What is Conveyancing?: Part 1

What is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the process by which the legal title is transferred from the seller to the buyer. This is generally a straight forward process but sloppy conveyancing practice makes the process unnecessarily cumbersome and protracted. The process detailed in this report is that followed by Solicitors and Conveyancers at Phew! Please contact us for further information.

The Conveyancing Process: Pre-exchange of contracts
Initial letters sent on instructions
Once we are instructed to proceed on your behalf we generally do the following:-
Open a file in your name

Write to the estate agent and financial advisor (where applicable) to confirm our instructions on your behalf.


Write to the seller's solicitors with a list of pre-contract enquiries, to confirm our instructions and request them to send the draft contract papers to us. Pre-contract enquiries are a set of standard questions aimed at obtaining more information about the property in question, such as: what furniture (if any) is being left behind, the boundaries of the property, who owns and is responsible for any hedges or fences. If it is a leasehold property, we obtain details of the managing agents, and discover whether the current owner is up to date with things like service charge bills and ground rent.

Local Searches

We usually have to carry out searches regarding the property you propose to purchase. These will almost always include a local authority search and an environmental search.

Local authority searches usually take around six to nine working days to complete depending on the efficiency of the local authority, time of year and work backlog.

A local authority search will establish the following: proposals for any public works such as a new motorway, waterworks or alterations to road systems; whether any new developments are planned in the vicinity of the property; any problems with water drainage systems; and any planning restrictions that may affect your plans to renovate or alter the property.

The local authority search may not reveal everything you would like to know about the property and its surrounding area, such as any parking restrictions affecting the area in which you are buying.

If you require such information, it would be as well for you to contact the local authority directly, or advise us so that we can raise such matters with the authority at the start of the transaction.

There may be other searches required, depending on the location of the property, such as a coal-mining search or a search from a local railway network. We will inform you of any such requirement at the earliest.

Mortgage offer

If you are dependant on a mortgage to complete the transaction we may be required to act for both you and your mortgage lender. This mean there may be specific requirements and conditions that need to be satisfied before mortgage monies are released by your mortgage lender. Your interests broadly coincide with the mortgage lender's in seeing that there are no problems with the condition of the property or any legal concerns. If however, a conflict of interest arise between you and your mortgage lender we will be required to stop acting for you and the mortgage lender.

Once your mortgage offer has been issued your mortgage lender will normally send us a copy in the post.

Survey

The usual building society or bank valuation is not a full survey. The level of inspection varies between each building society/bank surveyor.

Your mortgage lender or the person arranging your mortgage should advise you as to the type of valuations and surveys available. For your own protection, we must advise you to arrange a full structural survey or at the very least a Home Buyers Valuation Report.

It might be possible, when making initial contact with your mortgage company for them to arrange for their surveyor to carry out a House Buyers' Report or full survey so that only one surveyor need be engaged.

If the surveyor only prepares a valuation for the mortgage company the contract may only be between the surveyor and the mortgage company. In that case, you may not have any right to sue the surveyor should any negligence on his part be proven. If the surveyor also prepares a report or survey for you then, if he is negligent, you would be able to sue him.

If you have a copy of your survey/valuation report, please kindly forward a copy to us.

If the property is leasehold it is advised the surveyor is instructed to survey the whole building and common areas.

Draft Contracts
At www.phew.co.uk the draft contract is sometimes prepared by our conveyancing team even when we are acting for the buyers. This is basically to speed up the process.

Upon receiving the draft contract from the seller's solicitors, we will check the documentation and raise any specific queries that arise

The contract is then amended by mutual agreement between us and the seller's solicitors. The contract is a legal document drawn up by the seller's solicitors that sets out the terms of the sale process. The contract will reflect details of the following:- property being sold; names of both the buyer and seller; the property price and details of anything else that has been negotiated to be included with the sale; the date on which the transaction will take place; and the completion date once all parties have agreed on this.

Once we are satisfied with all the legal documents and replies to enquiries in connection with the property, the contract is approved and sent to both parties for signature

Phew! offers a highest-quality service at all times - without exception. It has all the checks in place to ensure this.

Clients can get an instant online quote. Clients receive SMS updates, 24 hour online case tracker, direct dial access to the solicitor. Clients can also submit documents electronically and make payments either online or via the phone.
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