Posts Tagged ‘conveyancing’

What Is Conveyancing?

If you ever move home you’ll need to engage with the conveyancing process. It really is unavoidable hence it’s worth taking a minute to understand exactly what it is. Conveyancing is the process of transferring legal possession of (or conveying) land from one person to another.

Why The Conveyancing Process Is So Complex

A common question people ask is why the transfer of ownership of a house is so much more complicated (and time consuming) when compared to the purchase of other high value items such as a car for example? The answer is that land is considered much more important than any other possession and as such a whole body of law developed to deal with land ownership and the conveyancing process.

Unlike a car or a piece of jewellery, the land you own can affect other people. Others may have rights in it, such as a tenant’s right to occupy or a neighbour’s right of way. It can generate income both for the land owner and for those who have rights in it. Due to the importance of land there have been many laws made to protect people’s interests and many disputes resolved in the courts. This is not the case when buying other possessions and as such there are many more issues to consider and investigate when buy a piece of land. The conveyancing process is designed to make sure a buyer knows exactly what they are buying and what interests affecting the land are enforceable and in need of protection.

Do You Need Special Qualifications In Order To Offer Conveyancing Services?

To carry out conveyancing work (or at least certain key elements of a conveyancing transaction) for payment or other reward a person needs to be a solicitor or licensed conveyancer (or barrister). If a person who is not qualified carries activities such as drafting a contract or transfer deed or making an application for registration (these are known as “reserved legal activities”) for a reward then he is committing an offence under the Legal Services Act 2007, the penalty for which is a fine or, in extreme cases, even imprisonment.

Can I Do My Own Conveyancing?

There is nothing illegal about DIY residential conveyancing so technically the answer is yes! However, there are some important points to consider. First, if you are buying a property and you are obtaining a mortgage the lender will insist that a solicitor is appointed to act for it at your expense. Conveyancing solicitors fees can easily spiral under these circumstances.

In conveyancing, when a solicitor acts for a purchaser he usually also acts for the mortgage lender for no extra fee so, although you could act for yourself while the conveyancing solicitor acts for your lender, you probably wouldn’t save any money or for that matter gain any other advantage.

Secondly, although conveyancing is mostly an administrative task, knowledge of the relevant law is required and necessary in order to identify any potential problems with the title of the property. The importance of this is not to be underestimated as title issues can cause horrific problems later down the line. Any problems that do exist may not be immediately apparent and may not not come to light until the owner comes to sell the property on. A final point to mention is that a professional conveyancer will hold Professional Indemnity Insurance, that means that is a mistake is made you have protection and recourse to compensation. If you make a mistake you have no protection whatsoever.

How Long Will the Conveyancing Take?

Unfortunately there is no definitive answer to that. Several factors have to be considered when putting a time-frame to the conveyancing process such as how complex the transaction is, if there is a chain, what position the other elements are in relative to your own and of course the efficiency of your conveyancing solicitor! A ballpark figure however would be 6 – 8 weeks for a freehold transaction or 8 – 12 weeks for a leasehold transaction.