Buying Your First Home? A Step-by-Step Guide to the Conveyancing Process

You are looking at properties, likely preparing to make the most daunting yet exciting decision of your life to date. An offer is made, accepted and then you are asked to appoint a solicitor/conveyancer to act on your purchase. Why are they needed? What is the typical process? What do they actually do? 

In short, when you purchase a house, solicitors/conveyancers handle the legal aspects of the property transaction. They aim to ensure that the process is smooth, legally correct and obtain a positive timely outcome for you, the client. 

Once you have accepted a quote from a solicitor/conveyancer and told the Estate Agent who will be acting on your behalf for the purchase you will be asked to complete initial onboarding for the firm you have appointed. This is where you will be asked to complete your selected firm’s client care documentation, ID verification and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks together with providing your verification of funds. 

Your solicitor/conveyancer is providing a service to you; therefore, client care documents are signed highlighting the firm’s terms and conditions, timeframes, costings, who is dealing with your matter, together with an outline of the complaints process and transaction so you can be fully informed at the start. We need to verify your identity so we can say that we acted for you and, essentially, ‘you are who you say you are’. 

We will also ask you how you are funding your purchase. Due to our AML regulatory requirements, we must verify your accumulation of funds together with your source of wealth. We have to ‘know our client’ and have a better understanding of your wealth and where it has come from. This process may feel quite intrusive, as we may ask for bank statements, explanations, inheritance documentation and ask the person giving you a gift (if applicable) to complete our checks. We need to show a trail of evidence detailing how you are funding your purchase. We are held to an incredibly high standard by our regulators and when we are audited in the future, we will need to be able to produce this evidence. Trust us, we would prefer not to have to sift through multiple documents to see your funds, but unfortunately if we do not, we could be facing a fine or in some cases imprisonment and the risk just is not worth it. 

At this time, we would suggest conducting a survey. The Estate Agent can assist with any issues your survey highlights through negations or a price reduction, which then shall be relayed to us.

Property searches are commissioned to better understand the property. We conduct three main searches: Local Authority Search, CON29DW and Environmental Search. We will ask for monies on account before we order these searches as they are commissioned through a third party. 

Local Authority: This search takes the longest to be returned. It contains information regarding the property, broadly: planning applications, road adoption, whether the property is within a conservation area etc, any proposals for rail, road or traffic schemes together with any planning decisions that may affect the area. 

CON29DW: This search is essentially a drainage and water search detailing the extent of surface and foul water drain-off and whether the property is connected to the mains. It details sewer pipes and manhole covers that you need to be aware of within the property boundary, if applicable. If foul water is deemed to not be connected to the mains, it may be that the property is served by a septic tank/small sewage treatment plant. In this event, we would suggest conducting additional searches through third parties to see whether the system complies with the General Binding Rules.

Environmental Search: This search broadly outlines the environmental factors that may impact the property, including flooding, HS2, large planning developments, radon and whether there have been any historical features that may have impacted the site the property was built on (BritPits, infilled land, mining, contaminated land etc.). We may recommend a DevAssess search to be conducted too if the property is situated near large open spaces (shows applications of wider development that are not picked up through your environmental search). 

This is the main stage of conveyancing. We normally receive a large quantity of documents from the seller’s lawyer containing information regarding the property including the official copies from HM Land Registry, protocol forms (TA6 – Property Information Form and TA10- Fittings and Contents Form). Plus if the property is leasehold or a new build, there will be a great number of additional documents to read through. 

We thoroughly check through these documents and raise enquiries (legal questions) for the seller or the seller’s lawyer to answer. This ensures that you are buying a property with good marketable title (your lender will not lend if we say the property does not have good marketable title) and you are receiving the best possible outcome from buying the property, so when/if you come to sell the property in the future there should not be any issues. Enquires can be questions related to broadly; disputes, easements and covenants, boundaries, structural/planning etc. 

We also check through the legal advisor section of your survey if you have conducted one. Additionally, we use the Estate Agent’s brochure together with Land Registry, Google Earth and other applications to raise enquiries and make sure we have not missed anything. We usually send a copy of the contract pack to you so you can ask any questions that you have for the seller, and we can advise you on the contents of the documents.

Once our enquires are satisfied and we have confirmed with you that any issues that have arisen have been dealt with and you are happy to procced with your purchase, we will now start discussing completion dates with you. We will also prepare a property report which details everything we have discovered about the property and includes sections dedicated to the property title documents, searches, mortgage (if applicable) and various topics including planning, buildings insurance, guarantees and the key pick up process. 

We will also provide you with the property documents to sign; contract, transfer, mortgage deed (if applicable) and stamp duty land tax (SDLT) return. Signing documents does not legally mean you have committed to purchasing the property, it is merely an administrative task to have signed documents on file in readiness for exchange. If you have any questions regarding the report, we will be able to answer these for you. 

Once you have read our full property report, signed documents and confirmed completion dates, we will send you finalised completion statements so you can send us your 10% deposit. If LISA funds form part of your purchase monies we may use these funds as your 10% deposit. If you are having a mortgage, we will also submit the Certificate of Title (COT) to your Lender. As we act for yourselves and your Lender the submission of the COT ensures to the Lender that we are advising that the title is good and marketable and protects their interests. 

On the day of exchange, we shall email you to obtain your authority to exchange on that day to secure completion for the completion date. Once we have your authority and confirmation the seller’s lawyer has authority, we shall call the seller’s lawyer to exchange contracts. The process may take longer if you are part of a chain (multiple buyers and sellers). Once we have exchanged, we shall inform you to let you know that the purchase is now legally binding, and completion is set! At this point you will need to instate buildings insurance on the property. It is not long now until you will be relaxing in your new home!

On the day of completion, we shall facilitate the final stage of the transaction by sending completion monies to the seller’s lawyer. Depending on whether you are in a chain it may determine when in the day we will complete. Completion basically means when the sellers lawyer confirms that monies have been received into their client account. They will confirm completion with us and authorise key release to the Estate Agent. Once this is confirmed we shall call or email you to let you know that we have completed on your purchase, and you can pick up the keys at the Estate Agent. Congratulations!

After completion has taken place and you are enjoying finally owning your own home, we will submit the SDLT return, which is determined on the purchase price of the property. We will also make an application to Land Registry to register you as the new owner(s) of the property (subject to any mortgages) and tell your lender/LISA providers (if applicable) that we have completed on the transaction. 

We keep a watchful eye on your application and assist the Land Registry with any requisitions (questions) they may raise. Once we are notified the application has been registered, we shall send you a copy of the Register for your records. If you have a mortgage, we will also inform your Lender that their change has also been secured against the property. Your file will also be closed on our system. 

Essentially, solicitors/conveyancers take care of the legal and procedural aspects of the property transaction, ensuring everything is done correctly and securely. We are happy to answer any of your questions and talk through any worries that you may have as a first-time buyer. It makes us incredibly happy to help you through the process and guide you each step of the way. We work extremely hard to assist and we hope that you are satisfied with our service and enjoy your new home!