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| Buying property

The conveyancing process for a property purchase has several stages, as follows:

Finding a mortgage

If you will be taking out a mortgage, you can ask the lender to provide you with a mortgage offer in principle. This is their preliminary confirmation that they are likely to be prepared to lend to you and confirmation of the amount involved.

Having a mortgage offer in principle is beneficial when looking for a property, particularly if the seller is hoping to complete quickly.

Engaging a conveyancer

Putting a conveyancer in place early on means that as soon as your seller’s solicitor supplies the contract package, work can commence. You can ask us to represent you while you are still looking for somewhere to buy or once you have found the right property.

We will let you have the initial forms for completion, verify your identity and open a file so that we are ready to go ahead as soon as we hear from the other side.

Requesting a survey

Having a survey carried out can identify any issues with the property and will give you an idea of what work might be needed in the foreseeable future. You may be able to renegotiate how much you pay if problems are uncovered.

Solicitor carries out searches and makes enquiries

As soon as we receive the contract package from the seller’s solicitor, we will check the legal title and go through all of the information that has been provided. We will apply for searches and send a list of enquiries to be answered by the seller and their representative.

Contract exchange and completion

Once we have all of the information we need, we will report to you on the property. The next step is to sign the contract and mortgage deed in readiness for exchange of contracts. You will also need to let us have your cleared deposit.

We will agree on a completion date with you and the others in the chain, then contracts can be exchanged and the deposit paid. Exchange of contracts means that the transaction is legally bound to go ahead and it is also the point at which a completion date is set.

Following the exchange, we will report to the lender on the property and request the mortgage advance in time for completion. On the day of completion, we will send the balance of the purchase money to the seller’s solicitor and let you know once they have received it, so that you can collect the keys to your new property from the estate agent.

We will then register your purchase and any mortgage with the Land Registry.

| Selling property

If you are selling your property, you can instruct us early on in the transaction and we will start the transaction straightaway, so that we are ready to issue the contract package as soon as you accept an offer.

We will let you have the initial forms for completion, to include a property information form and fixtures and fittings list. This will give you the chance to fill them in and find any supplemental documents referred to, such as guarantees, planning consents and building regulations approval.

We have a conveyancing app that you can use, which can streamline the process of communicating with us and providing us with the information we will need.

Once you are ready to proceed, we will be able to send out the contract papers to your buyer’s solicitor so that they can start work checking the legal title and carrying out searches.

We always respond to enquiries promptly to help move matters forward and meet deadlines wherever possible.

| Transferring property

It is sometimes necessary to transfer a property into or out of joint names when circumstances change. For example, you may be separating or you might have decided to live with someone.

It is essential to take independent legal advice before signing a transfer to make sure that you understand the legal implications and that your position is safeguarded.

If you have contributed a larger share of the purchase price, this can be reflected in the way that a property is owned.

We can advise you of the different types of joint ownership and make sure that you have the right option in place for your requirements. Where necessary, we will prepare a declaration of trust and we can also advise on related issues such as making a Will, which can be important when owning a property jointly.

| Remortgaging property

If you are remortgaging a property, it is usually a requirement that you have a solicitor to deal with the transaction. We are approved by all major high street lenders, meaning that we can act for both you and your lender in a remortgage transaction.

We always deal promptly with remortgages as we know that it can be important to complete quickly if you are moving to a more beneficial deal or remortgaging to obtain funds that you need, for example, for renovations or an extension.

| Equity release

An equity release policy allows you to sign over some of the capital in your home in return for a lump sum that you can spend how you wish. This type of policy is often complicated and you must have legal advice before you enter into the agreement.

We can explain all of the terms and conditions clearly and in plain English, so that you fully understand the implications. We will also go through any options that may be available to you, such as the possibility of paying off the interest each month, rather than having it added to the outstanding sum.

We will also explain what an equity release policy will mean for the future and how it will affect your estate.

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