Conveyancing is the legal process of buying and selling properties. We carry out all the legal work on your behalf by investigating the legal title of the property you are buying or selling together with other necessary checks. We will take you through each step of the process using a straightforward and uncomplicated approach.

Licensed Conveyancers are regulated professional Lawyers that specialise in property law. We do not handle other areas of law and therefore we are free to concentrate our efforts in providing a high level Conveyancing Service to our Customers.

These are fees payable to third parties, such as the fee paid to the Land Registry to register your ownership or for additional searches not available in a Home Information Pack. These disbursement costs will be the same whichever firm you decide to instruct. It is the Legal Fee that differs from firm to firm.

This is a tax payable to the Inland Revenue when you purchase a property. The amount of tax payable depends on the price of the property.

This form is required on the purchase of all residential properties even where there is no stamp duty payable, because the Inland Revenue require notification of all transactions. We complete this form on your behalf and submit it to the Inland Revenue on Completion.

This is the point when we and all the other Lawyers in the chain have carried out all the necessary legal investigations and all parties are ready to agree a date for completion. On exchange the terms of the contract and the moving date are agreed, and the deposit is paid by the Buyer. All parties are then in a legally binding relationship to complete on the agreed day for the agreed price.

Under standard contract conditions the Buyer is required to pay a deposit to the Seller on exchange. Lawyers will usually request this from their customer a few days prior to exchange. The amount of the deposit is 10% of the purchase price, but if this is not available then we will ask the Seller to accept a smaller amount. If following exchange the Buyer fails to complete, then the Seller is entitled to keep the deposit. The Seller can also claim compensation and for the balance of the deposit where less than 10% was paid on exchange.

This is your moving date and when ownership is transferred from the Seller to the Buyer. On Completion monies are transferred to the Seller’s Lawyers to pay for the property. When the money has been received, the keys are released allowing the Buyer to move in.

If you are selling we will send any deeds and documents to the Buyer’s solicitors and arrange for any mortgages to be repaid and then removed from the Land Registry records. If you are buying we will receive deeds and documents from the Seller’s Lawyers and then apply to have you and any mortgage registered at the Land Registry. This can take a few weeks after completion depending on the Land Registry’s current turnaround times. Once the registration has been completed we will forward to you the appropriate evidence of title.

As your lawyer we do not investigate the structural integrity of the property. The property is sold as seen with all its hidden defects and faults, and you must decide for yourself whether you require a full survey to be carried out. If you do commission a survey we will act upon any legal issues raised by the Surveyor where not already covered. Please note that a lender’s Valuation is not a survey. The lender’s Valuer is only checking that the price of the property is correct for its present state and condition.

Chancel repairs are an ancient right which can allow the Church to require home owners to pay towards the cost of repairing the church. It is still enforced, and can affect properties in built up areas as well as rural areas. Most mortgage lenders require investigation into Chancel Repairs, which can cost up to £148.00. We have negotiated a number of insurance policies with specialists in the Chancel Repair market to insure at a substantially reduced cost against the risk of Chancel Repair liability which might affect your purchase.

We are required by law under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 to carry out investigations to verify the identity of clients and the source of money used in property transactions. We carry out an on-line Anti-Money Laundering check which is not a credit check.

Yes, there are some differences in the legal investigations and checks that will need to be carried out, but the main differences to you are those imposed by the Developers, such as an exchange deadline. Also Developers rarely offer a fixed completion date on exchange, but require completion to be on 10 or 14 days notice. This means that some time can pass after exchange and then once the property is structurally complete and ready for you to move in, they will serve notice to complete in a relatively short period. If you are also selling a property you will need to ensure that your buyers are happy with any timescales the Developers may have.

The only safe time to do this is following exchange. Therefore you need to consider whether your completion date should coincide with the end of your notice period. If you hand your notice in prior to exchange of contracts you risk making yourself homeless.

If you are purchasing with a mortgage you must make the mortgage lender aware of your intention at the outset, to avoid any delays or the lender withdrawing their offer. Most lenders will require you to obtain their specific permission to let a property. We will also need to check whether there are any legal restrictions on the property preventing it being let.