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Practical guidance on residential conveyancing, buying, selling, and everything that happens in between, written in plain English, for home movers in England and Wales.
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Residential Conveyancing Basics
Residential conveyancing law is the set of legal rules and steps that transfer ownership of a home from one person to another. It covers contracts, property searches, mortgage requirements and registering the change of ownership with HM Land Registry — and it applies whether you're buying, selling, or both.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
Gazumping happens when a seller accepts a higher offer from a new buyer after already agreeing a sale with someone else, but before contracts are exchanged — it's legal in England and Wales because "sold subject to contract" isn't legally binding, and buyers can reduce (though never fully eliminate) the risk by moving quickly, staying prepared, and discussing protective options with their conveyancer.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
A property chain is the linked sequence of buyers and sellers who all need to complete their individual transactions on the same day for any single sale to go through — the longer the chain, the more people's mortgages, searches and moving plans have to line up, which is why chains are one of the most common causes of delay in conveyancing.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
When a house sale falls through, it means the transaction ends before completion, sometimes before contracts are even exchanged, and the parties involved usually have to cover their own costs incurred up to that point. Understanding what happens if a sale falls through can help you recognise warning signs earlier and know roughly what to expect if it happens to you.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
Completion is the day a house purchase actually finishes — the remaining money is transferred, legal ownership passes to the buyer, and the keys are released, usually a short, fixed number of working days after contracts are exchanged. It's often confused with exchange, but they mark two very different points in the process.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
Disbursements in residential conveyancing are the third-party costs — searches, ID checks, bank transfer fees, Land Registry charges and more — that your solicitor or conveyancer pays on your behalf and then passes on to you, separately from their own legal fee, and understanding what each one is for makes it much easier to check whether a quote is genuinely complete.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a tax paid by buyers on residential property purchases in England and Northern Ireland, calculated on a tiered basis where different portions of the purchase price are taxed at different rates, with extra charges often applying to additional properties and relief sometimes available for first-time buyers.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
Selling an inherited or probate property involves some extra steps compared with a typical sale, including obtaining probate before you can legally sell, and often managing the process alongside grief and family circumstances. This guide walks through what's different about selling a probate property, so you know roughly what to expect at a difficult time.
Residential Conveyancing Basics
Selling a house in a chain means your sale is legally and practically linked to other transactions above and below you, so delays or problems elsewhere can affect your own timeline. Understanding how selling in a chain works can help you set realistic expectations, communicate better with everyone involved, and stay calmer when things move more slowly than you'd like.
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