How to Buy a House

Property Solicitors

You will need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor or property lawyer to deal with the conveyancing and legal formalities of the property transfer.

Some solicitors will charge their fee as a percentage of the value of the property and others as a fixed fee. Ask for quotes and seek personal recommendations. Some solicitors that specialise in conveyancing offer an online service. This can seem rather daunting if you are a first time buyer but your solicitor will become the major contributor to the house-buying process.  If you seek mortgage advice, your advisor may be able to recommend a property solicitor to you.

Following the acceptance of a formal offer, the solicitor will make any pre-sale enquiries between you and the vendor and take you through the exchange and completion of the sale.

Before the point of exchange, your solicitor will carry out one or more ‘local searches'. You may want to supplement this search by researching what's going on in the surrounding area yourself. For instance, you can ask the local planning department if any applications have been made to build new properties adjacent or relevant to your prospective purchase. You can also ask other people in the neighbourhood what it's like to live there and what's going on in the area. Even though there will be some sort of search in the Home Information Pack, you may still be advised to pay for an additional search.

Usually about a week prior to ‘moving in day', normally known as the ‘completion date', you will exchange contracts with the vendor. You will need the mortgage offer to be in place by the time contracts are exchanged.

At the point of completion, your name will be registered with the Land Registry and you will have to pay Stamp Duty and Land Tax. The solicitor will arrange this for you. At this stage, you will also pay any telegraphic transfer fees for transferring money from one account to another

You should aim to move into the house on a date convenient for yourself, the vendor and any other parties in the chain above. 

For a quote for conveyancing, contact our property solicitor.

Find out more about the house-buying process in our guide to how to buy a house:

How Much Can I Borrow? l Find a Property l Mortgages l Conveyancing Solicitors and Legal costs l Stamp Duty l Property Insurance  Home Information Packs l How to Budget l Surveys and Surveyors l Removal Companies l Utilities Companies l Buying a House at Auction l Buying a Repossessed Property

• Legal services quote  
• Mortgage advice
• Best first time buyer mortgages comparison
• Search for your first property for sale in your area

Useful websites:

www.sfla.org.uk
www.lawsociety.org.uk
www.landreg.gov.uk
www.conveyancer.org.uk

Note: The law and buying and selling procedures are different in Scotland, where the 'offers over' and 'fixed price' systems can be confusing. Generally speaking, solicitors become involved in the buying process at an earlier stage than in England and it is sensible to make contact with a solicitor before you start serious house-hunting. Making an offer in Scotland is a more formal step than in England and can lead to your making a legal commitment to buy at an earlier stage.

Most useful and most popular pages on this site:

Look for your First Property l Seek First Time Buyer Mortgage Advice l See our Best First Mortgages Comparison Table l Find out about First Time Buyer Mortgages l Find out How to Buy a House l Learn all about The First Time Buyer Mortgage l Shared Ownership