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House Conveyancing Near Me

House Conveyancing Near Me – Solicitors Near Me

Online searches for “house conveyancing near me” return lots of options for solicitors and conveyancers offering this kind of service.

What they return less often is useful information that helps you understand the process itself.

Here is everything you need to know about the conveyancing process when you’re buying a house and how long you can expect everything to take:

The Conveyancing Process For House Buyers – Timeline

1) Instruct A Conveyancing Ssolicitor (Up To 2 Weeks)

After you’ve had your offer on a property accepted, it’s time to instruct a conveyancing solicitor.

This can take a little while (although it’s much easier if you let Solicitors Near Me find you a trustworthy house conveyancing specialist for FREE and with no obligation to use their services. Tell us about your needs on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry).

So, although you won’t need a solicitor until after your offer is accepted, it is wise to have one lined up ready to get the process started.

2) Get A Property Survey – Roughly 1 Week

You aren’t legally required to get a property survey. But it’s a sizeable risk to buy a house without having one done first.

A survey will identify any structural issues or other faults with the property. This lets you know about its condition and any work that might need doing (potentially meaning you can negotiate to reduce the asking price).

Knowing the condition of a property before you buy is vital. If you decide there’s too much work to do, you can still pull out at this phase (you normally can all the way up until contracts are exchanged – and you still can then even then if you can face losing your deposit).

The survey itself will only take a matter of hours (potentially up to eight hours for a detailed property survey), but you can expect it to take around a week after the appointment for the surveyor to get the report to you.

3) Carry Out Property Searches – 2 To 8 Weeks

Property searches or “conveyancing searches” are how you find out more about the property you want to buy. They involve your solicitor reaching out to a whole range of authorities to find out more about it.

The Local Authority is perhaps the most important search. Different authorities work at differing degrees of efficiency, meaning some local authority searches can take up to eight weeks to get back to you.

4) Draft The Contract – 0 To 3 Weeks

After the seller has completed their property questionnaires, your seller’s solicitor can use the information to draft the contract. This will specify the terms of the sale and is needed for some of the steps below.

5) Secure A Mortgage And Negotiate Contract – 0 To 6 Weeks

Your solicitor will then view the contract and possibly negotiate the terms. For example, perhaps the survey indicated significant work will be required. You might be able to negotiate a reduced sale price.

There may also be other questions posed by either you or your solicitor after they have investigated the contract papers and other documentation.

Once you have these details, you will need to arrange a mortgage with a lender. Your solicitor can then liaise with that lender as the process continues.

6) Contract Signing And Exchange – 0 To 3 Weeks

It is now your solicitor’s job to confirm they are happy with the finalised contract. If you are buying a leasehold property, this may take some time because of the complexity of the documents.

Your solicitor can either raise issues or signal they are happy. After this, you and the seller will sign the contracts.

You can then send across your deposit, formally exchange contracts, and arrange a completion date.

7) Completion (Around 2 Weeks Sfter Exchange Of Contracts)

Well done, you’ve bought a house! The money can be transferred from your mortgage lender to the seller’s solicitor, who will in turn hand over the keys to you.

After some final checks, the property’s title will be transferred to you via a document called a transfer deed, making you the new owner.

After completion, your conveyancing solicitor will still need to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax on the property and register you as the new owner with the Land Registry.

Find The Best Solicitor For House Conveyancing Near Me

All of this means that the solicitor you choose for house conveyancing near you has many jobs to complete on your behalf. They need to be one you trust. But where to start looking?

Let us do the hard work for you. We can find you a friendly and approachable conveyancing solicitor for FREE and with zero commitment to using their services

To be connected to a specialist conveyancing solicitor near to where you live, please either call us now on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry.

House Sale Solicitors Near Me

Conveyancing timeline and your house sale – House Sale Solicitors Near Me

The conveyancing process can be complicated and time-consuming. When it comes to a house sale, Solicitors Near Me would always suggest finding a trustworthy conveyancer roughly around the time you find an estate agent.

