Conveyancing - Buying Process

Receipt of draft contract
You will need to have hired a solicitor before this, but this is normally what most people see as the official start to the conveyancing process when buying a house. The contract, as the title says, is a draft contract, it will probably change quite a bit over following weeks.

Preliminary Enquiry
Your solicitor will send a list of basic enquiries about the property to the sellers solicitor. See “Property information form and contents list sent to you by the buyer” in the “when selling” part of this section for further info.

Property information form
You may receive a sheet containing some summary information about your property. It will contain information about fixtures and fittings, the property boundaries and any thing that has been agreed to be left behind. If any of this is incorrect you should notify your solicitor, as this information will be used in the contract.

Land charge and registry searches
This means your solicitor will obtain the title deed to the property, and the land registry certificate, and check it through. This is to confirm the seller actually owns the property and has good title (meaning that they do actually own it and have the right to sell it).

Local searches
This is a local authority search, it checks with local authorities about new developments in the area, such as roads, or other changes to the social infrastructure. This also includes things like adjacent properties planning permission.

Draft contract approved
When both parties are satisfied that the draft contract is accurate and correct, the draft contract is approved and sent to both parties for signature.

Formal mortgage offer
This will need to be completed before you can move on.

Arrange for completion
Many people arrange for exchange and completion at the same time, this is when the contracts are exchanged and keys on the same day, although this is not always possible, for example, if there buyer and seller are part of a longer chain, it will be quite difficult to arrange a date that both parties can be available. Your solicitor should co-ordinate these activities with your estate agents and the other parties’ solicitor.

Exchange
Once the exchange has taken place there is no backing out as the contract is a legally binding document.

The following will need to have taken place; otherwise it is unlikely you will be able to make the exchange:

You have a completed survey / valuation report and it has been accepted by you and your lender.
You have had a formal written mortgage offer from your lender.
All conveyancing work has been completed and is correct.
A completion date has been agreed, which is included in the contact.
All outstanding issues with the vendor, if there are any, have been settled.