The term 'Conveyancing' refers to all the legal and administrative work associated with transferring the ownership of land or buildings from one owner to another. The conveyancing process starts after an offer has been made and accepted to buy a property and solicitors' details exchanged by the two parties.
Who Does The Conveyancing?
Most people hire a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to undertake the legal side of buying their home. It is possible to do the conveyancing yourself, but it is time-consuming and also risky if you lack the necessary expertise. Although professional services are expensive, they have become cheaper in recent years and it is well worth the cost to successfully complete the purchase and to resolve any possible problems. This part of the process is crucial.
DIY Conveyancing: Pros and Cons
DIY-conveyancing is perfectly possible. If you are not put off by legal jargon and willing to deal with the large amounts of paperwork involved then you might manage without a professional conveyancer or solicitor. However, it is advisable to think about this very carefully, as it is a complex and time-consuming business. If it is not carried out properly you could, for example, find yourself involved in costly legal disputes over boundaries, or discover that there is a new road planned to be built opposite your home, or even that the seller did not have the legal right to sell the home.
In reality very few homebuyers undertake the conveyancing themselves, for three main reasons:
- Many mortgage lenders will insist on employing a solicitor to protect their interests. They will not risk having shoddy conveyancing work.
- There is a higher chance of things going disastrously wrong.
- The other people involved may not be happy with you doing your own conveyancing, and may even reject your offer on this basis.
There are some cases in which DIY conveyancing is particularly inadvisable, for example:
- the property is being sold by a divorcing or separating couple (this requires specialist skill or knowledge).
- the property is not freehold.
- the property is unregistered.
- the property is not a house.