Some people put this off. Partly because the public perception of conveyancers is sometimes less than stellar. But the reason for this is often that people don’t understand how the conveyancing process works or how long it can actually take.

To be connected to a specialist house solicitor near to where you live, please either call us now on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry.

Here is a good timeline for conveyancing so you know what to expect going in:

Do I Need My Own Solicitor To Sell My House?

Before we start, it is worth reinforcing that – while you do not legally need to get your own solicitor to sell your house – it is a very good idea to instruct one.

Firstly, this is because this is a financially large and legally complex transaction. You don’t want to leave yourself open to legal issues because you have failed to complete a required part of the process in line with the law.

Secondly though, if mortgages are involved in the process, it’s likely that any lender will insist on everyone involved having professional legal representation. They’re not likely to lend without this.

In practice, this means you will almost certainly need a solicitor to sell your house.

When Do I Instruct A Conveyancing Solicitor?

The time to instruct a conveyancing solicitor (this is the term used to mean hiring one and telling them what you need them to do) is after you have initially accepted an offer on your house.

However, finding a solicitor you trust can take time (unless, of course, you let Solicitors Near Me find you a good option for FREE and with no obligation to hire them – give us a quick call on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry to get us started).

This means it’s normally a good idea to choose your conveyancing solicitor immediately after you choose your estate agent. You then have plenty of time to compare quotes from the conveyancers you like.

As soon as you accept your preferred offer, it’s time to formally instruct your solicitor to begin the conveyancing process.

The Conveyancing Process – Timeline

1) Conveyancing Questionnaires For Sellers – 2-4 Weeks

As the seller, you need to respond to several conveyancing questionnaires specifying the condition of the property.

One of the key details will be the bounds of the property that you want to sell. You will also be asked about any related ongoing disputes (legal or personal) and your solicitor may be able to help you include details about any new developments proposed in the local area.

These questionnaires are a legal requirement and have to be filled out truthfully. Even honest mistakes can lead to buyers pulling out or later legal action.

2) Draft Contract And Negotiations – Up To 10 Weeks

The questionnaires are the basis for the contract your solicitor will then need to draft. They will negotiate with the buyer’s solicitor on your behalf to finalise the terms of this document.

The solicitors will work out details like who will pay to fix any problems identified by the property surveys. There is also a wide range of other things to negotiate on, including the completion date.

3) Mortgages – Up To 4 Weeks

The buyer will need to arrange a mortgage and you will need to get ready to pay off yours by requesting a redemption figure. This process can take up to four weeks, mainly on the buyer’s side.

4) Exchange Of Contracts And Completion – Around 1 Week

Your solicitors will meet to confirm the contracts are the same and then exchange them. This can take longer if you have a whole chain that needs to complete the same process.

Once contracts are exchanged, the buyer legally has to go through with the purchase. If they don’t, you get to keep their deposit. If you don’t, you open yourself up to legal problems.

Technically speaking, you can remain living in the property up until completion day.

5) Completion – Total 12 To 16 Weeks For Whole Process

Finally, completion day is here! You hand over the keys to your old property, get the sale money, and pay off your old mortgage. The whole conveyancing process could take anywhere up to 16 weeks or four months, but potentially less as some of these tasks happen concurrently.

This is important to understand going in. But a good house sale solicitor – one who knows how important it is to keep you updated – can make all the difference to how you feel about the process.

House Sale Solicitors Near Me

To be connected to a specialist conveyancing solicitor near to where you live, please either call us now on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry.

House Solicitors Near Me

Buy or sell a house – Solicitors Near Me run it down

It can be tempting to look for ways to save money. But when you’re selling or buying a house, Solicitors Near Me recommends you definitely use a legal expert. And we’re not the only ones…

If you are buying using a mortgage, your mortgage lender will insist on it. They probably won’t lend to you at all if you don’t have professional legal representation.

If you’re buying a leasehold, the freeholder of the property will probably insist on it too.

