source of funding, in order to comply with money laundering and other regulations.

The seller’s conveyancer will provide us with a draft Contract, the title documents and replies to some standard enquiries regarding the property. We will consider all the documentation and raise any additional enquiries we consider necessary. We will also submit all appropriate searches, including a local authority search, environmental/flood risk search and a drainage search.

Once all the search results are received and all other information is to hand, we will prepare a formal report on all aspects of your purchase, including a copy of the relevant documents. At this stage, we will ask you to sign the Contract and provide the deposit.

Once you have signed the Contract, you will need to agree a completion date (i.e. the day upon which the balance of the money is paid and title to the property is transferred to you). The seller’s estate agent will normally liaise with the seller and any other parties in the chain to agree this date.

Once you and all other parties in the chain are ready to proceed, we will exchange Contracts, at which point you will become contractually bound to buy and the seller contractually bound to sell the property. You will not need to attend our offices for Contracts to be exchanged.

After exchange of Contracts we will deal with the following:

  • if you are obtaining a mortgage, we will report to your lender to request the mortgage advance;
  • prepare a financial statement, advising you of any additional monies required from you in order to complete;
  • prepare the Transfer Deed, to be signed by the seller and also by you in certain circumstances.

On the day of completion, the balance of the purchase price is paid to the seller’s conveyancers. Again, you need not attend our offices, as the monies are paid direct through the banking system. Once the money is received by the seller’s conveyancers, the property is transferred to you and you may take possession.

After completion, we will submit details of your purchase to HMRC and pay the stamp duty which is due.  We will also register your ownership at the Land Registry and with any management company.

How long does it take?

The process varies in length, depending on your circumstances, and the complexity of the sale or purchase. We’ll guide you through each step, keeping you updated.

The average time across the industry is currently between 3 to 5 months.

Various factors can impact the time it takes, such as:

  • Freehold vs. Leasehold: Leasehold purchases involve more paperwork and checks compared to freehold, making the process longer and requiring extra diligence.
  • Length of the Chain: Being part of a property chain can significantly affect timescales, especially if multiple transactions need to align. While we will always move as fast as possible, we can only ever move as fast as the slowest person in your chain.
  • Survey Issues: Problems like damp, structural concerns, or electrical faults found during surveys may require additional investigation and could lead to renegotiations on the purchase or sale price.
  • Search Delays: Delays from local councils or other third parties in providing search results can impact the overall timeline.
  • Mortgage Applications: If there are delays in your mortgage approval, it can slow down the conveyancing process, as it runs alongside the legal work.