What conveyancing actually is, and what happens at each stage of buying your first home.
Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from the seller to you. A solicitor or licensed conveyancer handles it on your behalf — checking the title is genuine and unencumbered, running searches on the property and area, handling your deposit and mortgage funds, and registering you as the new owner once everything completes.
It helps to have a conveyancer lined up before you make an offer, not after — some sellers and estate agents ask for proof you're ready to proceed, and having a solicitor already instructed can make your offer look more serious.
Your conveyancer requests the draft contract pack from the seller's solicitor, then starts searches (local authority, water and drainage, environmental, and sometimes others depending on the property) and reviews the title. This is usually the slowest part — searches alone can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks depending on the local authority.
Once your conveyancer has the search results and title information, they'll raise enquiries with the seller's solicitor about anything that needs clarifying. In parallel, if you're using a mortgage, your lender needs to issue a formal mortgage offer before you can exchange contracts.
Exchanging contracts is the point you're legally committed — you'll pay your deposit and agree a completion date. Completion is moving day: the remaining funds transfer, you get the keys, and your conveyancer registers your ownership with HM Land Registry and handles any Stamp Duty Land Tax due.
If this is your first property and it's in England, you may qualify for first-time buyer relief on Stamp Duty Land Tax — currently a nil-rate band on the first £300,000 of the price, provided the property costs £500,000 or less; above that, standard rates apply to the whole price instead. Wales has no equivalent relief under Land Transaction Tax. Every itemised quote you compare through Five Star shows the legal fee, VAT and disbursements as separate figures, and our free SDLT calculator gives you a rough figure to budget for before you commit to a firm.
More: all guides
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