A house conveyancing solicitor generally deals in all issues relating to the sale and purchase of land and domestic property and will also deal with rental agreements and domestic leases. To effect and complete a sale the buyer must obtain good ‘title’ to the property or to the land which enables him to claim legal ownership. The person selling the property or land must of course have the right to do so by being the owner. In order to achieve a valid and legally enforceable sale a solicitor acting on behalf of a buyer must make detailed enquires both about the sellers title to the land and about any property that is being sold.
There are essentially four stages carried out by a house conveyancing solicitor who is involved in the sale or purchase of land and property on behalf of a client. The first stage is ‘pre-contract enquiries’, the second is ‘exchange of contracts’, the third is ‘completion’ and the fourth is ‘post completion’ :-
Having agreed a price for the property, the buyer and seller will thereafter instruct solicitors to act on their behalf. The buyers solicitor will begin an investigation into the land or property which may include valuations and will include relevant searches in the records of various authorities.
Once these procedures are complete and the buyers solicitor is satisfied with the enquiries made about the property then contracts will be exchanged with a 10% deposit usually being paid by the buyer, following which both buyer and seller are legally bound to complete the contract of sale.
After further investigations and after the remaining documentation has been dealt with the balance purchase money will be paid to the seller. At this stage the transaction is completed and the new owner of the property or land can assume the legal rights of ownership.
Thereafter all that remains to be done post completion is for the solicitor to deal with the final aspects of registration of the new owners interest in the land or property with the Land Registry.
Where possible land and property solicitors deal with matters electronically and there is no need for any of our clients to ever attend a lawyers offices. Clients who do not have access to a computer can still be dealt with efficiently by use of post and telephones and will find that the lawyers service still proceeds at a fast pace due to use of modern technology again without the necessity to attend any law office.
