Navigating the journey of buying a new home can be challenging, whether you’re a First Time Buyer or you’ve bought before, but with extensive experience of house purchases, our team of expert residential conveyancing solicitors will give you peace of mind to focus on planning your move.
At BHW Conveyancing, our dedicated team of experienced property solicitors is committed to simplifying the property buying process for our clients.
With a focus on clear communication, we ensure that every step of the conveyancing process is smooth and efficient. We understand the stress that comes with buying a home and the importance of avoiding any potential setbacks in today’s market. That’s why our conveyancing teams work diligently to prevent delays and keep you informed throughout. We will proactively manage your transaction, minimising frustrations and ensuring a successful outcome.
We’re committed to delivering high-quality work, leaving no detail overlooked. That’s why we carefully limit our ongoing transactions, allowing our teams to provide you with the finest conveyancing service and maintain consistently exceptional work. For us, it’s quality over quantity every time.
Hema Patani Partner
What are the stages for buying a house in the UK?
Once you have found your dream home, secured a mortgage and had an offer accepted on the property, it’s all systems go. Getting the ball rolling on your buying journey is a process that can feel difficult and draining, especially in today’s property market. With our experienced solicitors by your side and a dedicated team to rely on, the buying process for your house purchase will be easier and smoother.
Instruct conveyancing solicitors
The first step is to choose a solicitor as soon as you can by comparing solicitors for buying a home online and through testimonials. This way, once your offer is accepted you can start the process as efficiently as possible. Solicitors have a number of regulatory requirements they have to fulfil before they can start work on your purchase. The earlier you instruct your solicitor, the sooner they can complete their checks.
Arrange a survey
It’s a good idea to get a RICs (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) survey completed on the property, to give you an idea of whether any work needs to be done or if there are any problems with the building. A survey is not only useful to be aware of any structural or maintenance issues, but it may also give you more bargaining power if you find it to be costly to resolve them. If extra work needs to be done such as replacing the roof for instance, you may be able to negotiate the property price again.
Receive the draft contract pack
Your property solicitors will request and receive the draft contract pack from the seller’s solicitors. This will include many important documents related to the house such as:
The TA6 form which outlines any boundaries, disputes with neighbours or alterations.
The TA10 form which gives details of the fittings and fixtures within the property.
The TA7 form which is only for leasehold properties and provides information about maintenance responsibilities, costs and rights to buy the freehold.
Title documents including the register and plan, conveyances, transfers and lease if the property is leasehold.
Property searches
If you are buying with a mortgage, your lender will require you to obtain property searches. However, if you are a cash buyer then they are entirely optional and your solicitor will be able to advise if any might be beneficial. Your conveyancing solicitors will order the property searches to obtain important information about the land and surrounding areas from the relevant local authorities. These will give information such as whether the property is affected by radon or contamination, environmental impacts, mines, flood risks or sewage networks. Your solicitor will give you all their findings in a report and answer any questions you may have.
Title report & enquiries
Your solicitors will review all the property information available to them in the contract pack. They will raise follow-up questions, known as ‘enquiries’, with the seller’s solicitor to clarify any details including obtaining any safety certificates, building regulations certificates or planning permissions as necessary. Once all enquiries have been satisfactorily answered, they will provide you with a title report explaining their findings and bringing any relevant points to your attention.
Mortgage report
If you are applying for a mortgage to fund your purchase, your lender will issue your solicitor with a specific ‘solicitors copy’ of your mortgage offer. Once this has been received, your solicitor will review the terms of the offer and provide you with a report explaining the conditions of the mortgage.
Contracts are signed and returned
Once you have confirmed you have read and understood the various reports received from your solicitor and that you are happy to proceed with the purchase, your conveyancing solicitors will send you the contracts to be signed by both the buyer and the seller and sent back to their respective solicitors.
Exchange and completion
These are the final stages of the property-buying process. Exchange of contracts is what legally binds the purchase and confirms that all the legal documents have been signed. Completion is where the keys are handed over to the buyer, and the funds are sent to the seller’s property solicitors. Exchange usually happens in advance of completion to allow all parties to make their final arrangements for moving on the agreed completion day. Sometimes, however, exchange and completion can happen simultaneously on the same day.
Your conveyancing transaction in the safest hands – and the reviews to back it up
Overall, I had such a positive experience using BHW as a first time buyer. My property purchase was quite complex and had many delays/ complications. However, Rebecca who dealt with me from the very beginning was fantastic. A very good conveyancer and a credit to the company. She explained everything thoroughly. Always responded to my phone calls and emails. I would say all the team at BHW are highly professional and helpful also including Kim who helped with exchange and completion right at the end. I will use BHW in future sales or purchases. Highly recommend.
Amy Notchell
A* service from Jennie and the team. I will certainly be using BHW again for any future matters. Thanks again.
Sam
BHW Residential were fantastic for the sale of my property. Waheeda Alli and her team – Adnan, Elle, Foram and Mariya- were brilliant. They were friendly, approachable, efficient, kept me informed throughout and worked hard to bring my sale to completion in the quick timescale I required. I have no hesitation in recommending them most highly.
Kafi Walker
The team at BHW especially Lauren & Kimberly were fantastic. The communication was excellent throughout and I felt they did absolutely everything possible to get us across the line as quickly as possible whilst also protecting our interests. I would highly recommend BHW to anyone buying or selling a property.
