Conveyancing
The legal process involved in buying a house is called conveyancing and can be done by either a solicitor or licensed conveyancer – someone qualified to do only this kind of legal work. Whoever you choose to complete the work for you, the process will be the same.
Your solicitor will usually act on behalf of your lender who will require certain searches to be carried out. They will always require a local authority search which shows if there are any planning permissions on the house and if there are any plans to build roads within 200 metres of the house. It will not show any planning permissions on neighbouring properties or land so if you want to find this out, you will have to pay more for a full plan search.
Your lender will also ask for a drainage search to check where your waste water goes, a land registry search to check that the property hasn’t changed hands and a land charges search to ensure that you’re not bankrupt.
As well as these searches you should also be organising to have a survey done on the property. If the survey picks up any expensive works that need to be carried out, you will have a good case for renegotiating the price with the vendor. Your solicitor will do this for you.
After the survey and searches are completed, and you have a firm mortgage offer, your solicitor will arrange a date for you to exchange contracts. This means swapping contracts with the vendor and securing the sale. If either you or the vendor pull out after contracts have been exchanged, there will have to be compensation.
The contracts will show a completion date – this is when you become the rightful owner of the property and is usually two weeks after the exchange date. It can be sooner or later if agreed by both parties. If you or the vendor are involved in a chain, this can dictate the completion date.
On the completion date, you can pick up your keys from us and move in! Your solicitor will pass on the deeds to your lender who will keep them until you remortgage or buy another property.