What Does a Solicitor Do for Conveyancing?

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property ownership from one person to another whilst ensuring that the transaction remains lawful and properly documented. This ensures that the buyer acquires a valid title while the seller meets their legal obligations which allows the transaction to be completed safely and transparently. The process typically takes at least 8 weeks to be completed and involves a number of stages.

What is a conveyancing solicitor?

A conveyancing solicitor is a solicitor who specialises in helping clients with the legal side of buying or selling a property by guiding them through the entire transaction process. This solicitor will also understand other aspects of the law with can provide necessary help in the purchase or sale of a property. They could offer services such as talking a client through legal ramifications of findings from searches or surveys and alternatively, they may be able to help draw up a will or a deed of trust that is needed after a property sale or purchase. Conveyancing and legal verification include no difficulties when a conveyancing solicitor handles most of the property transactions in the purchase or sale of a home. As they have a client’s best interest in mind, they handle everything from requesting searches to writing up contracts.

Freehold or leasehold?

A solicitor studies the draft contract and documents to identify what needs to be in investigated further, however most importantly, a client and a conveyancing solicitor musty establish whether the property is freehold or leasehold.

The ownership of a freehold property means that an individual has the perpetual ownership of both the property and land which gives full control over a home and providing enough freedom that permission does not need to be sought from a landlord or a freeholder in order to make alterations. Despite this, changes must be subject to legal and planning regulations. Freehold ownership does not expire which provides long-term security for an individual.

A leasehold property gives an individual the legal right to live in a home for a set number of years under an official contract called a lease. Unlike freehold ownership, leasehold ownership is time-limited and when the lease expires, the property legally reverts to the freeholder unless the lease is extended or the freehold is purchased.

Elimination of risks with conveyancing solicitors

When buying or selling property, there are many unknown terms that can be found below the surface which is why a conveyancing solicitor can reduce the risks involved in conveyancing. For example, the purchase of a property could come with the obligation to pay for local church repair, known as Chancel Repair Liability, or even as far as an abandoned mine under property. With a solicitor performing the property searches, they will be able to identify issues such as local levels of flood risk or ground contamination. The information that emerges by way of the property search performed by the solicitor may give a client a stronger negotiation position or may even cause a client to rethink the purchase entirely.

Completion

Between exchange and completion, a client’s solicitor will send da final statement which will show how much money they will need to pay, including any mortgage they may have. This sum is required to be cleared into the solicitor’s bank account at least one day in advance and considering the fact that some bank transfers take several days to clear, it would be advised to complete this in good time.

After this a client now owns their home however a solicitor’s job isn’t quite done yet. They will now pay Stamp Duty on behalf of a client, from the funds that the client has already provided, and send their legal documents to the Land Registry to confirm them as the new owner of the property. The solicitor will also send a copy of the title deeds to their mortgage lender. The client should receive all legal documents back from the Land Registry within about three weeks. Although conveyancing can be a long and stressful journey, the help of a good solicitor can make the process a significantly easier.

If you require expert legal advice or support with any aspect of your matter, our experienced team of solicitors at Aston Bond are here to help. We are committed to providing clear, practical and tailored legal solutions to help you move forward with confidence. Contact our team today on 01753 486 777 or email info@astonbond.co.uk to discuss how we can assist you.