Conveyancing for buyers and sellers

You’re in the pre-contract stage as soon as you submit your offer. However nothing can start until both parties instruct a conveyancer, so the quicker you know who you'll using the quicker you can get moving.

It's useful to research conveyancing companies and costs as soon as possible as finding one after the offer could add another few weeks on to the sales process. 

A draft contract will be written with information from a range of parties including the land registry, the seller and their conveyancer. You can expect it to take a week or so for the contracts to be issued to your lawyer, and a further couple of weeks for the sellers’ conveyancer to answer all the questions your lawyer will raise.

Whichever level of survey you’re getting on the house itself, you need to check the property’s condition as well as the local and legal searches your conveyancer will carry out. 

As issues can arise from your searches and surveys, this stage can take anywhere between two and ten weeks. 

Your conveyancer will exchange contracts with the other party’s conveyancer, which legally binds you to completing the transaction. This also allows you to set a completion date – which could be anything from a few days to several weeks away.

On your completion day, the conveyancers will organise the transfer of all the funds between the parties. The seller will usually need to have vacated the property by about lunchtime, with the buyer able to pick up the keys to their new home by 2pm.