This means that – even if it wasn’t a smart idea anyway with so much money on the line – you need a solicitor when buying or selling a house. Here’s what else you need to know:

To be connected to a specialist house solicitor near to where you live, please either call us now on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry.

What Type Of Solicitor Do I Need To Buy A House?

Conveyancers or conveyancing solicitors are the type of legal specialists you need when buying a house. These two job titles are sometimes different things. Not every conveyancer is also a qualified solicitor.

This sometimes means you can access the services of a straightforward licensed conveyancer at a slightly lower price (though not always) compared with a conveyancing solicitor.

This is because conveyancing solicitors are qualified to deal with all the legal problems you might encounter when buying or selling a house. They can give you legal advice too. A conveyancer usually can’t.

Do I Really Need A Solicitor To Buy A House?

The good news is that representing yourself in a house sale or purchase is legally allowed. The bad news is that few people are ever able to because of the aforementioned mortgage lender rules.

In general, most people say you need a solicitor to buy a house because:

1) Lenders Require It

Unless you are lucky enough to be able to afford to make a house purchase in cash, any mortgage lender involved in the process is likely to insist that you use a solicitor or conveyancer.

2) The Tasks Involved

Conveyancing isn’t a simple process. It involves dealing with a huge variety of different people and organisations, including but not limited to:

The buyer or seller’s solicitor
Estate agents and surveyors
Mortgage lenders
HMRC (to pay Land Duty Stamp Tax and so on)
All the organisations (including the Land Registry) needed for property searches

3) There Is A Lot Of Money Involved

It’s often said that you cannot put a price on peace of mind. Picture a situation where you buy a property and only discover a legal issue (perhaps small print in the lease between yourself and your leasehold freeholder) that would make it very difficult to sell your house later on.

This is a fairly simple example. But with such a large investment involved, it’s always a good idea to have a legal expert look everything over. Even if you aren’t legally required to.

What Does A House Solicitor Do?

In addition to liaising with all of the various people and organisations above, your conveyancing solicitor will need to:

Do the property searches – these checks involve reaching out to your new Local Authority, the water authority, checking for mining activity in the area, and a dozen others should the local area require it.
Raise legal issues – your house solicitor will examine all contracts, deeds, and leases and notify you of any potential issues outside of the ordinary. If questions crop up as the buyer, they can enquire with the seller’s solicitors.
Transfer funds – telling your mortgage lender when to send the funds, handling the transfer, and redeeming any mortgage involved (depending on whether you are the buyer or seller).

And that’s far from all! They also need to handle paying the Stamp Duty Land Tax, registering the new owners on the title deed of the property, managing and scheduling the exchange of contracts and completion date and more.

How Much Will A Solicitor Charge To Buy A House?

Depending on where you are in the country and the solicitor you are using, you can expect to pay anywhere from £700 to £1500 in solicitors’ fees when you sell or buy a house (possibly with VAT added on top).

You may be able to find “no move, no fee” conveyancing where you won’t pay – or pay less – if your move falls through, as many do.

Buying Or Selling A House? Solicitors Near Me Can Help You

What if you could get paired with the ideal friendly and helpful legal expert when buying or selling a house – for FREE and with no obligation to use their services?

House Solicitors Near Me

To be connected to a specialist conveyancing solicitor near to where you live, please either call us now on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry.

What Does Let Agreed Mean?

When you see a property you would like to rent, what does Let Agreed mean?

So, what does let agreed mean?

For a property to be let agreed the following conditions must be met:

The property was put up for rental
Someone has viewed the property and confirmed that they would like to let it
The estate agent has confirmed the offer to rent the property to the landlord; and
The landlord has, in principle, agreed to let the property to the tenant in question.
However, the full tenant checks, deposit payment and signing of the rental agreement have not yet been made.

Let’s look at each of these aspects of agreeing a let of a property in a little more detail.

What Does Letting A Property Entail?

Many people buy properties to live in, but there are also many people who buy property with the sole intention of letting them out to tenants, this is called, buy to let.

