The conveyancing process is an essential part of both buying and selling a property. From exchanging contracts to performing checks and searches to ensure the property, the conveyancing process covers many elements that ensure a smooth transaction. But what are the common conveyancing problems that you should avoid?

The buyer and seller can’t agree

After an offer on a property has been accepted, the lawyers from each side must then begin the legal process. This involves exchanged letters between the solicitors until all terms are agreed. These terms include the price for the property, date of entry, as well as fixtures and fittings.

If one or more of the conditions cannot be agreed on, your lawyer will help you come up with a negotiation strategy. This will mean you must be open about what you are able to compromise on or not, and for the lawyers to check the transaction information. This will allow them to identify anything that can be used to improve negotiations.

The seller accepts a higher offer from another buyer before sale contracts are exchanged

In the event of a seller accepting a higher offer from someone else, you can either match this offer or attempt to negotiate somewhere in between. Depending on how far along the conveyancing process you are, the seller may accept a slightly lower offer from you than the new buyer as you can complete the transaction quicker.

Buyers failing to disclose their mortgage deposit has been gifted

Whether it be 5 per cent or 50 per cent, a mortgage lender will want to know where the deposit is coming from. If any of it is a gift, it must always be declared by the solicitor to the bank or building society. This means the buyer must first declare it to the solicitor. Most lenders will require a signature from the source of the deposit, confirming the money does not require repayment.

Paperwork issues

Any paperwork that is missing or incomplete is a common problem in the conveyancing process. While you cannot control the other party’s side of the transaction or anyone else in the chain, you can ensure that you have all the required paperwork ready as soon as possible. You will also help move things along if you respond to emails from your solicitor as soon as you can and to fill out any legal forms accurately without delay.

Management companies being slow in returning information on leasehold properties

If you are buying a leasehold property, the transaction process may be more complicated than if you were to buy a freehold property. This is because you are essentially leasing the property from the freeholder for a specific period of time as opposed to owning it. As a result, you solicitor must collect information from the freeholder and/or management company. This includes costs, evidence of the building’s insurance and accounts from previous years.

Alteration documents missing

When putting your house on the market, be sure to provide your solicitor with all the local authority documentation for any alterations or extensions that you or a previous owner has carried out. It is important that you provide all the stamped plans, building warrant and completion certificate for each alteration that is made.

Ideally, you should ask the surveyor who puts together the home report to check them. You should then check to make sure that they are referred to in the home report itself. If you don’t feel too sure about ‘signing off’ the home report, speaking with your solicitor will help offer peace of mind.

You have chosen a poor solicitor

In some cases, you may find that the conveyancing process is delayed due to choosing a poor solicitor. At Betesh Middleton Law, however, we offer a conveyancing service that you can rely on. If you would like to learn more about our conveyancing services, get in touch to speak to a member of our team.