For homeowners about to move, conveyancing can be one of the most complicated parts of the moving process. M&P understands the frustration felt by homeowners trying to get their heads around conveyancing, so we have pulled together a panel of Brilliant Solicitors & Conveyancers to ensure you enjoy a smooth and cost-effective conveyancing process. 

We are often asked, “what is meant by conveyancing.”

It is the legal process of buying and selling a property, or its legal definition is “the act of transfer of title of property from one person to another”.

We will send you a letter confirming the offer price and the names of the purchasers. In addition, the solicitors acting on behalf of yourself and the purchasers will receive a copy of the signed property details, a full Energy Performance Certificate and a Memorandum of Sale containing the elements necessary to correspond.

If there is a management company, you must provide their name and contact details to your solicitor. All management companies charge for a Sellers Leasehold pack. We advise all clients to contact their management company to find out the cost of this, order it themselves, and then send it on to their solicitors, as this can save time in the sales process. This can be a lengthy process, so we advise that this be ordered as soon as your solicitors have been instructed.

Once your solicitor receives all the necessary information, they can create the draft contracts. These will then be sent across to the purchaser's solicitors. We recommend that once your property is placed on the market, you carry out the above as this will save two to three weeks on the sales process because when your parcel is sold, your solicitor will be in a position to issue draft contracts from day one.

We aim to ensure that the purchaser is in a position to move forward with the transaction financially. We do this by the following:-

1) We ask to see a Mortgage in Principle certificate, which our in-house mortgage broker will verify.

2) We ask for proof of deposit, photo ID, and address, which must be within the last three months.

The survey is our next stage in the sales progression process. We ask vendors to remember that banks and building societies work differently and have different procedures. Some lenders will instruct the valuation/survey once the application has been lodged. In contrast, others will not conduct valuation/study until all the references have been taken and the mortgage is approved, subject to the valuation.

When your purchaser’s solicitor receives the draft papers, they apply for searches. The searches are Drainage, Local Authority and Environmental searches. Solicitors work in different ways; some solicitors will raise enquiries straight away, while others will wait to submit enquiries until all of the investigations have been received. Many of the questions can be answered by your solicitor as you have already provided important information in your Sellers Information Pack and fixtures and fittings list. If there are other enquiries, your solicitor will contact you for further details. Sometimes there will be additional questions on the information already been given. It is a good rule of thumb to remember that the solicitor acting for the purchaser has never been to your property and likely never been to the area; this is mainly to clarify specific points.

Once the buyer’s solicitor has all their enquiries answered, they will approve the contract and forward a copy to your solicitors for you to sign. Solicitors can often send arrangements for signing at different times during a transaction; it is not always at the end. The buyers will sign a further copy once all the legal checks have been completed and their mortgage offer is in place. At this point, the buyer will be asked to provide a deposit.

The usual deposit is 10%, although some solicitors will ask to reduce this. In addition, we sometimes entertain simultaneous exchange and completion, so business and completion will occur on the same day. It is important to note that all parties in the chain have to agree on the completion date, and once an exchange has taken place, the contract is binding between you and your buyer.

If your property is in a chain, the exchange will always occur from the property at the bottom of the chain and works its way through to the top. We often refer to this as a release; this means that the solicitors at the bottom of the chain will release the contract for exchange to the solicitor above them until it reaches the top. It would be best to remember that your solicitor will need to get your consent for sale; without this, they cannot exchange on your behalf, nor can any of the other solicitors within the chain unless they get their client’s consent. If the exchange does not reach the top by the close of business, it will have to start the following day again. Again your solicitor will contact you to obtain your consent. Our practice is to inform you to contact your solicitor first thing on the proceeding morning if this does happen.

On the day of completion, we suggest you take all meter readings, including gas, electric and water. In addition that you ensure all rubbish has been removed from the property. Whilst we realise that some vendors wish to move, this can cause a problem because once your purchasers' money has arrived in your solicitor's account, you no longer own that property and, therefore, they have a right to keys and access. We have seen many vendors try to move only wishing they had hired a removal company because, on the day of completion, a removal company will turn up at the property and move all your belongings onto their lorry, ready for your onward purchase.

Our clients usually drop all keys off at our office before but no later than the day of completion. We will not release these keys until we have confirmation from the solicitors that we are in a legal position. When collecting keys from our office, a photo ID, such as a photo driving license or passport, must be presented and all keys signed.

We hope that this guide provides you with more insight into the moving process but don’t forget that at M & P Estates, you will be appointed a sales progressor who will deal with your sale from start to finish. Again you are always free to contact and speak to the sales negotiator who sold your property at any stage of the process.