Selling your house? When moving house solicitors deal with the conveyancing  

Conveyancing is the process of legally transferring ownership of a property from seller to buyer. Conveyancing includes the searches and enquiries and any final tasks following the sale. If you are moving house solicitors will deal with the legal transfer of the property. Find out what you need to do below.

Conveyancing: transferring the ownership of property 
There are three main stages of conveyancing for sellers, with tasks that need to be done at each point:
1. Pre-contractual stage
2. Exchange of contracts
3. Completion

1. Pre-contractual stage

Once you have accepted an offer for your property, legal documents need to be prepared. As the seller, you are responsible for drawing up a legal contract. If you have hired a solicitor or licensed conveyancer, they will do this work for you. The buyer checks the draft contract and may wish to negotiate its contents. The contract contains details including:

• What the property boundaries are
• Which fixtures and fittings, like carpets and kitchen units, are included in the sale
• How much the property is being sold for
• Any legal restrictions or rights on the property, like any public footpaths or rules about use of the property
• Any planning restrictions in place
• A description of the services to the property, eg drainage and gas
• The date for completing the sale (called completion)
• Your solicitor or licensed conveyancer will do the following on your behalf:
• Draft the initial contract
• Answer questions from the buyer’s solicitor or licensed conveyancer – they will need your assistance for many of the answers
• Negotiate the details of the contract if necessary
• Providing an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). You need to have an EPC ready for potential buyers from the first day your property is on the market. Your estate agent would usually speak to you about this

2. Exchange of contracts
When the seller and buyer are happy with its contents, they sign final copies of the contract and send them to each other – this is the ‘exchange of contracts’. Once contracts are exchanged, the agreement to sell and buy is legally binding and usually neither party can pull out without paying compensation.
Your solicitor or conveyancer will answer any further queries from the buyer’s solicitor or licensed conveyancer. The buyer’s solicitor or licensed conveyancer will prepare the legal documents to transfer ownership. You will need to check with the buyer who will be responsible for insurance of the property once contracts are exchanged.

3. Completion  
Once contracts have been exchanged and any remaining checks by the buyer have been dealt with:

• The money is transferred from the buyer to you via the solicitors
• The legal documents needed to transfer ownership are handed over to the buyer
• You move out and leave the property in the state agreed in the contract
• You hand over the keys to the property to the buyer

The property now belongs to the buyer.

Finding someone to do the conveyancing
Many people hire someone who is professionally trained to do the conveyancing, but you could do it yourself. Angels Solicitors specialise in conveyancing and can deal with your sale quickly efficiently and at a competitive cost. They also have been awarded the Law Society Quality Conveyancing Scheme kitemark for their quality service. It always pays to instruct a quality solicitor as they can save you costs in the long run. You can obtain a free estimate here.

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Angels Solicitors: Moving house solicitors

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