They either do this part time, alongside a business or a full time job, or they even make a living from doing this full time.

They buy one or several properties and let them out to different tenants for a monthly rental income.

These people are the landlords in the property lettings market.

Tenants In Property Letting

The people who let or rent the properties from the landlord are called ‘tenants’.

With house prices increasing so much over the years, many people cannot afford to buy a property, so letting a property becomes their option.

Other people prefer to rent so as not to tie up all of their money in a property.

Letting A Property

To find new tenants for rental properties, the landlord asks an estate agent to list the property for rental, just like people do when selling a property.

The estate agent displays the property for letting on their website and also on the major online property rental platforms such as Rightmove.

Tenants arrange to view the property and if they like it, they confirm that they would like to rent it to the estate agent, who passes on the offer made to the Landlord.

If he agrees to the offer made (which as rentals are hugely in demand is usually the price asked for by the landlord), the landlord accepts and the offer is now agreed in principle subject to the formality of the rental process.

This is now the “Let Agreed” part of a property letting.

What does Let Agreed mean on a property on Rightmove? Well, it is the same thing, so read on to see if this means you cannot let the dream rental property that you have just found on Rightmove.

Paying A Deposit For Letting A Property

Often the tenant will pay a deposit to secure the property while the formal process of letting is completed.

This tenant deposit will be repaid within 7 days if the rental does not proceed for any reason, or it can be applied to the holding deposit or the first month’s rental if the tenancy goes ahead.

Reasons For The Landlord Not To Repay The Deposit

There are legitimate reasons that a deposit will not be repaid including:

The tenant misled the landlord or estate agent
The tenant decided not to rent the property through no fault of the landlords, or
The tenant failed the Right To Rent checks.

What Happens After Let Agreed?

Once the tenant has agreed the rental and paid a holding deposit, the formal credit checks will be made to ensure the tenant is in a good position to rent the property.

These checks include:

Proof of three years of address history
Employer details and proof of income
Details of any previous rentals (so that references can be obtained from former landlords)

If all of these checks come back positive, the tenant signs the agreement and the property is now Let.

What Does It Mean When A Property Is Let

The property is now Let (rented) for an agreed amount under contract and will not become available for rental by any other tenant until the end of the rental agreement.

If A Property Is Let Agreed Can You Still Try And Let It?

If a property is Let Agreed, this means that you can approach the letting agent to enquire about letting it.

You can either:

Ask the letting agent to put forward a higher rental offer to gazump the Let Agreed tenant’s offer.
Ask the letting agent to give you first refusal of the current Let Agreed rental falls through.

Solicitors Near Me Hope This Article Helped With ‘What does Let Agreed Mean’

Solicitors Near Me connects people and businesses across the UK with solicitors completely free of charge and without obligation.

If you would like to speak with a solicitor about buying or letting a property, or any legal matter, you can call us on 0845 1391399 or complete a Free Online Enquiry » and we will be happy to help you.

DATA STUDY: The Best Cities to Move to in 2023

If you plan on moving into a new house in the next few months, one of the most important factors to consider is the location. In the housing market, prices will differ significantly from city to city in the United Kingdom.

To ensure that you find the most suitable location for your new home, this guide has ranked the best and worst cities to move to right now in the UK. to compile this list, several key factors, such as crime rates, house prices, council tax, and healthcare scores, were taken into account.

DATA STUDY: The Best Cities to Move to in 2023

The 5 Best Cities to Move to:

Aberdeen – Index Score 1.00 (total score 5.18)
Newport – Index Score 0.98 (total score 5.06)
York – Index Score 0.93 (total score 4.81)
Glasgow – Index Score 0.92 (total score 4.77)
Newcastle – Index Score 0.92 (total score 4.75)

As this list highlights, Aberdeen is the best city to move to in the UK. With an impressive total score of 5.18, it easily topped this list.