Chris Penney
My wife and I had the good fortune to have Binita handle our first time home purchase of a new build. BHW came highly recommended and we would gladly recommend them to any prospective home buyer. Binita was always helpful, meticulous and efficient; we absolutely sailed through to exchange and have Binita to thank for it! Thank you Binita for your lightning fast work and answering all of our questions.
Jason Wickham
What to expect from BHW Conveyancing
If you choose to move with us, you can expect the highest quality standards and a specialist residential conveyancing team who are dedicated to your property purchase journey.
At BHW Conveyancing you’ll be given a dedicated team of expert conveyancers who will work tirelessly to complete your purchase. Each team is headed by an experienced property lawyer with the required knowledge to thoroughly investigate the property and ensure that there are no nasty surprises after you have completed your purchase.
Your allocated team will always be on hand to answer your questions. All of your team will know your transaction, meaning that you won’t be passed from pillar to post. At BHW we actively manage the number of live transactions that each of our conveyancing teams are handling at any given time. This ensures their caseloads are always manageable and our quality of service is protected, meaning you always receive the best service to make your experience streamlined and personal. Until you have the keys in your hand, we’re not satisfied.
BHW Conveyancing is part of BHW Solicitors Limited, which is one of the leading property law firms in Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands. BHW is a top ranked real estate firm in the East Midlands by the Legal 500, as well as being ranked in the Chambers & Partners legal industry guide.
We hold the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation and have been awarded the Lexcel quality standard by the Law Society. This recognises our impeccable standards of competence, risk management and client care practices.
When buying a house in the UK, solicitors play a crucial role in ensuring a smooth and legally sound property transaction. They will conduct title searches to verify the legal ownership of the property and check for any legal issues or restrictions. A solicitor acting for a buyer will review the sales contract to ensure all the details are correct. They will also verify if the property has any financial charges against it that need to be resolved by the seller before proceeding. They will undertake and provide several reports to the buyer with information they require including title, search and mortgage reports. Finally, solicitors operate a specific client bank account that means they can hold cash while a transaction completes to ensure the buyer’s funds are secure before transferring it to the seller’s solicitor on completion. Once the property transaction has completed, they will make a notification to the Land Registry as well as submit any Stamp Duty tax return on the buyer’s behalf.
Solicitors play a crucial role in protecting the interests of the buyer in a property transaction by ensuring that the legal aspects are properly handled.
When should you get a solicitor when buying a house?
We recommend that whilst you are searching for a new home, you should also be looking for conveyancing solicitors for buying your home too. You will probably want to do your own research, get some recommendations, quotes, look at reviews and find the best solicitors for you.
This will take some time. We find that when people are buying a home, time is of the essence. They want to move things along as quickly as they can so that there are no unnecessary delays. With this said, it’s a good idea to have your solicitor instructed so that they can complete their required ID and AML checks, so that once you have had an offer accepted on a home, you and they are ready to go.
How can I speed up my conveyancing solicitors?
The best thing you can do is to reach out to your solicitor and ask them where the hold-up in the conveyancing process is. Sometimes delays don’t come from your conveyancing solicitors but from the seller’s solicitors or the chain generally. If you do everything you can do to make the process as efficient as possible by sending back paperwork in a timely manner or responding to emails or calls quickly, you enable your solicitors to act fast too.
Sometimes delays can’t be helped, but if a speedy purchase is something you are looking for, you can communicate this to your conveyancing solicitors when you first instruct them. While no conveyancing solicitor can guarantee a completion date due the number of other parties often involved and many factors outside of their control, a reliable property purchase solicitor will update you regularly so that you know exactly where you are up to and whether there are any delays in the process. You shouldn’t have to be constantly chasing your conveyancers for answers, so make sure you check reviews before instructing one.
What is the average cost of a conveyancing solicitor?
The average cost of a conveyancing solicitor is roughly around £750- £2000. Conveyancing fees can vary depending on the company and your individual circumstances such as the price of the property, whether it is leasehold or freehold or if the purchase is complex. Many conveyancing solicitors provide a fixed fee estimate and some advise that fees may be subject to change if issues crop up. Bear in mind that the fee is often reflective of the experience and qualification of the person that will be handling your purchase. When purchasing your most expensive asset, you’ll want to ensure that you receive the best quality legal advice and support.
What property searches do I need?
The three main searches that must be completed if you are buying a house with the help of a mortgage include a local authority search, water and drainage search and environmental search.
Local authority searches give information about any building regulations or contaminated land in the area, water and drainage searches will tell you if your property is close to any public sewage networks and environmental searches inform you of any landfill contamination or flood risks for example.
How long does it take from offer to completion?
On average the conveyancing process from offer to completion takes between 3-6 months. However, this could vary depending on whether there is a chain of other buyers and sellers and how efficiently everyone including the surveyors, solicitors, estate agents, buyers and sellers can work together to get all the relevant paperwork and documentation in order to process the transaction. Whether you want to know more about what happens on completion day, or if you would just like some advice, contact us now.
How do I know if a solicitor is good?
Not all conveyancing solicitors are equal. To try to ensure you choose a good conveyancing solicitor you should compare solicitors by checking their online reviews, see if they hold any accreditations or awards, and consider how well they’ve handled your initial enquiry and quotation. These are all great indicators of how good a solicitor is.
Laura Young
Team Leader Conveyancer
Ready to get moving? Speak with our conveyancing team
