What Is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from the seller to the buyer. In England and Wales, conveyancing is a complex but well-established legal process involving multiple parties — buyer, seller, their respective solicitors, mortgage lenders, estate agents, and HM Land Registry.
Understanding the conveyancing process helps you know what to expect, anticipate potential delays, and communicate effectively with your solicitor throughout your transaction.
Stage 1: Instruction and AML Checks
Once your offer is accepted (as a buyer) or you accept an offer on your property (as a seller), your first step is to instruct a conveyancing solicitor. At Legal Merchant, we match you with the most suitable, best-priced panel solicitor for your transaction within two hours of receiving your quote request.
Your solicitor will send you a client care pack containing:
- Their terms of engagement and pricing information
- Anti-Money Laundering (AML) identity verification forms
- Client questionnaires covering your personal details, property information, and funding arrangements
You must complete your AML verification before any legal work begins. This is a legal requirement — your solicitor cannot proceed without verifying your identity and the source of your purchase funds.
Stage 2: Draft Contract and Title Investigation
Once instructed, the seller's solicitor prepares and issues a draft contract pack to the buyer's solicitor. This contains:
- The draft contract itself
- Official copies of the title register from HM Land Registry
- Completed property information forms (TA6 — Property Information Form; TA10 — Fittings and Contents Form)
- For leasehold properties: the TA7 Leasehold Information Form and copies of the lease
The buyer's solicitor then investigates the title — reviewing all documents to check:
- That the seller has the legal right to sell the property
- Whether there are any charges, restrictions, covenants, or easements affecting the property
- That the title is free from defects that could affect your ownership or use of the property
Stage 3: Property Searches
Your solicitor will order a series of property searches to check for any issues that could affect the property or your use of it. Standard searches include:
- Local Authority Search: Reveals planning approvals and refusals, enforcement notices, road adoption, and any proposals affecting the area
- Drainage and Water Search: Confirms how the property is connected to the public water and sewer network and whether any public sewers run through the garden
- Environmental Search: Checks for flood risk, contaminated land, ground stability, and other environmental hazards
- Chancel Repair Search: In certain areas, properties may be liable to contribute to the cost of repairing historic churches
Your solicitor may also recommend additional searches based on the property's location — for example, a coal mining search in former mining areas, or a tin mining search in Cornwall.
Search results take 1–6 weeks to be returned, depending on the local authority. This is often the primary source of delay in the conveyancing process.
Stage 4: Raising and Answering Enquiries
Once the buyer's solicitor has reviewed the draft contract, title documents, and search results, they will raise enquiries — written questions directed at the seller's solicitor seeking clarification on any issues identified. Common enquiries cover:
- Planning permissions for works carried out at the property
- Building regulations sign-off for extensions or conversions
- FENSA certificates for replacement windows
- Details of any neighbour disputes
- Clarification of boundary ownership
- Access rights to shared driveways or paths
The seller's solicitor must respond to all enquiries to the buyer's solicitor's reasonable satisfaction before exchange can proceed.
Stage 5: Mortgage Offer
If you are purchasing with a mortgage, your lender must formally approve your application and issue a mortgage offer before exchange. Your solicitor also acts for your lender and will review the mortgage offer conditions, report to the lender on the property's legal title, and comply with any conditions before releasing the mortgage funds on completion.
Stage 6: Exchange of Contracts
Exchange of contracts is the point at which the transaction becomes legally binding. Both buyer and seller sign identical copies of the contract (which includes the completion date). The buyer pays the deposit — typically 10% of the purchase price — and the contracts are then "exchanged" between solicitors.
After exchange:
- Neither party can withdraw without significant financial penalties
- The completion date is fixed and agreed by all parties
- The buyer is advised to take out buildings insurance from exchange (as they bear the risk of loss from this point)
Stage 7: Completion
Completion day is the day when the property legally changes hands. Your solicitor transfers the purchase funds (including the mortgage advance and the balance of the purchase price) to the seller's solicitor. Once the funds are received, the seller's estate agent releases the keys to you.
On completion day, your solicitor also:
- Redeems any existing mortgage on the property (if the seller has a mortgage)
- Pays any agents' fees from the sale proceeds (for the seller)
- Issues a financial completion statement
Stage 8: Post-Completion
After completion, your solicitor handles the following final steps:
- Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT): Filed and paid to HMRC within 14 days of completion
- Land Registry registration: Your solicitor registers the change of ownership (and any new mortgage) at HM Land Registry. This can take several weeks to several months for HMLR to process
- Title documents: Once registration is complete, your solicitor sends you the registered title for your records
Tips for a Smooth Conveyancing Process
- Instruct your solicitor as early as possible — ideally at the point of offer, not after acceptance
- Respond quickly to all requests from your solicitor — delays in providing information are a leading cause of slow conveyancing
- Be realistic about timescales — 10–16 weeks is the average, not the minimum
- Stay in regular contact with your solicitor and ask for updates if you haven't heard anything for more than a week
- Don't book removals or give notice on a rental property until exchange has occurred — only then is the completion date legally fixed
