Welcome to our Conveyancing page at Mortgages UK.

Conveyancing is the legal work involved in transferring property (buildings and land) to a new owner.

When you are buying a new home, most people will choose to hire some professional legal assistance to handle the conveyancing process.

The legal representative who helps you through the transfer of home ownership is known as a conveyancer. You can hire either a Licensed Conveyancer (a legal professional who specialises solely in the legal aspects of the transfer of property) or a general solicitor to act as your conveyancer.

Licensed Conveyancers can be found at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. It is important that any conveyancer you choose is licensed, as that shows they have the relevant qualifications. Otherwise, if you opt for a general solicitor, the Law Society Website can be used to find a solicitor in your area.

The conveyancing process also requires the payment of fees to further external parties, e.g. the payment of the Land Registry Fee to the Land Registry. When comparing conveyancing quotes, it is therefore important to establish whether the quote is inclusive of all the external party fees or not. A general solicitor may itemise all these external party fees and classify them as disbursements, which means they are additional payments that you will have to pay on top of the solictor's fee for carrying out the conveyancing process.

Some people choose to save money by undertaking the conveyancing process themselves. You are entitled to do this, but clearly it requires more work on your part, could take more time, and you may not benefit from the experience that a professional can bring. If you're interested in this, then you can buy conveyancing books from Amazon UK.

In the below wherever we refer to conveyancer or solicitor, we just mean the legal representative you have appointed to help you through the conveyancing process.

What does a Conveyancer Do?

A conveyancer will assist with the entire legal process of transferring ownership of a home. The first step will be your conveyancer being sent the purchase contract from the seller's solicitors.

A conveyancer will also assist with your mortgage arrangement.

A conveyancer can hold your mortgage deposit ready for payment to the seller's solicitor.

A conveyancer would help you to complete the Land Transaction Return form.

What does a Conveyancer check?

Checks that may be made during conveyancing include:

- Title Deeds. The seller's title deeds should be checked to confirm that the seller really owns the property and has the right to sell it.

- Checking Any Debts. It should be checked that there are no debts against the property or that these will be cleared prior to ownership transfer.

- Planning Issues in the Local Area. A conveyancer will perform Local Searches with the Local Authority, e.g. plans for major construction projects such as roads or railways and any building works expected in the area. Local buildings and land should be checked for planning permission applications. You may also wish to ask your conveyancer to investigate whether any commercial activity might affect the property, e.g. planned mobile phone and communication masts, electricity pylons, landfill sites etc etc.

- Whether the building is listed.

- Whether there is a Compulsory Purchase Order on the property.

- Checks with the Land Registry.

- Checks with the Water Authority.

- Flood Risk Analysis. A conveyancer may consult records of past floods to establish whether a property is at risk from flooding. Houses built on flood plains may be at particular risk. Note that the Land Registry has now introduced a Flood Risk Indicator Service which uses their data to give a probability of a particular property flooding. This is a paid service and is available under the Land Registry Property Search Service.

- Erosion Report. This can be a particular problem when buying a coastal property, as there are a number of areas of severe erosion risk around the UK.

- Environmental Reports - A conveyancer may investigate whether there are any specific environmental issues associated with the property, e.g. past environmental contamination, maybe the property is in an area where ground radon is an issue. Other environmental issues include landfill sites, contamination from previous industrial use, former military use (potential explosives risk), mining activity, burial of destroyed animals, e.g. from foot and mouth crisis.

- Mining Activity. Note, if you a buying a property where mining activity has taken place in the past, it may be worth getting this checked out to see if the property is built over mine works.

Your conveyancing solicitor will send a series of preliminary enquiries to the seller's solicitor as follows:

- Boundaries of the property. Who owns the boundaries and who has responsibility for boundary maintenance.

- Rights of Way. Are there any rights of way such as footpaths through the property? Are there any shares rights of access with the neighbours, e.g. a shared driveway.

- Planning permission. Whether any changes made to the property had planning permission before being carried out.

- Restrictive covenants. These are legal clauses specifying particular restrictions on the property owner and should be investigated before buying the property.

- Utility services. The way water, gas and electricity reach the property. Your solicitor should find out if there is anything unusual for the property.

- Building Guarantees. Are there any building guarantees included with the property. Many newer houses come with the NHBC guarantee.

- Planning Permissions Granted for the Property. The validity of any planning permissions granted for the property should be checked.

- Fixtures and Fittings List. A list of the fixtures and fittings that will be included with the property should be provided by the seller, and this should be checked by your conveyancer.

- Leasehold Details. If the property is leasehold, then details of the lease need to be checked. These include details of who the Freeholder is, who the Managing Agent is, details of Ground Rent and Service charges, and any outstanding charges due.

What Additional Costs can be Associated with the Conveyancing Process?

Even when you have been given a conveyancing quote, there may still be further costs involved in the conveyancing process. Completing the process will necessitate payment of fees to external parties, e.g. the payment of the Land Registry Fee to the Land Registry. You need to establish whether the conveyancing quote you have been given includes these external party fees or not.

If you are using a general solicitor for your conveyancing, they may itemise any fees that need to be paid to external parties, classify them as disbursements, and charge you for these in addition to their own professional services fee for carrying out the conveyancing process.

If you are carrying out the conveyancing process yourself, then clearly you will need to budget for these fees too.

External party fees that we are currently aware of include:

- Land Registry Fee. Cost of updating the Land Register to give the new owners details. See the Land Registry website for more info.

Related Reading

If you are interested in the conveyancing process, then try "A Guide to the National Conveyancing Protocol: TransAction 2004" by the Law Society, available from Amazon:

Thanks for visiting our Conveyancing page. We hope it helped find what you were looking for.