When instructed, a solicitor acting on your behalf will begin the conveyancing process, initially contacting the vendor’s solicitors to introduce themselves and seek the contract upon which the sales process will be based upon. At the same time they will order on your behalf a set of local searches that will give the solicitor (and you) a detailed overview of the land, services and rights that belong to the property or as it’s known, the title.

When the solicitors have received their searches (which normally takes around 14 days) they will raise enquiries based on them with the vendor’s solicitors. This part of the process can be particularly tricky for both sides, especially if there are any anomalies in the title that are unexpected or out of the ordinary.

Following satisfactory responses from all the enquiries that have been made by your solicitors, you will be issued a ‘Report on Title’ by your own solicitor, who will then issue this report to you and your mortgage lender (if you require one). This will be a full and detailed outline of the the property you are buying along with any legal obligations that may come with the purchase of the title. If you (and the lender, if applicable) are satisfied with the report, you will be expected to sign and return your contracts to your solicitor along with a deposit (normally) of 10% of the purchase price in order to exchange contracts. Once this part of the conveyance has been completed, both sides are legally bound to complete the transaction on, or before a pre-arranged date (failure to do so will result in the loss of deposit or financial penalty).

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