Key Stages of Residential Conveyancing From Start to Finish

Residential conveyancing moves through a fairly predictable sequence of stages: instructing a conveyancer, sorting out pre-contract paperwork, searches and enquiries, mortgage offer and report on title, exchange of contracts, completion day, and then the post-completion work that makes everything official at the Land Registry. The exact timing shifts from one sale to the next, but the order rarely does, and knowing what's coming next is one of the simplest ways to feel less anxious about the whole thing.

If you've bought or sold a home before, some of this will feel familiar. If it's your first time, the process can seem like a black box: you sign some forms, hand over a deposit at some point, and then weeks later you're being handed keys, with a lot of unexplained waiting in between. Understanding the key stages of residential conveyancing doesn't make the process faster, but it does make it a lot less stressful, because you know roughly what each phase involves and why it sometimes takes longer than you'd like.

A quick word on who's writing this. I'm a blogger covering the property and conveyancing world, not a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer, and nothing here should be read as legal advice about your own sale or purchase. What follows is a general description of how residential conveyancing typically works in England and Wales, based on publicly available information about the process, not a personalised account of what will happen in your specific case.

Below, I've broken the process down into the stages most transactions pass through, roughly in the order they happen, along with what tends to go on at each one and where delays commonly creep in.

Table of contents

• Instructing a conveyancer
• Pre-contract paperwork and the draft contract
• Property searches
• Enquiries between the two sides
• Mortgage offer and report on title
• Exchange of contracts
• Completion day
• After completion
• FAQs about the stages of conveyancing
• Summary and what to do next

Instructing a conveyancer

The process officially kicks off once you instruct a conveyancer, ideally as soon as you put an offer in or, better still, before you've even found a property. Getting quotes and choosing someone in advance means you can move the moment an offer is accepted, rather than losing a week or two while you shop around for a solicitor after the fact.

At this stage, your conveyancer will need to run identity checks and anti-money-laundering checks on you, which usually means providing photo ID, proof of address, and sometimes evidence of where your deposit money is coming from. This can feel intrusive, but it's a legal requirement, not something your particular firm has invented to be awkward. Skipping or delaying this step is one of the more avoidable reasons a file gets stuck before it's even properly started.

What you'll usually be asked for

• Proof of identity, such as a passport or driving licence
• Proof of current address, often a recent utility bill or bank statement
• Details of your mortgage broker or lender, if you're using one
• Evidence of your deposit source, particularly if it's a gift from family
• A signed client care letter and terms of business from the conveyancer

Buyers will also need to pay money on account at this point, usually to cover search fees, which lets the conveyancer actually start ordering searches once instructed rather than waiting for funds to clear first.

Pre-contract paperwork and the draft contract

Once instructed, the seller's conveyancer prepares a pack of documents to send to the buyer's side. This is often called the pre-contract package, and it forms the foundation everything else gets checked against.

It's worth saying that the quality of this initial paperwork often sets the tone for how smoothly the rest of the transaction runs. A seller who fills in the property information form thoroughly and honestly, rather than leaving boxes blank or giving vague answers, tends to generate far fewer follow-up enquiries later. Conveyancers on the buying side will often say privately that a sparse or rushed TA6 form is one of the earliest warning signs that a transaction might take longer than average.

For sellers reading this, digging out old paperwork now, planning permission certificates, FENSA or Gas Safe certificates for windows and boilers, guarantees for damp proofing or timber treatment, saves a huge amount of back-and-forth later. It's genuinely one of the few parts of the whole process a seller has real control over.

The seller will typically be asked to complete two standard forms produced by the Law Society: the TA6 Property Information Form, which covers things like boundaries, disputes, alterations, and utilities, and the TA10 Fittings and Contents Form, which sets out exactly what's included in the sale and what isn't. If the property is leasehold, there's usually a TA7 leasehold information form too, plus a pack of documents from the freeholder or managing agent.

Typical contents of the pre-contract pack

1. Draft contract, prepared by the seller's conveyancer
2. Official copies of the title register and title plan from the Land Registry
3. Completed TA6 Property Information Form
4. Completed TA10 Fittings and Contents Form
5. Leasehold information and management pack, where relevant
6. Copies of any planning permissions, building regulations certificates, or guarantees

The buyer's conveyancer reviews all of this once it arrives, checking the title is clean, the boundaries match what's expected, and nothing in the seller's answers raises an obvious red flag. This is also when the buyer's side starts drafting its list of questions, which leads neatly into the next stage.

Property searches

Searches are one of the parts of conveyancing buyers hear about constantly but rarely understand in detail. In short, they're a set of enquiries made to local authorities and other bodies to uncover things about the property and area that wouldn't be obvious just from viewing the house.

The standard set usually includes a local authority search, a water and drainage search, and an environmental search covering things like flood risk and contaminated land history. Depending on the property's location, additional searches might be needed, for example a coal mining search in former mining areas, or a chancel repair search in parts of the country where that historic liability still applies.

What searches commonly reveal

• Planning permissions and building regulation history affecting the property
• Whether roads and pavements near the property are publicly maintained
• Flood risk classification for the area
• Any nearby planning applications that could affect future use or value
• Whether the property is connected to mains water and drainage

Search results can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to come back, depending on the local authority, and this is a genuinely common source of delay that's largely outside anyone's control. Some conveyancers order searches immediately once instructed, precisely because of how unpredictable turnaround times can be.

Enquiries between the two sides

Once the buyer's conveyancer has reviewed the contract pack and the search results, they'll typically raise a set of enquiries, essentially follow-up questions for the seller's side to answer. Some are fairly standard and get sent on almost every transaction; others are specific to whatever's come up in the searches or the property information form.

