Conveyancing is a necessary and required process used when buying or selling properties. It is complex yet simple at the same time and being a legal process, it involves going to a professional lawyer who is also known as a solicitor or conveyancing solicitor. A conveyancing solicitor works independently or with a law firm which are known as conveyancing solicitor firms. Moreover, this is a required process and a must for people who are interested to properties in the UK, especially in England, Wales and around it. The conveyancing process requires fees, time and lots of effort and it will be summarised in a set of four articles starting from this.

This particular article will focus on the initial stages and legal aspects of conveyancing when buying a property in the UK.

In the beginning

After you have met your estate agent and selected the property that you want to buy, you go to a conveyancer. Firstly, one important thing that you should consider is that your estate agent will give suggestions about a solicitor. You need to understand that you should not follow his advice at most times. This is because if you go to that solicitor, then, your agent will get a commission.

Therefore, best thing is to go and search for conveyancing solicitors. There are many conveyancing solicitors in the market and many have multiple years of work experience. The best conveyancing solicitors to consider are those who will give you support throughout the buying process and clarify every type of issue.

Starting the process

Moving on, after you have selected a conveyancing solicitor, you will receive letter which is a confirmation of terms of business that the conveyancer will conduct with you. After you have signed this letter and confirmed that you are now officially taking their services, they can start working for you.

Initial cost that your conveyancer will charge you will include cost for searches, survey etc.

After this process is done, your conveyancing solicitor will send a letter to the conveyancer solicitor of the seller. This letter will be a request. It is a request to the other solicitor for a draft contract. After this letter is sent, the solicitor of the selling party will send a package. This package will comprise of information that includes the property title and other standard forms completed by the seller. On the other hand, if you are buying a leasehold property, then the package will have a copy of the lease too.

Another thing is that many people in the UK buy properties under joint ownership. If you are planning to buy the property which will have more than one owner name, then there are two ways that can be followed.

Firstly, one method is to buy the properties in the joint tenant method. In this, both the owner planning to buy the property will show same interest. And the legal work is such that after the death of one owner, the other owner will be legally entitled to own the property by themselves only.

Secondly, another method is tenants in common. This is method is to buy the property in a manner where both the owners share a specific percentage of the property. After death of one of the owners, he or she will have the right to leave that share to the desired person that they want as the owner of the property to be.

Usually, your solicitor will ask you before you about your wishes regarding this shared ownership. Therefore, you will need to let them know if you are willing to buy the property under joint ownership. Also, it is important to let your estate agent know which solicitor services you will be taking. After you have done so, they will send a memorandum of sale to all parties including property details so that the process goes as smoothly as possible.

This was just the basic process that you can follow when choosing a conveyancer to buy a property in UK. There are the other legal and other aspects to know and consider before going and buying a property. The next article will focus on that. For best property conveyancing, it is best to go to an experienced solicitor like Nigel Broadhead Mynard Conveyancing Solicitors who do property conveyancing in and around the UK.