As safe as houses – why we check and double check every aspect of your property purchase

When you are buying a property, probably the biggest investment you’ll ever make, you want to know that every legal detail has been thoroughly checked to ensure there are no mistakes which could end up being costly for you later.

Our specialist conveyancing solicitors work on your behalf to find out everything you need to know about the legal title of the house or flat you are buying, scrutinising a complex spectrum of different areas of the law to do so.

This includes running property searches and raising queries with the seller’s conveyancer arising from the search results and the property title documents.

The quality of the conveyancing process depends on the calibre of the conveyancing solicitors who carry it out. This is where Wards Solicitors stand out with a long and established reputation for expertise reflected in a consistently high number of personal recommendations and excellent satisfaction levels.

Are all Conveyancers the same?

The answer, frankly, is no. The most commonly cited problems include a failure to advise clients properly, failure to follow instructions, delays and poor cost information.

Choosing a conveyancing specialist should be considered carefully.

We don’t expect to be the cheapest but we do strive to offer our clients quality legal advice at a fair cost – declared upfront from the start with no hidden extras – and, unusually in this day and age, we don’t pay estate agents, mortgage brokers or anyone else for referring conveyancing work to us.

Our conveyancing specialists all know their local housing market extremely well which is not always the case. In fact, many members of our team live in the same area as the office they work in.

All our conveyancing specialists are trained to look at every detail of the legal process. We will keep you in the loop and keep the conveyancing process moving forward as swiftly as is safely possible.

What conveyancing services and checks do we provide for you?

As conveyancers, we do not normally visit the property that you are purchasing. This is why it is vital you advise your conveyancer of any matters of concern that you have discovered on your inspection of the property, or that have been revealed by your survey, so that these can be picked up with the seller’s conveyancer.

The following is a brief run through of what we do from start to finish and helps to explain the complicated nature of conveyancing, and the full range of legal services we run alongside it, and why our emphasis on attention to detail is so vital.

1. Sending out terms of business and details of our fee.
2. Opening a file for your purchase on receipt of your instructions.
3. Getting the ball rolling with searches on receipt of contract papers from the seller’s solicitor,
4. Checking all the paperwork from the seller’s conveyancing specialist – the draft contract, the Title Deeds to the property, the seller’s Property Information Form, Fittings and Contents Form and any Leasehold Information Form.
5. Raising queries and checking the answers – this could be something to do with the Deeds or a matter revealed by the search results.
6. Sending you the agreed documents to sign and return with our report on title setting out the matters that you need to be aware of in respect of the legal aspects of the property.
7. Asking you for the 10% deposit (or 5% if you are taking out a 95% mortgage) and keeping it safe for you until exchange.
8. Exchanging contracts, the point at which the purchase becomes legally binding.
9. Completing on your new home on the agreed completion date – by this point, we will have asked you for the balance needed to complete the purchase and we will send this to the seller’s conveyancing specialist.
10. Submitting your completed notice of the transaction to H M Revenue and Customs and paying any Stamp Duty Land Tax payable.
11. Ringing you to confirm everything has gone through and the estate agent is ready to hand you the keys.
12. Logging the change of ownership of the property you have bought with the Land Registry.

Get in touch

Wards Solicitors wins high praise in the 2023 edition of the independent Legal 500 guide of outstanding legal professionals for its exceptional professional service standards and high levels of technical expertise.

Our expert and highly regarded Conveyancing Team work across all 12 of our local offices in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact.

Posted by: Matthew Pitt