I often hear from friends asking for solicitor recommendations before they have even started attending property viewings, operating under the misconception that securing legal representation is the very first step of the journey.
In reality, while it is always prudent to research costs in advance, you do not need to formally instruct a solicitor until you have made an offer on a property and it has been accepted. At that stage, the estate agent will request your solicitor's details to issue a "Memorandum of Sale," which officially triggers the legal process.
A Memorandum of Sale is a short document that confirms the buyer and seller have agreed a price, and we’re now starting the legal process. It’s not a contract — it’s more like an official notification to everyone involved.
Equally important to the timeline is the type of property you choose to buy. Purchasing a house (typically Freehold) is generally a more straightforward process. In contrast, buying a flat (almost always Leasehold) requires significantly more legal legwork. If you don't know the difference between Leasehold and Freehold, check out my post about the key concepts about real estate in the UK.
Type of property directly affects solicitor fees because it changes the amount of work they need to do. Leasehold would be more expensive!
When buying a leashold, there's more papework involved - a solicitor will need to review management packs, scrutinize the lease, examine service charge accounts, and verify building safety certificates—all of which can noticeably extend the duration of the purchase.
To help demystify the complexities of UK property law, I have adapted the step-by-step conveyancing guide my own solicitor shared with me during my purchase. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of the conveyancing process — the formal legal procedure of transferring property ownership from a seller to a buyer.
Conveyancing is the legal, administrative process of transferring property ownership and ensuring the transaction is valid, lawful, and properly registered with authorities like the Land Registry.
Prerequisites: The Mortgage in Principle (MIP)
If you are buying with a mortgage, there is one crucial step you must take before you even start viewing properties, let alone making an offer or instructing a solicitor: getting a Mortgage in Principle (MIP) (also known as an Agreement in Principle or AIP).
A MIP is a document from a lender indicating how much they would be willing to lend you based on a quick check of your income and credit history.
Why do you need it so early?
- Budgeting: It tells you exactly how much you can afford to borrow and what your estimated monthly repayments will be. You don't want to fall in love with a property you can't afford.
- Proof for Estate Agents: Estate agents will almost always ask to see your MIP before they accept your offer on a property, to prove that you are a serious, qualified buyer.
Is the interest rate final? No! A MIP is not a final mortgage offer. If the Bank of England changes interest rates before your final mortgage is approved (which happens during the conveyancing paperwork shuffle), you aren't locked in. For example, when I was buying, the rates started at 4.9%. During the time I was looking for a property, and then while we were dealing with searches and enquiries, rates dropped twice—down to 4.6% and then 4.5%. Since we hadn't exchanged contracts yet, we were able to request the lender apply the new, lower rate before finalizsing.
Note: Once your offer is accepted, your lender will also arrange a valuation of the property to ensure it’s actually worth the amount you're paying before they issue the final mortgage offer.
Step 1: The Memorandum of Sale & Contract Pack
Once your offer is accepted, the estate agent issues a Sales Memorandum to both parties' solicitors. This document contains the details of the buyer, the seller, their respective solicitors, and the agreed price.
The seller's lawyer then issues a Contract Pack to your (the buyer's) lawyer. Think of this as the master file containing all the legal paperwork required to sell the property. This pack includes:
- Proof of identity and property information forms filled out by the seller.
- The draft contract.
- Title documents from the HM Land Registry.
- If it's a flat (leasehold): A landlord management pack (which can sometimes take weeks for the seller to obtain from their managing agent).
Do you need to do anything here? No, you don't need to gather any of these documents—that's the seller's job. However, it is worth tracking the progress. Ask your solicitor or the estate agent after a week or two if the Contract Pack has been sent. Sometimes sellers drag their feet on filling out the forms or paying for the management pack, which delays the whole process.
Do you get a copy of the Contract Pack? Usually, no. Your solicitor will review the raw documents on your behalf. There's no need for you to read through archaic legal jargon. Instead, your solicitor will summarize the important points and highlight any red flags in a simplified document called the Report on Title (which you'll receive later in Step 5).
Step 2: Ordering Searches
Your solicitor will order "searches" with the local authority and other bodies. These typically include Local Authority, Environmental, and Water & Drainage searches.
These checks reveal vital information about the property, such as whether it's built on contaminated land, if there are planning permissions you should know about, or if a new motorway is planned right next to your garden. Most searches come back in a few days, but the local search can take around 3 weeks (and sometimes significantly longer depending on the local council!).
What do you receive? Your solicitor won't just dump raw data on you. While you will eventually receive a copy of the search results for your records, your solicitor's actual job is to interpret them. They will summarize any issues in the Report on Title (Step 5) and raise specific legal questions (enquiries) with the seller based on what the searches reveal.
Best-case vs. Worst-case scenarios:
- Best case: The searches come back completely clean. No action is needed.
- Worst case: A search reveals a major issue, such as the property being located in a high-risk flood zone, lacking planning permission for a major extension, or being situated directly over a planned high-speed railway line.
Can you abort or renegotiate? Absolutely. Because you haven't exchanged contracts yet, you are not legally bound to buy the property. If the searches reveal a serious problem, you have several options:
- Renegotiate: You can go back to the estate agent and lower your offer to account for the issue (e.g., the cost of fixing a previously unknown defect).
- Abort: You can walk away from the purchase entirely. You will lose the money you've already paid your solicitor for the searches, but you won't be forced to buy a defective property.
