Buying a house is an exciting, if legally complex, undertaking. For first time buyers, the conveyancing process is one of the most obscure elements of buying property. It can seem as though the process is an unnecessarily lengthy obstruction to home ownership.
Although the conveyancing process can be difficult to understand for the uninitiated, it’s a critical piece of securely transferring property ownership. It provides vital legal protections for all parties involved in the sale of a home.
In this guide, we identify each step on a clear and easy to understand conveyancing timeline. We’ll explore every part of the process, how long you can typically expect each stage to take and what soon-to-be homeowners should avoid if they want to keep the process moving.
Property conveyancing is the name given to the transferral of land ownership from one entity to another. The conveyancing process begins the moment an offer on a property (such as a house) is accepted and ends at a stage known as ‘completion’ (the end of the sale).
We go into more detail about the specifics of what conveyancing is and what conveyancers do in another blog post, which you can find here.
You don’t have to hire a conveyancer or a conveyancing solicitor, but DIY conveyancing invites its own risks, not the least of which is the legalese and documentation involved in the conveyancing process. If you’re thinking of taking care of your own conveyancing, you should check out our detailed guide on DIY conveyancing. Or, you can read our guide on finding and choosing the right conveyancer here.
The conveyancing process is slightly different for sellers and buyers. We’ve listed the process out for both below.
The average conveyancing timeline in the UK spans 8-12 weeks. We’ve compiled all of the stages together so that you can easily get an idea of how long the process should take:
Conveyancing Step | Estimated Time | Possible Delays |
---|---|---|
Pre-contract work, including local authority searches | 2 weeks | Local authorities can miss set deadlines |
Mortgage offer | 4 weeks | Not having a ‘Mortgage Agreement in Principle’ before accepting an offer |
Draft contract | 2-10 weeks | Unexpected results from surveys and searches on the property |
Exchange of contracts to completion | 1-2 weeks | Sellers might delay so that the specified date can better overlap their onward purchase deadlines |
What does the conveyancing process look like if you're planning on selling your home? Let's take a closer look at the process.
Generally, the conveyancing process for buying a house is a little longer than the process for selling one - as a result, the solicitor's fee can be costlier. Let's take a deeper look at the process itself:
We’ve compiled a list of the essential documents you’ll need to have if you want to ensure a smooth conveyancing process.
Buyers should also organise their own documentation referring to:
Conveyancing searches take between 48 hours and 10 days depending on the type of search being carried out. Searches are a critical part of the conveyancing process. They can be broken down into five main categories:
The goal of conveyancing searches is to discover whether there are any issues that could affect your property before you sign a contract. For example, a water search will assess the flooding risk, while a local authority search will check whether a property is listed or located in a conservation area.
If there are any issues to be found, progress to completion may be put on hold or even suspended. Buyers are free to back out of a transaction as long as contracts have not been exchanged.
Conveyancing is generally much quicker if you’re not part of a property chain. A conveyancing process with no chain can take as little as 8 weeks on average.
Unfortunately, even if you’re not part of a property chain, you can still face significant hurdles that can draw out the conveyancing process. For example, you may receive negative survey results that lead you to renegotiate the deal. In extreme cases, the survey results might be so bad that you have to abandon the sale. Although frustrating, it would be far worse to complete on a property only to be stung by nasty surprises once the sale is completed.
As with a freehold, the conveyancing process for a leasehold property takes 8-12 weeks on average. Unlike a freehold however, a leasehold transaction can be hindered by extra conveyancing steps, including the procurement of ground rent and service charge information, leasehold mortgage requirements, lease extension or enfranchisement information.
Once searches are completed, the next step in the conveyancing process is the ‘Mortgage Offer’ stage.
As we’ve mentioned in the conveyancing timeline above, be sure to get your ‘Mortgage Agreement in Principle’ document ready in advance if you have one.
Watch out for the following and you may avoid some extensive delays to the conveyancing process. These are the primary problems that can delay the conveyancing process:
There will be elements of the conveyancing process that buyers and sellers can’t influence. However, by preparing accordingly, buyers and sellers can minimise some pain points that traditionally stall the journey to completion.
There are many reasons why conveyancing solicitors can take a long time to complete the process. Some factors are out of solicitors’ and conveyancers’ direct control, such as
However, it’s also worth noting that conveyancers can vary substantially in quality and competence. It’s important to do your homework and compare conveyancers before contracting them.
Whilst nobody can completely control the conveyancing process, you can make sure everything is in place to speed up the process. For a start:
However, due to the reasons listed above, it’s difficult to know exactly how much time these premium services can save you.
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