Whether you're a layman looking to understand your own transaction or a lawyer needing assistance with a client's conveyancing our step by step sale and purchase guides will lead you through the process while our mini guides will break the whole thing into manageable chunks and give a deep insight into the key issues and stages. Leasehold, freehold, unregistered, registered – we've got it all covered.
Need help with a remortgage or transfer of equity / deed of gift? Our guides will walk you through the process and highlight some of the common pitfalls. Mortgages and transfers can be very simple procedures but complex issues can sometimes arise and mistakes are easily made. These guides will help you deal with them.
So you want to have a go at your own conveyancing? First you should read about the risks, then if you're still happy to proceed, our guides will take you through each stage of the process telling you what to look out for and helping you avoid falling into expensive traps. Our subscription service will give you access to all of the documents you should need for your conveyancing and we can even supply you with the Land Registry Official Copies you'll need. Our general guides will cover all the obstacles you are likely to face and offer a practical solution. Have a look at our sale and purchase guides too.
A big part of the conveyancing process is the conveyancing searches. This section tells you all about them. What they are, how and when to order them and how to interpret the results. Each search has its own guide and you'll see they are separated into Standard (should be done in every case), Regional (area specific) and Optional (not essential but often useful tools for the would be purchaser). All buyers should beware that when you buy a property, the law assumes that you have seen the information that would have been revealed by searches whether or not you have actually carried them out, so you buy the property subject to the results.
Using a conveyancer to handle your conveyancing will greatly reduce the risk to you and sometimes, particularly if you are taking out a new mortgage, you will have no choice but to instruct a conveyancer. The good news is it doesn't have to break the bank. Get a free, instant quote here. We can also help with quick easy quotes for other moving related services.
Are you looking for the documents you'll need for your conveyancing transaction? Or official copies of the title or other documents from Land Registry. We can help you. Follow the links below.
The Fire Safety Act 2021 introduced a number of changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“RR(FS)O”), the most important of those (for conveyancers) being the amendment to article 6. Article 6 describes the extent to which the RR(FS)O applies to domestic premises. Originally it did not apply to domestic premises at all, except for communal areas in blocks of flats. The result of article 1 of the Fire Safety Act however is that it now covers “the building’s structure and external walls and any common parts”, “all doors between domestic premises and any common parts”, “doors or windows in the external walls” and “anything attached to the exterior of the walls (including balconies)”.
All of this means that all blocks of flats, including those with no common parts (such as maisonettes and converted houses) are within the scope of part 2 of the RR(FS)O, so that the freeholder (being the “responsible person”) must comply with part 2.
The main practical implication is that, under article 9, freeholders of buildings previously not subject to the RR(FS)O must now carry out a Fire Risk Assessment on the building and must “regularly” review it. It is not clear how often it needs to be reviewed, but probably only if there is a change to the building or its use, or to legislation surrounding building safety, or if there is new science which highlights new dangers.
Failure to comply is a criminal offence but also might impact the insurance cover for fire, as an insurer might argue that an adequate fire risk assessment might have highlighted a risk which could then have been prevented.
A number of conveyancers have been slow to catch up with this change in legislation, a problem which is compounded by a lack of understanding/acceptance from those professionals who actually carry out the assessments, so that a buyer’s conveyancer’s request for an FRA to be carried out and supplied is often met with the resistance, but the law is clear.
If no assessment is carried out, and none will be carried out, a buyer’s conveyancer ought in the first instance to ask the seller’s conveyancer to ascertain from the buildings insurer whether the lack of an assessment will impact the cover, and will need to report to the buyer and (if applicable) lender client accordingly.
If acting for a purchaser of the freehold reversion (including where the buyer will be taking a share in the freehold either in his own right or by acquiring a share in the company that owns the freehold) a conveyancer should advise on the potential criminal liability that his client will face in his capacity as landlord.