What to expect from a conveyancer when buying a house

When buying a house, you will have an appointed conveyancer who will be with you every step of the way. They are there to answer any questions and help the process go smoothly. However, it’s always good to know what you should expect from them and what they expect from you. So, we put together a guide of what to expect from your conveyancer when buying a house.

How Long Can the Buying Process Take?

The entire process can take between 8-10 weeks on average. This can be dependent on the chain; if you are a first-time buyer with no chain, it will naturally be a quicker process than if other properties are involved.

Essential Things to Consider for Your Initial Communications

Before we dive into the seven crucial steps of the conveyancing process, the following points may be helpful to bear in mind regarding your initial communications before the process of buying your dream home can start…

Your Solicitor: 

• First things first, you should instruct someone you trust and that you have carefully considered.
• Compare conveyancing fees with a couple of companies to ensure you pay a fair rate.
• Not all solicitors focus on conveyancing or operate as licensed conveyancers. If you have a close relationship with a solicitor from previous cases, now is an excellent opportunity to ask them how many sales they have dealt with in the past and if conveyancing is something they can do for you.
• You can only instruct a conveyancer once you have agreed to sell your home. Still, you can select one beforehand and have them ready to act when the time comes. Waiting to make this decision until the last moment could slow the process down, which no buyer or seller wants.

Your Estate Agent: 

• Your estate agent might have an established relationship with a conveyancer, and you may be offered a package or discounted rate to use them; however, there’s no obligation to choose the conveyancer your agent recommends.
• If you are buying and selling simultaneously, it will be necessary to work with your agent to ensure everyone in the chain is ready before you can move. (Your conveyancer can also help coordinate this and ensure it runs smoothly.)

The 7 Crucial Steps:

Seven crucial steps are involved from the introduction to the completion stage with your conveyancer. Let’s take a brief look…

1) Instruct a conveyancer.

Your conveyancer (your legal representation) plays a massive part in your buying process. Although it can be stressful, they are there to answer all your questions, take the hassle out of the process, and help you enjoy the process.

2) Confirm instructions to your conveyancer and pay search fees.

Once you have instructed your conveyancer, the next step is to confirm the following steps: declare everything you need your conveyancer to know and pay your search fees.

Property searches are the enquiries made by your conveyancer to learn more information about a property that you are buying. The main property-buying searches tend to be:

• Local Authority
• Water & Property
• Environmental

These searches can take anywhere weeks to complete. Once you have paid your fees, your conveyancer will begin to request from 48 hours to several a contract from your seller and request the searches on your property.

3) Have your funding in place, i.e. your mortgage, if required.

From speaking to a financial advisor to preparing your mortgage, Help to Buy, or any other type of loan, you should have your funding ready for your conveyancer to hit the ground running.

4) Your conveyancer will report their findings back to you.

A good conveyancer will maintain a frequent stream of communication with you to report their findings once they have completed the necessary steps:

• Received and reviewed your contract
• Reviewed/completed the searches
• To inform you if your mortgage offer is applicable

Once they have caught you up on each necessary item and stage of the process, you will be asked to sign your contract and mortgage offer before paying a deposit to your conveyancer.

5) Agree on a date for completion with your conveyancer.

Once everything is signed for and you have paid your deposit, your conveyancer will ask you to confirm a date for completion.

Your completion date is your moving day. This must be agreed on by all parties involved in the process.

6) Contracts are now exchanged.

We should note that, at this stage, you are committed to purchasing the property. The property is yours once your conveyancer has exchanged contracts with the seller. If you fail to pay, the seller can take legal action.

So, expecting your conveyancer to run through your contract and agreement one final time before both contracts are fully exchanged is essential.

 7) Completion

Hooray! The process is complete, and the property is yours! This is officially the day you will receive your keys and can begin moving into your new home.

The Conveyancing Fees Broken Down

When you receive your first quote, take your time to check it thoroughly. Ensure that you are happy with everything that has been outlined, and consider the following:

• Is it a fixed fee or charged at an hourly rate?
• Is VAT included?
• Will there be any costs should the sale fall through?
• Are you buying another house at the same time? (If so, you will need to factor the costs for this in.)

You can expect the fees charged to be divided into two parts:

1. Solicitors’ fees for carrying out the work
2. Associated costs, or disbursements, paid to third parties.

Disbursements when selling can include:  

Land Registry Transfer Fee – This is a payment for transferring ownership from the seller to the buyer with the Land Registry.

Searches – A variety of searches are part of the buying process.

Stamp Duty – The amount of Stamp Duty you pay depends on the property’s value.

Leasehold Property – These types of property can incur more costs. You may, for example, need a Deed of Covenant, which is a legally binding agreement covering things such as carrying out repairs.

Transfer fee – This will be paid to your conveyancer for transferring funds to your mortgage company. Funds are required on a particular day, and a Telegraphic Transfer ensures the money reaches the account on time.

Work with your local Woolley & Wallis agent today…

If you want to work with a property professional who can support you through the entire process, then contact Woolley & Wallis. We are on hand to offer expert advice every step of the way to ensure that buying your dream home is nothing short of excellent and is an enjoyable process.