ReviewSolicitors rank us highly for conveyancing in West Yorkshire. Read some of our reviews here.

| Buying property

If you are purchasing a property, the main stages in the conveyancing process are as follows:

Arranging a mortgage

One of the first steps is usually to find the right mortgage for your needs. Once you have identified the lender that you wish to use, you can apply for a mortgage offer in principle. This will let you know how much the lender is likely to be prepared to lend you. Estate agents and sellers prefer buyers who have already carried out this preliminary work as it signifies a serious and organised buyer.

Find a residential conveyancing solicitor

You can also find a conveyancer early on before you have found somewhere to buy. If you would like us to deal with your purchase, let us know and we will let you have the initial forms for completion.

We offer an easy-to-use conveyancing app to help you provide the information we need.

Finding a local conveyancer can be beneficial. For example, we have very strong links to other professionals in the area, including surveyors, estate agents and local authorities, which can help avoid delays.

Instruct a surveyor

Once you have found a property to buy, you will usually be advised to have a survey carried out to check the condition of the property. If the survey highlights any areas of concern, you can ask the seller if they are prepared to make an allowance on the price to cover the cost of any works needed to rectify matters.

Solicitor carries out searches and raises enquiries

As soon as we receive the contract package from the seller’s solicitor, we will carry out the searches that are needed, which will generally include a local search and drainage enquiries, and go through the legal title and all of the other information that we have. We will raise enquiries with the seller’s solicitor as necessary.

Signing the contract and mortgage deed

Once we have satisfactory replies, search results and your mortgage offer, we will be ready to exchange contracts. You will need to let us have cleared funds for the deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price, in readiness for exchange. If you have a related sale, we will be able to use the deposit from that.

You will need to sign the contract and mortgage deed. The contract will only become legally binding once we have dealt with the exchange over the telephone with the seller’s solicitor.

Exchange of contracts and completion

We will discuss potential completion dates with you and the seller’s solicitor, as well as with your buyer’s solicitor if you are tying in a sale. Once a date is agreed, we can exchange contracts. At this point the date for completion is set.

The next step is to carry out the final checks and order your mortgage advance. We will let you know how much we will need from you in cleared funds prior to completion.

On the day of completion, we will send the balance of purchase money to the seller’s solicitor and let you know once it has been received. You will then be able to liaise with the estate agent and pick up the keys once the seller has vacated the property.

| Selling property

If you are selling a property, we offer a fast and efficient service. If you are tying in a purchase, then it is often important to be ready to exchange without delay. We will always make sure that documents and information are provided quickly to your purchaser’s solicitor to move matters along effectively.

You can contact us as soon as you decide to market your property so that we can work with you to start matters off straightaway. We will verify your identity, as we are required to do, and open a file, letting you have the initial property information and fixtures and fittings list to be completed.

As soon as you accept an offer, you can let the estate agent have our details and they will let us have the details of your buyer’s solicitor. We will then be able to send out the contract package at once so that they can start work on searches.

We always stay in close touch with the other side to make sure that they have everything they need from us, and that the transaction is continuing to move forwards.

| Transferring property

It is often necessary to transfer property ownership into or out of joint names. For example, you may have decided to live with someone or you might be buying out someone else’s share in your home.

You should always take independent legal advice before completing a transfer to ensure that you understand the legal implications. For example, if you have contributed a larger share to a property, the joint ownership should be structured in a way that protects this.

We can advise you of the best way to deal with the transfer, then draw up the documentation, arrange for it to be signed and register the transfer with the Land Registry.

| Remortgaging property

If you are remortgaging your property, for example, to move to a better interest rate or to borrow more money, you will generally need a solicitor to represent you unless you are staying with the same lender.

We are authorised to represent all main high street lenders, meaning that we can act for both you and the lender in the transaction.

We know that it is often important to move to a new deal promptly and we always aim to complete remortgages without delay.

We can also deal with any other related issues, such as a transfer of equity into or out of joint names.

| Equity release

An equity release policy allows you to free up capital from your home while still continuing to live there. This type of policy is complex and onerous and you are required by law to have independent legal advice before signing one.

Our property solicitors are experts on this type of conveyancing law and will clearly explain the implications of equity release and the conditions that will apply to your chosen policy. If there are options such as paying off the interest each month, we will draw your attention to them and make sure that you fully understand what you are signing and what it means for your property and your estate in the future.

For more information about our services, see our residential conveyancing solicitors page.