Making sense of Conveyancing
Although the exact order of events in the home buying and selling process can vary there are three distinct stages to it. These are as follows.

Stage one:
When your offer has been accepted, you exchange solicitors' details the seller. Your solicitor will then contact the seller's solicitor and request the draft contract.

The draft contract contains details of the transaction including prices, the two parties involved, other information such as deposits, and specifics from the seller's title deeds.

From this your solicitor makes pre-contract enquiries .Your solicitor will send you a property information form or a copy of the draft contract for you to check .The sellers solicitor usually provides a package at the beginning of the process which includes:

the draft contract
copies of previous title deeds (registered/unregistered?)
a property information form, giving key property information (this saves the solicitor from many of the preliminary enquiries)
fixtures, fittings and contents form, telling you what fixtures, fittings and other items are included in the price and which will be removed. You should agree with the seller what is to be included, and make sure everything is included in the form
Your solicitor will check the details of the draft contract and negotiate it with the seller's solicitor. You should also check the draft contract yourself to ensure any agreements that you have made with the seller are included. Your solicitor will also apply to the local council for local searches , and check the title, contract and papers , and raises queries with the seller's solicitor.

This is to ensure that there is no reason why you might want to change your mind about purchasing the property. For example, there may be plans for development in the area that may affect your new property, and also to check that the seller really owns and has the right to sell the property.                                                                                                                                      

The standard searches are:

Local Authority Searches

Enquiries are sent to the local authority such as whether there are any plans for a major road to be built nearby, or whether there are any problems with the property which you would need to rectify.

Your solicitor will send a standard set of enquiries to the seller's solicitor which will include:

Disputes: such as disputes with neighbours.
Boundaries: what exactly are the boundaries of the property and who has responsibility for the maintenance of hedges and fences.
Planning constraints and permissions: Where alterations or additions to the property have taken place have these received the necessary permissions and regulatory approval.
Rights of way: Checking if there are any rights of way affecting the property.
Restrictive covenants: Items within the deeds which prohibit certain actions, such as keeping pets.
Guarantees or insurance policies: Guarantees are normally required to ensure any remedial works have been carried out to the correct standard.
Services: whether the property's utilities (gas, water, electricity) reach it via a neighbour's property or are shared with a neighbour
List of contents included in the sale: you must make sure that you have reached a clear understanding with the seller about what is and what is not to be included and listed it clearly.
If it is a leasehold, they will ask who the managing agent is, who the freeholder is and whether the seller is up to date with ground rent and services charges.
Other Searches
A set of standard questions is also sent to the water authority. Optional searches can include commons searches, coal mining searches and contamination searches. Your solicitor will advise you which searches you should have carried out.

Your solicitor will then check through the draft contract and send anything that needs changing to the seller's solicitor.

Once the contract is negotiated and agreed a completion date is agreed.

Getting to this point can take a good deal of correspondence between the two solicitors and clarification of agreements between you and the seller. Therefore, this process can take some time so it is a good idea to keep in regular contact with the solicitor and, where applicable, the selling agent to encourage them to maintain progress.

Contracts can only be exchanged once all parties are happy with the contracts and a completion date has been set. There is typically a week between exchange and completion to allow time for the final stage of the process but this can be longer or shorter in some cases. Some purchases require exchange and completion to take place on the same day. If you are involved in a chain of more than one purchase the completion date will usually need to be agreed upon by all parties of the chain.

If you are using a mortgage to purchase this property you will need to obtain a mortgage offer prior to exchange. You should thoroughly check your copy of this in case any changes need to be made. The solicitors copy of the offer is sent with instructions from the lender for any checks they require and a copy of the mortgage deed which the solicitor will send to you to sign (usually at the same time as you sign the contract).

Before exchange of contracts, in addition to the above you should make sure you are happy with the survey, have set up your mortgage protection and house insurance, and have made any deposit monies available to the solicitor. The solicitor will usually ask that the money required to settle your bill with them is put on account at this stage.

Stage two:
Contracts are exchanged. You hand over a deposit which is non-refundable if you pull out of the sale.

Once contracts have been exchanged (normally by the two solicitors) both parties are legally bound to follow through with the transaction. You can no longer change your mind - if you pull out it is likely that you will lose your deposit, and you could be sued for breach of contract. You also now have no need to worry about gazumping.

Following exchange your solicitor prepares the draft transfer document (if the land is not registered it will require a special kind of transfer or 'conveyance'). This documents transfers the title of the property from the seller to the buyer. Once both parties have agreed on the draft, it is signed by the buyer and the seller.

Your solicitor will also deal with the finalisation of documentation relating to your mortgage, and will arrange for the money to be available on completion of the sale.

Stage Three:
Moving Day!

On the day of completion you receive the keys and the seller is obliged to move out.

You pay the seller the balance of the purchase price through your solicitors

The seller's deeds are now handed over to you, and any outstanding mortgages on the property to be paid off.

The solicitor will pay stamp duty and land registry fees from the monies you sent to them prior to exchange.

Solicitor carries out final administration.   

                                         Conveyancing is not regulated by the Financial Services Authority.