In 2024/25, over a million people successfully bought or sold a home in England and Wales. Behind each of those life‑changing moments is a residential conveyancer.

Conveyancers play a vital role in helping people buy and sell homes. While conveyancing is sometimes seen as an obstacle in property transactions, it actually protects the buyer and the seller from future issues.

Conveyancing transactions are often relatively short when compared to other types of legal work, and can be high pressure and emotive for clients. Residential conveyancing is a complex process involving multiple parties, such as estate agents, lenders, search providers and the Land Registry.

We estimate that on average a sale or purchase transaction takes 8-12 weeks, but regardless of what you and the other parties in a chain hope and intend, there is no guarantee of any particular time frame.

If we establish that there are issues with the title, time will be taken to rectify and factors that are out of our direct control from lenders, valuers, surveyors, search providers and other law firms can often cause delays.

You will find that there is also a range of information available on the internet, which will lead to incorrect expectations in terms of timescales or process. We look at your individual case and advise accordingly.

The start of the transaction

How you can assist the transaction

·        While early conversations can feel time intensive, they help us to ensure that we fully understand your transaction, funding and expectations.

·        It may be obvious, but read our engagement letter, terms of engagement and guide to conveyancing that we send out at initial stage. They contain important information.

·        Return initial paperwork and complete your ID check as soon as possible, but within 7 days. Your file is not passed to your dedicated conveyancer until we have completed this ‘onboarding’ stage.

·        Provide exactly what we require and not an alternative. Delays often occur when we need to resend unsigned documents and financial statements without the required information

During the transaction

·        Read thoroughly anything we send to you.

·        Read the guidelines for signing documents including having them witnessed.

·        Clients may feel uncertain when they do not receive updates about the progress of their transaction, but we can’t update you if there is nothing to update you on. Periods of silence are often interpreted by clients as a lack of progress, but we will be working behind the scenes, chasing third‑party information. Feel free to call a member of the admin team and they will explain who or what is being waited on, and why.

·        Calling your conveyancer to debate a topic that has been discussed repeatedly without ever reaching a conclusion or agreement, means that your conveyancer is spending time allocated to your transaction repeating their advice rather than processing the transaction. Our conveyancers will give clear advice on how you can progress matters.

·        Speak to your estate agent if further negotiations are required, we do not get involved in negotiations

·        Speak to your estate agent to agree a completion date (once your conveyancer informs you that you are ready to exchange.) This is the simplest and quickest way, as the estate agent can speak to both parties directly.

·        Send any funds required on time and from the allocated bank account outlined on your ID form. We cannot accept funds from a third party.

·                       Remember, that if you are unsure on anything, call your conveyancer or a member of the team who will assist you.

Post completion

Timescales for registration vary significantly, and during that time there is often nothing to tell our client. Following completion, we will email you to explain that the registration can take between 1 month and 2 years. We will monitor progress with Land Registry and contact you only if there is something to tell you or when registration is complete.