Residential Property Solicitors in London

Residential Conveyancing is the legal process of purchasing or selling a house. Most people use solicitors to act for them on a house sale or purchase, because they are not adequately conversant with the process. In addition, if you are purchasing with a mortgage, your Lender will require a solicitor to be appointed to act for and on their behalf to also act in their best interest and make sure the Title to the Property is suitable for lending purposes.

 1. Quote – you will be supplied an initial quote.  

 2. Memorandum of Sale – once sale is agreed the estate agent supplies the Memorandum of Sale to the parties.  This provides the full details of the transaction and allows the solicitors to start progressing the transaction.

 3. Open the Purchase File – Firstly, the conveyancer will open the purchase file for your new property. This involves sending you a letter to explain the terms of business and request items such as ID, evidence of source of funds and a payment on account.  In addition, you will complete a purchase questionnaire allowing you to raise any queries you have regarding the property. At this stage, you will be given a fixed fee estimate based on the information provided. The cost can change if the legal work becomes complicated.

 4. Contracts – Your conveyancer will receive the drawn-up draft Contract Pack from the seller’s solicitor.

The Contract Pack is typically made up with the following documentation:

Draft contract

Office copies and title plan

Property Information Form (information form completed by seller about the property)

Fittings and Contents Form (form completed by seller confirming what will be left at the property i.e. cooker/washing machine/beds etc)

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

Any supporting documents such as warranties, guarantees, planning permission and building regulations.

If Leasehold there will also be a copy of the Lease as well as key information from the Landlord such as a Management or a Re-Sales Pack.

5. Title check – on receipt of the contracts your conveyancer will check all documentation to make sure nothing is missing and there are no problems with the title.

6. Conduct Searches– This is a vital part of the conveyancing and property search process. The searches done on most properties are as follows:

• Local Search – this search confirms if the road at the property is maintained by the Local Authority or if it is private.  It also confirms any Planning/Building Regulations applications amongst many other important things.
• Drainage Search – this search confirms if the drains are maintained by the water board or are private.  It also confirms the location of water/sewage pipes.
• Environmental search – provide details of the property and surrounding areas in relation to possible contaminated land and flooding amongst other issues.
• Chancel Search – The historic nature of chancel repairs means many liabilities are not recorded on title deeds, but they remain legally enforceable. A Chancel Check report will reveal whether a property is within a parish where a potential chancel repair liability exists.

7. Mortgage offer – if the transaction is being part funded by a mortgage your conveyancer will check the mortgage offer to make sure all details are correct and deal   with the lenders standard and special conditions.

8. Investigation of Title  – Your conveyancer will provide expert legal advice and raise queries on not only the title to the property but also in relation any of the searches carried out.

9. Stamp Duty Payment– The conveyancer will calculate and pay the stamp duty bill on your behalf.

10. Financial Statement – The conveyancer will ask for your deposit being 10% of the purchase price and will arrange to transfer the funds to the seller’s solicitor on completion.

11. Exchange of contracts – once your conveyancer is satisfied that all queries and issues are resolved on your transaction you will be asked to sign the contract documentation.  Exchange of contracts is when all parties formally agree to the completion date.  When you exchange the completion date is fixed.  Exchange and completion can be on the same day as exchange or there can be an agreed amount of time between exchange and completion.

12. Completion – once exchange has taken place you will receive your keys on the day of completion.  Your conveyancer will ensure that mortgage funds are drawn down in time for completion.  You will collect the keys from the estate agent when the funds have been received by the seller’s solicitor.

13. Post Completion – once completion has taken place your conveyancer will pay the Stamp Duty Land Tax (if applicable) to HMRC on your behalf and apply to HM Land Registry to register your ownership of the property.  This will take several months after completion. You will however become the legal owner of the Property from the date of completion of the sale.

The process usually takes between 8 and 12 weeks to complete, but can vary depending on specific individual properties. Occasionally the process can take longer to complete if there are any issues arise during the Investigation of Title which will need to be resolved before progressing to completion.  Transferring a property from one owner to another is complex and requires a lot of work. When you buy a property, you will need a conveyancer or property solicitor to complete the residential conveyancing process efficiently but at the same time with the required care and diligence. The importance of property conveyancing is to ensure an individual buys a property that has no unknown restrictions or problems and the property will sell without any issues later on. 

Exchange of contracts is the point at which a property transaction becomes legally binding. Both parties are contractually bound to finalise the sale/purchase on the agreed completion date.

If either party were to pull out after exchange, there would be penalties. Once you have exchanged contracts you will be in a legally binding contract to buy the property. If you do not you will lose your deposit and you can be sued. Equally though, the seller has to sell or you can keep their deposit and sue them. A remedy of ‘Specific Performance’ can also be sought against you for damages accumulating to the total amount of the contracted amount.

The main difference between exchange and completion is that ‘exchange’ is an exchange of contracts, which makes the matter legally binding between the parties, whereas ‘completion’ is the date the parties physically move and transfer legal ownership of the property.