What does it actually mean? It is the general description of the legal work carried out in connection with the buying and selling of any property.
Buying and selling a home is Residential Conveyancing
It will involve an investigation of the legal title to the property and the emphasis of that legal work will depend upon the particular facts of each transaction. That is where understanding what you want to achieve is important and we will ask you a number of questions relating to the property to enable us to tailor our service to meet your needs.
It could be a freehold property a leasehold property or commonhold which is a particular type of freehold ownership for buildings in communal use. There are very few commonhold properties in existence.
Any conveyancing work will look for any legal rights generally known as Easements which are granted or reserved for the benefit of the parties and might relate to rights of way in order to access the property drainage water and general services. Checking the general planning consents for the use of the property in the form of planning permissions and that the structure conforms to building regulation requirements. Many properties are subject to legal obligations restricting their use imposed by the current or previous owners of the property and these are known as Restrictive Covenants. There can of course be many other matters to be considered depending on the nature requirements of the transaction.
When you buy or sell a residential property you will either purchase the freehold which will most likely be the case if you are dealing with a house or bungalow or it will be leasehold if you are dealing with a flat in a purpose built block of flats or will be in a converted house. You might very occasionally be dealing with commonhold which is a type of freehold ownership but properties in a communal setting which is most likely to comprise flats can also include houses where that is relevant to the particular development. You are not likely to come across that very often as there are very few such developments.
The legal work required will be tailored to the particular transaction and we will identify what title investigations, searches, enquiries and investigations need to be carried out. If a mortgage is required we will also undertake the necessary legal work in accordance with the Lender’s instructions.
Work involving a leasehold property is generally more complex and time-consuming than that for a freehold property.
If all this information is provided before a buyer has been found then a complete contract package can be prepared and everything ready to send out immediately following the sale being agreed.
We work with our Clients to streamline the conveyancing process to ensure any given transaction can proceed as smoothly as possible. However no one works in isolation and must work as part of a team with others in the process. Fitting all the requirements together is a bit like piecing together a jigsaw and only when all the parts come together can the transaction proceed.
