Conveyancing is involved any time you buy or sell a home or any other type of property. It’s the legal process for transferring ownership from the seller to the buyer. This often involves multiple stages, from negotiating and agreeing on the details of the sale by way of missives (the exchange of letters between solicitors that form the contact for the property purchase) to carrying out searches.
Conveyancing can be a complex process, requiring regular contact between client, solicitor and estate agent to minimise delay. You need to be confident you can get hold of your solicitor and that you’re given up to date information throughout the process. At Boyd Legal, our expert Conveyancing Team can be contacted by phone or email, and if your Conveyancing Solicitor is unavailable, there is always another team member able to help.
How can Boyd Legal help me?
We’re a boutique Estate Agency and Legal Practice with over 25 years of experience of dealing with all aspects of the house-buying process in Scotland. Our aim is to make the conveyancing process run as smoothly as possible. Our Property Solicitors offer:
- Free online property valuation tool
- A FREE first discussion in the office or on the phone, to get you off to the right start and answer any of your questions
- A written conveyancing quote of the FIXED FEE legal costs of buying your house, flat or property – without 'hidden extra conveyancing costs'
- A full written report before exchange of contracts (missives)
- Regular contact and progress updates
- Our sophisticated systems manage the routine paperwork, leaving our Conveyancing Lawyers and Estate Agents free to help with you.
What is the conveyancing process?
As mentioned above, conveyancing is carried out any time property is bought or sold. It is the legal process for transferring ownership, which is triggered when an offer is accepted and ends when ownership is transferred to the buyer. Briefly, this involves multiple stages, including:
- Negotiating the terms of the contract, such as whether certain items, such as white goods, will be left in the property, and the date of entry, which is the day the funds will be transferred and the buyer is given the keys;
- Checking the title deeds and searching the Land Register to ensure that the seller is legally entitled to sell the property;
- Concluding missives, which are the letters exchanged by the buyer’s and seller’s solicitors that form the contract for the sale;
- When acting for the buyer, ensuring the purchase funds are in place, either directly from the buyer or the buyer’s mortgage lender, transferring payment to the seller’s solicitor on the date of entry and, after the sale is complete, registering the buyer as the owner in the Land Register;
- When acting for the seller, ensuring the purchase funds are received, and providing the buyer’s solicitor with the legal documents needed to transfer ownership of the property.
How long does conveyancing take?
As with most legal processes, how long conveyancing takes depends on the particular circumstances. It tends to take several weeks, which is a little longer than the time it is likely to take to get your property on the market and accept an offer. This is because much of conveyancing is spent negotiating and agreeing the details of the contract (the missives). This means disagreements between the buyer and seller are likely to slow the process. Other common reasons for there being a delay include the time it can take for the buyer’s mortgage lender to confirm the offer of the loan, the carrying out of anti-money laundering checks or there being a problem with the seller’s title to the property, such as not owning as much of the land surrounding it as they think they do.
At Boyd Legal, our conveyancing solicitors offer a stress-free route to buying or selling property in Scotland. We work tirelessly for our clients to ensure the conveyancing process runs as smoothly as possible.
Expert Conveyancing Estate Agents and Property Lawyers Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kirkcaldy & Aberdeen
Buying or selling a house needn’t be complicated or expensive. At Boyd Legal, our enthusiastic conveyancing lawyers are eager to help you through the conveyancing process with as little fuss as possible and for a fixed fee. Located in Edinburgh and serving Glasgow, Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen and most of Scotland, we’re a team of friendly and approachable legal professionals, who put the needs of our clients at the heart of everything we do.
We want to help you get the best outcome for the future. If you’re looking to buy or sell your home and want capable, proactive and hardworking solicitors who offer expert advice and assistance with the conveyancing process, please get in touch.