Step 3: Raising Enquiries (The Back-and-Forth)
Once your lawyer has the contract pack and the searches, they will review everything (often 8-12 documents for a house, and double that for a flat) and raise enquiries with the seller's lawyer.
This is where things can slow down. Enquiries are literally questions about the property based on the documents. For example:
- Do the windows have FENSA (building regulations) certificates?
- Who maintains the private shared driveway?
- Are there any upcoming major works planned for the block of flats?
There can be several rounds of enquiries if the seller’s responses are unsatisfactory or lead to further questions. Be prepared to wait during this stage!
Can you raise enquiries yourself? Yes, you absolutely can. If you noticed something during a viewing or have a specific concern, you should email these questions to your solicitor, and they will formally forward them to the seller's lawyer. However, it's often best to wait until you receive the Report on Title (Step 5) before sending a massive list, as your solicitor's report will likely already answer most of your questions.
A note on estate agents during this phase: Particularly with new builds or long chains, you might find the estate agent calling you frequently to ask for updates or pressuring you to move faster. Remember: estate agents only get their commission after the property successfully completes. They are highly motivated to push the sale through quickly. While they can be helpful in nudging a slow seller, do not let them rush you or your solicitor into skipping vital legal checks. Your solicitor works for you, not the agent.
Step 4: The Mortgage Offer
If you are buying with a mortgage, your lender will send a formal mortgage offer to both you and your solicitor.
From a conveyancing perspective, this isn't the end of the mortgage process — it's the beginning. Your solicitor acts for the lender as well as for you, meaning they have a strict duty to report any material facts to the lender (e.g., if you are using a gifted deposit). They must ensure the property meets the lender's criteria before they can request the funds.
Step 5: The Report on Title & Signing Contracts
Once all enquiries have been answered satisfactorily, your solicitor will send you a Report on Title. This is a comprehensive document detailing everything they have discovered about the property. Read this thoroughly!
What is inside the Report on Title? It acts as a summarized manual for your new property. It usually contains:
- The exact boundaries of the property.
- Any "restrictive covenants" (rules about what you can and cannot do with the property, such as forbidding business use or breeding animals).
- Summaries of the search results (environmental checks, local council plans).
- If you're buying a flat, a summary of all the lease rules, service charges, and ground rent.
Along with this report, they will send the final contracts and mortgage deeds for you to sign.
Does signing the mortgage deed lock in my final rate? The mortgage deed itself is simply a legal document binding your property as security for the loan. The interest rate is specified in your official Mortgage Offer. If you applied for a lower rate while waiting for the paperwork to be done, you should ensure that your solicitor has the newly updated Mortgage Offer before you proceed to exchange. This is imporant as my solicitor had 3 documents and send me the second one to sign - I had to go back to him to make sure we have the final offer from the lender. Once you sign the deed and your solicitor draws down the funds, those terms become final.
Make sure you and your solicitor have the final mortgage offer from the lender before signing the mortgage deed. You are locked into what you sign.
Step 6: Negotiating a Completion Date & Exchange of Contracts
Signing the contract does not mean you have exchanged. There is no such thing as an "exchange date" until the exchange actually happens.
First, all parties in the chain must agree on a Completion Date (the day you get the keys). Once the date is agreed upon, your solicitor will ask for your express verbal or written authorisation to Exchange Contracts.
Exchange is simply a phone call between the solicitors where they date the contracts and make the transaction legally binding. Upon exchange, a deposit (usually 10%) is handed over, and neither party can back out without severe financial penalties.
Who do you pay, and when do you pay the rest? You never pay the seller directly. All money must go through your solicitor's secure client account to comply with anti-money laundering laws.
- For Exchange: You will transfer the 10% exchange deposit to your solicitor shortly before the exchange happens, so they have cleared funds ready to go.
- For Completion: If you are putting down a larger deposit (e.g., 20%), what happens to the rest? Your solicitor will send you a Final Completion Statement. This document totals up the remaining deposit balance, solicitor's fees, and Stamp Duty. You will need to transfer this final sum to your solicitor a few days before Completion Day (Step 7).
Tip: Don't book removal vans or hand tracking notice to your landlord until contracts are exchanged!
Step 7: Completion Day!
Generally, you should leave at least 1-2 weeks between exchange and completion. This gives your solicitor time to request the mortgage funds from your lender and produce a final completion statement showing exactly how much money you need to transfer them to finalize the purchase.
On the day of completion, your solicitor transfers the funds to the seller’s solicitor. Once the money is received (usually around 12:00 – 14:00), the seller's solicitor calls the estate agent and tells them to release the keys. You officially own the property!
Step 8: Post-Completion
You might be settling into your new home, but your solicitor’s work isn't done. They still have to:
- Pay your Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) within 14 days.
- Register your ownership at the HM Land Registry (which can take several months, but you don't need to worry about this).
- Send notices to the freeholder/management company if you bought a leasehold flat.
The conveyancing process involves many third parties (councils, management companies, lenders), which is why estimated timelines can fluctuate wildly. While an average purchase takes 2-3 months, complex leaseholds or long chains can easily push the timeline to 4-6 months.
However, if you are buying a new build, the process is usually much faster! There is no onward chain, the developer has all the paperwork ready, and you are buying a fresh property with no history to investigate. In my case with a new build, from offer to completion, it took only 1.5 months.
Whether it takes 6 weeks or 6 months, patience is the key to surviving the UK conveyancing process!