Conveyancing with Judge Law: how it works

The conveyancing process is the legal work that moves a home from one owner to another. A lot of it happens between solicitors, lenders, the council and HM Land Registry, so progress can be hard to see from the outside. This page explains what is going on at each point and what we need from you, so you know where your matter stands.

If a word is unfamiliar, our guide to common property terms explains it in plain English.

Choose your guide

We have written a step-by-step guide for each type of matter. The buying and selling guides follow the same stages, in the same order, as the progress emails we send you.

• Buying a homeThe 12 stages of a purchase, from your first instructions to your name on the Land Registry record.
• Selling a homeThe 10 stages of a sale, from the property forms to your mortgage being cleared from the title.
• Completion dayWhat happens on moving day, what to do before it, and checklists you can print.
• Remortgage or transfer of equityChanging your lender, or adding or removing someone on the title to your home.

Buying and selling at the same time? Read both guides. Your sale and your purchase are linked, and they usually exchange and complete on the same day, because the money from your sale pays for your purchase. Exchange is when the deal becomes legally binding. Completion is when the money moves and you get the keys.

Who is involved

A home sale or purchase involves more people than most clients expect. Each of them has a part to play, and each of them can affect the timetable.

• You. You give us your instructions, information and documents, and you sign the legal paperwork.
• Your conveyancer at Judge Law. A conveyancer is the lawyer who handles the legal side of buying or selling property. Yours checks the property and the paperwork, deals with the other side and keeps you informed.
• The other side’s solicitor or conveyancer. They act for the person you are buying from or selling to.
• The estate agents. They agreed the sale, pass messages between buyer and seller, and usually hold the keys on completion day.
• Your lender and mortgage broker, if you are borrowing. The lender values the property and issues your mortgage offer.
• The local council and other organisations. They supply the searches, which are reports on the property and the area around it.
• The freeholder or managing agent, for leasehold properties only. They supply information about the building, the service charge and the lease.
• HM Land Registry. This is the government body that keeps the official record of who owns land and property in England and Wales.

Because so many people are involved, your matter can be waiting on someone outside our office for days or weeks at a time. That is a normal part of the conveyancing process, and we tell you when it happens.

How we keep you updated

If you are buying or selling, we email you each time your matter reaches a key stage. Each email tells you:

• what has happened;
• what comes next;
• whether you need to do anything.

Each email links to the matching section of these guides, so you can read more about the stage you have reached. Your conveyancer is named in every email, and your replies go straight to them.

What we need from you, and why

We can only move as fast as the information we have. This is a short version of what we usually ask for. The buying checklist and the selling checklist give the full list, stage by stage.

Before you send us any money, call us on the number you already have for us to confirm our bank details. We will never change them by email, text or phone.

Why it can take longer than expected

Many people expect a home purchase to take a few weeks. In practice, a straightforward freehold purchase in a short chain usually takes 10 to 14 weeks from instruction to completion, and a leasehold purchase often takes 14 to 20 weeks. Some take much longer. These are typical ranges, not promises, and they are the most common source of frustration in the conveyancing process. Here is why.

Most of the waiting happens outside our office

At any point, your matter may be waiting on:

• the other side’s solicitor;
• the local council, for the searches;
• the managing agent, for a leasehold information pack;
• your lender, for the valuation and the mortgage offer;
• HM Land Registry, after completion;
• everyone else in the chain.

A chain moves at the pace of its slowest link

A chain is the line of linked sales and purchases that depend on each other. If you are selling to someone who is also selling, and your seller is also buying, every one of those transactions has to be ready before anyone can exchange. One delayed mortgage offer three houses away holds up everyone.

Questions lead to more questions

A reply from the other side can raise a new question. That is normal, and it is how we protect you from surprises after you have committed.

Missing information is the delay we can most often prevent together

Incomplete bank statements, unreturned forms and unsigned documents are the delays within our joint control. Sending everything we ask for at once, in full, is the most useful thing you can do to keep your matter moving.

Common causes of delay

• Council search backlogs. Some councils take weeks longer than others to return searches.
• Leasehold management packs. The freeholder or managing agent sets its own timetable.
• A down-valuation. This is when the lender’s valuer decides the property is worth less than the price, so the lender may offer to lend less.
• An expiring mortgage offer. Offers are valid for a limited time, and a renewal can take time.
• A probate sale. If the seller has died, the people dealing with their estate need legal authority to sell, called a grant of probate (or letters of administration if there is no will), usually before contracts can be exchanged.
• Unregistered land. If a property has never been recorded at HM Land Registry, the old paper deeds have to be checked by hand.
• Building work without sign-off. An extension or alteration without the right planning or building regulations approval needs to be resolved before exchange.
• A chain break. This is when someone in the chain pulls out, which can stop every linked transaction until a new buyer or seller is found.

What we do about it

• We chase the other side and third parties regularly.
• We email you at every key stage of a purchase or sale.
• We tell you if something is taking unusually long, and why.

No news usually means we are waiting on someone else, not that nothing is happening. Each guide says which stages often go quiet and for roughly how long, so a quiet week need not be a worry. For a longer explanation, read our article on why a house sale can take so long.

Keeping your money safe

Buying a home involves large sums of money, which makes conveyancing a target for email fraud. Criminals hack or copy email accounts and send messages that look as if they come from a solicitor, an estate agent or a broker, asking for money to be paid into a different account. Once the money has gone, it may not be possible to get it back.

• Before you send us money for the first time, call us on the number you already have for us to confirm our bank details.
• Be wary of any message that puts you under pressure to pay quickly, even if it seems to come from us.
• If you think you may have paid money to a fraudster, call your bank straight away, then call us.

Our article on the warning signs of property fraud explains what to look out for.

Frequently asked questions