Conveyancing is the legal work that moves a property from one owner to another. It starts the day your offer is accepted and ends when the property is registered in your name, or taken out of it if you are the one selling. The process follows a fairly set order, and knowing that order helps you spot a delay early and keep your move on track.
This guide walks through the whole journey for a standard freehold sale or purchase in England and Wales. Most transactions take around 8 to 12 weeks from offer to completion, though a chain, a leasehold flat or a slow mortgage can stretch that out. Scotland runs on a different system, and Northern Ireland has its own rules. If you want the basics first, our what is conveyancing? guide covers the groundwork.
1 The full conveyancing process, step by step
Here is the usual order of events once your offer is accepted. Some steps overlap, and a good conveyancer will run several at once to save time.
Once your offer is accepted, the estate agent issues a memorandum of sale to both sides. You then appoint a solicitor or licensed conveyancer, complete their client care paperwork and pass identity and anti-money-laundering checks. It helps to have a quote ready before you offer, so you can instruct on day one. Compare fixed-fee quotes rather than waiting for the agent to suggest someone.
The seller's conveyancer prepares a draft contract and the supporting papers (the title, the property information form and the fittings and contents list) and sends them to the buyer's side. In practice these are the standard Law Society forms: the TA6 property information form, the TA10 fittings and contents form, and a TA7 for leasehold. The seller has a legal duty to answer honestly, which our what you must disclose when selling guide explains.
The buyer's conveyancer orders property searches from the local authority, the water company and others. At the same time you usually arrange a survey and push your mortgage application towards a formal offer. These three strands run in parallel, and they are often where time is won or lost.
Once the searches and contract pack are in, the buyer's conveyancer raises written enquiries about anything unclear, from boundaries and alterations to planning consents and guarantees. The seller's side answers them. This back-and-forth can take a few rounds and is one of the more common sources of delay.
When the answers are satisfactory and the mortgage offer is in, your conveyancer sends a report on title and the contract for you to read and sign. The buyer then pays the deposit (usually up to 10% of the price) to their conveyancer, ready for exchange.
Both sides agree a completion date, then exchange contracts. At this point the deal becomes legally binding and neither party can pull out without a serious penalty. The deposit is transferred to the seller's side. See exchange and completion explained for what changes at this moment.
On the agreed date, the buyer's mortgage money and the balance of the price are sent to the seller's conveyancer. Once the seller's side confirms receipt, the keys are released through the agent and the property changes hands. You can move in.
The buyer's conveyancer deals with any property tax due (Stamp Duty in England, or Land Transaction Tax in Wales) and files the return, then registers the new ownership and any mortgage with HM Land Registry. Once that is done, the title shows your name and the job is finished.
2 What happens before exchange
Everything before exchange is investigation and negotiation, and nothing is binding yet. This is the longest part of most transactions and the stage where a deal is most likely to wobble. Your conveyancer is checking that the seller owns what they are selling, that there are no surprises buried in the searches, and that your mortgage lender is happy to lend against the property.
For a buyer, the heavy lifting is searches, enquiries and the mortgage offer. For a seller, it is filling in the property forms accurately and answering the buyer's questions quickly. If you are buying, our conveyancing when you are buying guide goes deeper. Sellers should read conveyancing when you are selling.
Before contracts are exchanged, either party can walk away or change the price with no legal penalty. That is why this stage can feel uncertain, and why moving promptly through searches and enquiries reduces the risk of a sale falling apart.
3 Exchange, completion and the days in between
Exchange of contracts is the moment the deal becomes legally binding. Completion is the day the money moves and you get the keys. The two events can happen on the same day, but most people leave a short gap of anything from a few days to a couple of weeks. That gap gives everyone time to book removals, arrange the final transfer of funds and, in a chain, line up every link to complete together.
Between exchange and completion the buyer's conveyancer carries out final pre-completion searches, such as a bankruptcy search and a priority search at the Land Registry, and requests the mortgage funds from the lender. The seller arranges to repay any existing mortgage. On completion day, funds flow up the chain from buyer to seller, and as each seller's conveyancer confirms receipt, the keys are released. If you are unsure how the two stages differ, exchange and completion explained sets it out clearly.
4 After completion: tax and registration
The job is not quite finished when you get the keys. Within a set window after completion, the buyer's conveyancer files the tax return and pays any property tax owed. In England that is Stamp Duty (SDLT); in Wales it is Land Transaction Tax, which works in a similar way but has its own rates. Your conveyancer then applies to HM Land Registry to register you as the new owner and to note any mortgage on the title. Rates and thresholds change, so check the current figures or get a quote that itemises them rather than relying on old numbers.
Registration can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on the Land Registry's workload and how straightforward the title is. You do not need to wait for it to live in the property. Your conveyancer handles the paperwork and sends you the updated title and a completion statement once everything is settled.
The quickest moves tend to be the ones where forms come back promptly and enquiries are answered without chasing. See how to speed up your conveyancing for practical ways to keep things moving.
5 How this varies by transaction type
The eight steps above describe a standard freehold sale or purchase. Several common situations follow the same shape but add stages of their own:
- Leasehold flats and some houses need extra information from the freeholder or managing agent, which often adds weeks. Read leasehold and freehold explained first.
- New-build homes come with developer contracts and tight deadlines, and the property may not be finished when you exchange. Our buying a new-build home guide covers the differences.
- Remortgaging skips the buying and selling steps; it is mostly title checks and lender requirements. See conveyancing for a remortgage.
- First-time buyers have no property to sell, so there is no chain on their side, which can speed things up. Start with our first-time buyer's guide to conveyancing.
Whatever your situation, the core habit holds: instruct early, respond quickly and keep in touch with your conveyancer. MoveGuide compares fixed-fee quotes from SRA-regulated solicitors and licensed conveyancers, side by side, free and with no obligation, in about 60 seconds, so you can have someone lined up before your offer is even accepted.