Conveyancing entails legally transferring home ownership from the seller to you as the buyer. It primarily starts when the seller accepts your offer on the house and ends once you receive the keys.
For first-time homebuyers, conveyancing may be a new term they have yet to encounter before. And even if you’re a seasoned investor, you probably would have worked with a solicitor or conveyancer to help you with the process. But you might not entirely grab exactly how the conveyancing process works.
Rest assured that you’re not alone. So, to help you understand it better, here are a few of the things that you need to know about house conveyancing, including its meaning, the tasks of the conveyancer and the benefits of working with one.
What Is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the legal and administrative procedure and a form of property law by which an authorized party transfers a home’s ownership safely from one entity to another. The conveyancer’s primary intention is to oversee the move to ensure that it proceeds smoothly and that the property ownership gets transferred from the seller to the buyer.
Primarily, the conveyancing procedure has three general stages:
- Pre-contract
- Pre-completion
- Post-completion.
Each step includes all the tasks related to buying or selling a real estate property, subdividing the plot of land, updating the ownership title or changing or registering an easement. It may include transferring ownership assessments, covering a mortgage or any other conveyancing procedure.
Who Oversees the Conveyancing Process?
A conveyancer or a solicitor typically conducts the entire conveyancing process. However, although it’s difficult, you can do it yourself if you’re not planning to apply for a mortgage. That’s because you’ll need to work with the help of a real estate professional to undergo such a process.
Step-By-Step Conveyancing Procedure
First Step: Hiring a Conveyancing Solicitor
The first step you need to take is finding a conveyancing solicitor to help you with your real estate transaction. Once you secure a buyer, they’ll proceed with the next step immediately.
As part of the process, conveyancers will ask you to complete several questionnaires to know your preferences when it comes to a real estate property and the terms that you’d like to have. Any misleading or incorrect replies may have adverse effects on the entire procedure.
Second Step: Perform a Couple of Enquiries
One of the primary tasks of every solicitor is to gather several pieces of information, including the title deeds and the land registry. They will prepare a contract for the property sale, which they’ll send to the buyers’ solicitors together with the information about the property.
Also, conveyancers often do their searches when buying a property to ensure no issues that may affect the buyer’s decision. There are certain factors that buyers may not quickly notice when viewing the property with the real estate agent. These factors that you need to consider before making any commitments to buy the property include draining, mining and environmental matters.
Third Step: Securing a Home Loan
Once the conveyancers already have the search results, they will then send a report of the property. Once received, the buyer must apply for a home loan. The buyer must provide the lender with all the correct and accurate information to properly conduct a property valuation and ensure that it’s worth the agreed sum.
If ever the valuer had some oversights about the house, it’s implausible that the buyer will have the right to take any legal actions against the valuer later. That’s why the buyer must arrange a detailed survey of the real estate property to further understand the structure they’re buying and its costs.
Fourth Step: Signed the Contract
Once the buyer’s solicitor has acquired all the necessary paperwork transferred by the seller’s solicitors, they’ll reach an agreement based on all the searches and the copy of the buyer’s real estate loan offer. They will then need to arrange everything to go through all the paperwork with the buyer or send them a written report containing all the information about the property. It should include the deposit needed for the loan, options for ownership, and mortgage repayment plans.
Fifth Step: Exchange of Contracts
Once both parties are satisfied and everything has been placed in order, the solicitors of both the buyer and the seller will arrange an exchange of contract. It’s crucial to remember that until there’s an exchange of contract, neither the buyer nor the seller has any legal commitment to proceed with the transaction.
It’s also essential to remember to allow at least seven days or longer when exchanging contracts since it’s challenging to guarantee that parties can process everything on a particular date until you’ve agreed on a formal exchange of contract.
Sixth Step: Completion
Before completing your purchase, the seller’s conveyancer will send you a completion statement. If the buyer needs to settle any amount to complete the transaction, then they need to send the payment of the sum in full a few days before the completion to clear the funds in time for the transfer.
The buyer’s solicitor will then transfer the money to the seller’s solicitor to complete the purchase. In return, the seller’s solicitor will send the legal transfer documents and other paperwork related to the property.
Both the sellers and the buyers will complete the transaction once everything has been settled. The buyer’s solicitors will still need to perform several tasks after the completion, including registering the property at the Land Registry and managing any of the stamp duty land tax.
The Land Title Offices will then advise the relevant authorities that the real estate property has a new owner. If the settlement doesn’t happen on the agreed date, the interest rate specified in the contract will start accruing from the date stated for the settlement, depending on the contract.
The Bottomline
Conveyancers are experts in their field. They can provide you with arm’s length legal advice and can even help you find the best property that’ll suit your needs. That’s why it’s essential to find the right person to help you with purchasing a house.