The conveyancing transaction begins with the sellers solicitor obtaining the title deeds and then preparing a draft contract. The contract deals with the details of the transaction including matters such as the price of the property, a full description of the property and matters which are relevant to the property of which the buyer must be aware. The contract is sent by the seller's solicitor to the buyers solicitor along with office copy entries, which are copies of the seller's title documents. At this point the sellers solicitor will also ask the seller to complete a property information form and a fixtures fittings and contents form. The first of these forms deals with such things as the ownership of boundaries, the availability of mains services and whether or not any alterations have been carried out to the property during the sellers period of ownership. The latter form sets out those items which are included in the sale. Once completed these forms are sent by the sellers solicitor to the buyers solicitor.

After receiving the contract and any supporting documentation, the buyer's solicitor will forward an application for a local authority search to the local authority within whose area the property lies. In addition, the buyer's solicitor will, dependent upon the locality of the property, forward a request for a mining search or any other search or enquiry relevant to the property's location.

Where a buyer is buying a property then in all likelihood he will have requested that a survey be carried out. Once the survey report has been received the buyer will then be able to discuss any matters raised with the lawyer. When the result of the searches, the property information form, fixtures fittings and contents form and the buyer's mortgage if any have been received then the buyer's solicitor will discuss with the buyer and the seller via his solicitor a mutually convenient date for completion of the transaction.

When a convenient date for completion has been agreed and the contracts have been signed by the buyer and the seller then the contract signed by the buyer will be exchanged with the contract signed by the seller. At the time of exchange of contracts a deposit (normally 10% of the purchase price) will be paid by the buyer to the seller. Once exchange of contracts has taken place then both the buyer and the seller are bound by the terms of the contract and the deposit is non-refundable.

After exchange of contracts, the buyer's solicitor will request from the relevant lender, if any, the mortgage monies and any balance including solicitors charges and stamp duty which are required to complete the purchase from the buyer. In addition, the buyer's solicitor will raise a number of requisitions on title which are enquiries which will enable the buyer's solicitor to complete the transaction and provide the purchase monies on the agreed completion date.

Before the completion date the buyer's solicitor will also prepare the transfer deed which is the document which when signed by the seller passes ownership of the property to the buyer. Once prepared, the transfer deed is sent by the buyer's solicitor to the seller's solicitor in readiness for completion.

On the completion date the buyer's solicitor will provide to the seller's solicitor the balance of the purchase price. Upon receiving the purchase monies the seller's solicitor will provide to the buyers solicitor the transfer deed which has been signed by the seller, along with the title deeds to the property. If the seller also had a mortgage then the seller's solicitor will provide a written undertaking to repay that mortgage.

After completion the buyer's solicitor will forward the transfer deed, the title deeds and any mortgage to the Land Registry along with the relevant registration fee in order that the change of ownership can be recorded by the Land Registry, who will then send to the buyers solicitor the duly amended title documents.

Upon receipt of the title documents from the Land Registry the buyer's solicitor will forward them to the Building Society or Bank which has provided the mortgage for retention by them until the mortgage is repaid. Where there is no mortgage the buyer's solicitor will provide them to the buyer or, if requested to do so, will retain them for safe-keeping until required by the buyer.

Set out in the table below are the charges made by the firm for a sale or purchase of residential property. The charges shown do not include the further items set out below the table of charges. These further items may or may not apply to your particular transaction. Some guidance is provided in the text.

Where there is both a sale and a purchase, the relevant charge is the total of the two individual transaction charges. A free fully itemised quotation can be provided by completing the quotation request form.