In simple terms, conveyancing is a legal process by which a bought property is transferred to the rightful owner from the hands of the seller. This process follows accepting the bid for the property and signing all the necessary papers. It may take between a period of four weeks and two months before the property leaves the hand of the seller to the hands of the buyer.
When you submit an offer for a property, and the seller accepts it, it is normal to feel a sense of relief. But the job is not yet done – as a matter of fact; it is just the beginning of the conveyancing process. It takes no long walk from the time of acceptance of an offer to the actual handling of the property keys from the seller to the buyer. Both parties have some hurdles to cross.
Why is conveyancing necessary?
Conveyancing is the pathway that is followed to achieve this result of new ownership of property. It is the legal pathway that a buyer and seller must follow for one to hand over the property to the other. Many times, the professional mediator in such a deal is known as a conveyancer, and you need to follow some smooth steps to achieve a perfect result and a successful deal.
Conveyancing protects the buyer against any surprises from the seller in the future. It ensures that all the potential issues are guided even before the buyer lays the money down for the purchase. Below is a comprehensive step-by-step procedure for conveyancing.
On the other hand, the buyers are also protected in that they can be in the best position under every ideal ownership condition. Moreover, when the services of a conveyancer are employed in the real estate transaction, it allows both parties to hand off all the other legalities and obligations of the property.
The process of conveyancing
A conveyancer is responsible for many things in the property transfer process, which are central to both parties. Again, due to the capital involved, you want to ensure that the actual conveyance will take place. Naturally, anyone wants to understand the status of the ongoing deal. Still, they may not get the correct information from the right source. Sources include mortgage providers and the land registry. In the digital age of conveyancers., they have mobile apps that help them track the progress of the conveyancing process without a physical meeting for updates. In summary, the conveyancing process involves the following
- You get a request for some paperwork from your conveyancer as proof of identification and bank details. The paperwork may also request some more information about the property
- The second stage involves the conveyancer liaising with the solicitor of the seller to receive the contract pack for the buyer to sign
- As for the copy of your mortgage offer to pay off the loan, the conveyancer will relate with your mortgage advisor or mortgage bank
- The next step is for the conveyancer to conduct local authority searches for the property. While requesting from the local authority, they may divulge some information about the property under review or the land of the property if there are issues with the locality or the proximity to any significant structure, such as a chemical plant or planned building project. It’s a conveyancer’s job to analyze reports and decide whether to proceed or not. If the authority notices that there will be a detrimental impact, the process may not proceed. In other cases, the property owner may need some extra insurance against some specific potential issues. All the same, you need a conveyancer.
- Your conveyancer arranges a potential completion date for your proposed project that is comfortable for both parties. This agreement is essential to ensure that you all are on the same goal.
- It is time to sign the contracts. Both parties will swap their copies of the signed agreements when you finish signing. The buyer will send his deposit to the conveyancer, who will transfer it to the seller conveyancer.
- Following the signing, there should be a completion statement and the transfer deeds for the buyer to complete. Afterwards, the transfer is done to the seller’s conveyancer.
- At this stage, the agreement may include a mortgage payment from the lender and transfer any purchase balance back to the seller’s conveyancer.
- After the sale, the conveyancing is not complete until the conveyancer submits a tax return and pays the stamp duty. These payments may carry different names from one province to another. All the combined documents are also forwarded to the Land Registry as the transfer of ownership is complete. Moreover, each party will be able to reconcile all the records and details across all ends.
Conclusion
Conveyancing, in itself, may not be a visible process to all. But the buyers and the seller must stay on track to achieve all their goals. At the end of all the paperwork, there may be further clarifications from the local authorities, land registry, mortgage lenders or even any seller’s conveyance team.
What is the cost of conveyance?
You should learn how to think of discussion work regarding the project’s total cost; it will require some schemes. In addition, the pricing of this project is. Meanwhile, the average cost of a conveyancer reaches an average of 1500 GBP, including all other disbursement bits without e-stamp duty. Sometimes, you may benefit from asking your seller for his opinion on the property deal.
Conclusion – How can you find a good conveyancer?
You are the first person to begin the process of finding a good conveyancer for your property. Start by searching online for the one with the best reviews. You can also talk to your financial advisor about what is best to do.
See also: The Common Pitfalls of Commercial Law & How to Avoid Them