This Scottish city performed so admirably on this list because it performed well in several areas. Aberdeen has a fairly large population of approximately 213,224 people, making it the third-largest city in Scotland in terms of population. Despite this large population, house prices are cheap in Aberdeen. The average house price is just £142,300.

Other areas in which Aberdeen performed well include mortgage affordability, council tax, and superfast broadband coverage. The average council tax in the area is £1,417 per annum, which is much lower than in other UK cities.

The runner-up was Newport, a city located in South Wales. With a population of roughly 319,221 people, Newport is one of the most populous Welsh cities. Newport earned a total score of 5.06, meaning that it was only slightly behind Aberdeen in the ranking.

In Newport, the average house price is £225,542. This house price is noticeably higher than in Aberdeen, but the prices are still comparatively low when weighed up against the rest of the UK cities.

However, the most important reason why Newport was ranked the second-best city is because of its magnificent mortgage affordability. In this area, Newport acquired a core of 3.3, making it the best city in the UK for mortgage affordability. Given that mortgage rates have been steadily growing, potential homeowners need to consider this factor.

The top five list was rounded off by York, Glasgow, and Newcastle upon Tyne, earning the third, fourth, and fifth spots, respectively. York had a respectable total score of 4.81, while Glasgow received a score of 4.77 and Newcastle obtained a total of 4.75.

It’s worth noting that two of the top five cities are located in Scotland, namely Aberdeen and Glasgow. This suggests that Scotland may be a good option if you are concerned about high house prices and mortgage rates.

Additionally, two of the cities in the top ten are found in the north of England. York is located in northern England, while Newcastle is found in the northeastern part of the country. Meanwhile, Wales was only able to get one entry into the top ten, though this makes sense given that Wales has fewer cities than Scotland or England.

The 5 Worst Cities to Move to:

Brighton – Index Score 0.70 (total score 3.61)
London – Index Score 0.72 (total score 3.73)
Oxford – Index Score 0.73 (total score 3.78)
Reading – Index Score 0.76 (total score 3.92)
Bristol – Index Score 0.76 (total score 3.96)

On the other end of the spectrum, these five cities were considered the worst places to move to in the UK.

With a disappointing total score of 3.61, Brighton earned the reputation of being the worst city to move to.

With a mean house price of £502,672, Brighton is an expensive location to move to. Yet, the factor that was most damning for Brighton was the lofty council tax rates. In this seaside city, tax rates are a massive £2,119.

The second worst city on this list was London. As the capital of England and the largest city in the UK, it’s not surprising that London has the largest population. London has a massive population of 9,540,576.

House prices in this city are costly, which may be due to the high demand for accommodation in London. The average cost of housing in London is £518,900. Consequently, it is the most expensive city in the UK for housing.

London was also disappointing for health care, with a score of just 0.79. Plus, crime is a major issue here, receiving a whopping score of 53.82.

However, London performed well in some areas, such as superfast broadband connectivity. In addition, it has lower council tax fees than many other UK cities, including Brighton and Oxford.

London was followed by Oxford (3.78), Reading (3.92), and Bristol (3.96). An interesting observation is that all five entries at the bottom of the list are located in England.

How Was This Data Acquired?

This list was compiled by taking into account several important sets of data, such as:

Average house price
AHP (average house price) yearly change
Mortgage affordability
Crime rates
Health care scores
Average council tax
Superfast broadband coverage

For each of these categories, every UK city was given an index score. These scores were then combined to give each city an index and total score. This made it possible to determine the five best and worst cities to move to in the UK.

This data was acquired from reliable sources, including World Population Review, Rightmove, and propertydata.co.uk. These reputable sites ensure that the data is accurate.

Final Thoughts

When looking for a new home, the location is perhaps the most essential consideration. If you wish to avoid extortionate house prices, loft council tax, and poor health care, it’s worth taking this list into account when planning which UK city you will move to.

Sources

https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=1&council=2
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cities/united-kingdom
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
https://propertydata.co.uk/council-tax
https://web-uks-prod-hometrack-frontend.azurewebsites.net/uk/insight/uk-house-price-index/
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/