What is conveyancing

You are thinking of buying your first house

What is a conveyancer and what is their role in the moving process

To be able to move house, everyone needs a conveyancer, they are necessary in every house purchase. You will find a conveyancer in some solicitor firms; they will usually list on the front of their premises or on their website a list of services they offer, or you will be able to approach a conveyancing firm that specialises only in conveyancing.

First thing you need to check with them if you are buying a house with a mortgage if they can work with the lender that you are using , the technical term for this is ask them if they are on the panel for Your lender .If they are then ask them for a full quotation, this should include the cost of actually doing the work, this is usually called the Administration charge, and then you have the disbursements this will include things like, Bankruptcy searches , money transfer fees , Electronic Id checks etc one of the main and biggest disbursement cost is local authority searches we will be adding a  another blog one how these work and what effect they can have on your house purchase .

As conveyancing is one of the main parts to the house purchase process then if the quote is agreeable and you haven’t been specifically recommended to the conveyancer, it is advisable to do some background research on them, a good place to start is resources like trustpilot .

Now then you have the quote, you’ve checked the service and you are happy to proceed with the chosen conveyancer, then it’s time to get them working for you, the technical term for this is to instruct them.

Once instructed the conveyancer will issue you with a pack, this is referred to by many as a welcome pack, it will ask questions about you the purchaser and include things like a purchase questioner, this will go into things like what you have agreed with the seller will be included in the sale , Furnishings and fixture and fittings etc , that will form part of the contract .

It will also ask for details of the selling agent and if known the sellers solicitors details, if the conveyancer is local you will need to go to see them with your ID and proof off address , if they are not a local conveyancer you will be able to send them copies of these items but they will need to be certified by a professional person ( we will add a  blog on this and some of the other stuff mentioned previous as a guide) so that you will know exactly what to do in each circumstance .

So you’ve returned the filled in and signed in pack to them with ID and your proof off address, now they will be ready to start their work.

 There are various aims the conveyancer needs to satisfy; the main one is making sure that the property you are buying has no issues that will cause you problems after the completion of the purchase. The next is to communicate with the seller’s conveyancer and move towards completion of the transaction. Usually the first thing that will be done is order the local searches from the relevant local authority or search agent. Searches we will cover in more detail in another blog, but in short they will identify any issues with the land the property stands on and the surrounding area , also anything that has been specifically registered against the property .

When the searches are back anything that might look like and issue your conveyancer will raise enquiries with the seller’s solicitor and will expect satisfactory answers to the questions before proceeding any further, this can be planning permission registered against the property, or no planning permission showing but the property has had a recent extension. A major road is planned near the property, flooding risk etc the list goes on.

Then we get to all the enquiries being satisfied that will make the property a good investment for you and also satisfy and issue that would affect the lenders security we will go into this one another Blog.  If all the enquiries are agreeable the conveyancer will then move towards drawing up contract papers and getting documents prepared for the re registration of the property at land registry in your name and the part you need to sign will be posted or emailed to you .

The conveyancer will then ask you for a suitable date to complete so you can move into the new property. They will also communicate with the seller’s conveyancer to agree a mutually suitable time for completion. Once this is agreed they can move towards exchange of contracts. But another factor if a mortgage is involved is they will need to satisfy all the conditions the lender has put on the special conditions part of the offer to lend.

Once enquiries, special conditions on offer from the lender and all due diligence has been carried out then the next stage is to get the deposit from you. The deposit will be sent to them via electronic banking, but before they will accept the deposit the source of the deposit under UK money laundering laws will need to be thoroughly checked and satisfy the current law. This usually involves evidence of the money in a UK bank account and a good explanation of how it was put there.

So the deposit is in, the contract and land registration forms are all in and signed by you and the seller. The solicitor will then negotiate a date to exchange contracts with completion to follow shortly after.

How will coronavirus affect property prices?

The UK property market has ground to a halt amid the coronavirus outbreak, but to what degree will house prices be affected by the slowdown?

Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/04/how-will-the-coronavirus-affect-house-prices/ - Which?

The UK property market has ground to a halt amid the coronavirus outbreak, but to what degree will house prices be affected by the slowdown? Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/04/how-will-the-coronavirus-affect-house-prices. The property market in 2020 Optimism briefly returned to the property market following December’s general election, with the number of sales rising by more than 12% in January as buyers and sellers awoke from a Brexit-induced slumber. But now the market is experiencing a significant slowdown, with estate agents having closed their doors and UK residents told to stay at home and put any moves on hold. Zoopla says this could result in house sales plunging by as much as 60% in the second quarter of the year, when compared with the same period in 2019. The property portal says buyer demand dropped significantly before the lockdown, with a ‘rapidly growing’ proportion of sales falling through. The estate agency Knight Frank echoes these sentiments. It predicts the number of UK house sales will plummet from the 1.175 million recorded last year to just 734,000 this year.

What’s happened to house prices?
The most reliable barometer of house prices is the Land Registry’s UK House Price Index. The most recent data only goes up to February, when overall house prices fell by 0.6% month-on-month, but grew by 1.1% year-on-year to reach £230,232. This timeframe isn’t particularly useful in helping us understand the impact of coronavirus, as it covers transactions that would have been agreed before the government introduced its stay-at-home measures. Earlier this week, the property portal Rightmove released its monthly index of asking prices without a headline figure, as it said there were ‘not enough properties coming to market to provide meaningful new asking prices’.

Price rises before the lockdown Nationwide and Halifax released their house price indices for March earlier this month.
Nationwide found that house prices increased by £3,000, but stressed that the figures didn’t cover the lockdown period. Halifax claims prices increased by 3% year-on-year in March, but says fewer transactions will make it ‘more challenging’ to calculate house price changes in the next few months.

Will coronavirus affect house prices?
It’s too early to say exactly what impact the outbreak will have on the property market, but this is likely to mirror the rest of the economy. In the short-term, house price growth will stagnate and price data may be volatile and unreliable, as there will be very few transactions going through. But as we saw with Brexit, the UK property market is very robust, so it’s highly unlikely that prices will crash. Knight Frank forecasts that UK prices will fall by 3% this year, but then bounce back by 5% in 2021, in line with its predictions around the economy as a whole shrinking this year. Rightmove says three things will be required to kick-start the market after lockdown: a continuation of low-cost mortgage lending and government incentives, lenders limiting forced sales and safe and innovative house viewing procedures.