This back-and-forth can take a while, particularly if the seller is slow to respond or if answers to the first round of enquiries prompt a second round. It's rarely anyone acting in bad faith; it's more that some questions genuinely need the seller to dig out an old document or check something with a neighbour or managing agent.

Common types of enquiry

1. Requests for guarantees or certificates for building work carried out
2. Clarification on boundary lines or shared access
3. Confirmation of what's included in the sale versus what's being removed
4. Questions arising directly from search results, such as planning history
5. Leasehold-specific queries about service charges, ground rent, and consents

Honestly, this stage is where a lot of the perceived "slowness" of conveyancing actually happens. It's not usually one big blocker, it's dozens of small questions that each need a proper answer before anyone's comfortable moving forward.

Mortgage offer and report on title

If you're buying with a mortgage, the lender needs its own valuation of the property and its own satisfaction that the title is sound before releasing a formal mortgage offer. Once that offer is issued, your conveyancer prepares a report on title, a document summarising the legal position of the property for you and, where relevant, for your lender too.

This report pulls together everything found so far: search results, enquiry answers, lease terms if applicable, and any issues that need addressing before exchange. It's usually accompanied by a request for your deposit funds and a rundown of the completion statement, showing exactly what you'll need to pay and when.

What the report on title usually covers

• A plain-English summary of the property's legal title
• Any restrictions, covenants, or easements affecting the property
• Confirmation that search results raised no unresolved concerns
• Mortgage conditions that still need to be satisfied
• A breakdown of funds needed for completion

Mortgage offers usually come with an expiry date, often around six months from issue, so timing this stage matters if your transaction is dragging on for other reasons.

Exchange of contracts

Exchange is the point where the transaction becomes legally binding. Before this, either party can technically walk away without serious consequences; after exchange, pulling out means breaching the contract, with financial penalties attached.

Practically, exchange happens over the phone between the two conveyancers, who read over identical contracts to confirm they match, agree the completion date, and then formally exchange. The buyer pays their deposit, traditionally 10% of the purchase price though this varies, and a fixed completion date is locked in.

What needs to be in place before exchange

1. A mortgage offer, if you're using one
2. Buildings insurance arranged and ready to start from exchange
3. Deposit funds cleared and available
4. All enquiries satisfactorily answered
5. A completion date agreed by everyone in the chain

Once contracts are exchanged, the countdown to completion begins, and this is usually the point where people finally feel able to book removal vans with any confidence.

Completion day

Completion is moving day, the point where the remaining balance of the purchase price transfers from buyer to seller and legal ownership changes hands. Money typically moves early in the morning via bank transfer, and once the seller's conveyancer confirms receipt, keys are released, usually through the estate agent.

There's often a stretch of waiting on completion day itself, sometimes a nervous few hours, because bank transfers between multiple parties in a chain don't always land instantly. It's genuinely one of the more stressful mornings of the whole process, even though from a legal standpoint most of the hard work has already been done.

If you're part of a chain, funds effectively have to cascade upwards, from the buyer at the very bottom, through each linked transaction, until the seller at the very top receives their money. That means your own completion can be delayed by something happening several links away, entirely outside your conveyancer's control. Most people find the best approach on the day is simply to expect some waiting, keep your phone charged, and resist the urge to ring your conveyancer every twenty minutes, satisfying as that might feel in the moment.

What typically happens on completion day

• Final funds are transferred between all conveyancers in the chain
• The seller's conveyancer confirms receipt of the full purchase price
• Keys are released, usually via the estate agent
• The seller moves out and the buyer moves in
• Any remaining balance is sent onward if the seller is also buying

After completion

Completion isn't quite the end of the story, even if it feels like it once you've got the keys in hand. Your conveyancer still has some administrative work to finish off, most of which happens without you needing to do anything.

Stamp Duty Land Tax, where it's payable, needs to be calculated and paid to HMRC, usually within 14 days of completion. The transfer of ownership then needs registering with the Land Registry, which updates the official record to show you as the new owner. This registration step can take weeks or, in busier periods, considerably longer, though it doesn't affect your right to live in the property or your legal ownership in the meantime.

Loose ends your conveyancer ties up afterwards

1. Paying Stamp Duty Land Tax to HMRC, if applicable
2. Registering the transfer of ownership with the Land Registry
3. Sending you copies of your title documents once registration completes
4. Redeeming and closing out any existing mortgage on the seller's side
5. Settling final accounts, including any balance owed to or from you

FAQs about the stages of conveyancing

How many stages does residential conveyancing actually have?
There's no single official count, but most descriptions, including this one, group it into around seven or eight broad stages, from instruction through to post-completion registration.

Which stage of conveyancing usually takes the longest?
Searches and enquiries together tend to eat up the most time, partly because local authority search turnaround varies so much and partly because enquiry replies depend on how quickly the seller can respond.

Can stages overlap rather than happen strictly in order?
Yes, quite often. Searches might be ordered while enquiries are still being drafted, and mortgage valuations sometimes happen alongside the early stages of the search process, so it's not always as linear as a simple list suggests.

Is exchange of contracts the same as completion?
No, they're distinct and usually happen on different days. Exchange makes the sale legally binding and fixes the completion date; completion is when money and keys actually change hands and you take ownership.

What happens if a stage gets stuck for a long time?
Conveyancers will usually chase the other side and try to unstick things, but ultimately some delays, like a slow local authority, are outside anyone's control and just need patience.

Do these stages differ for cash buyers?
The core stages are the same, but cash buyers skip the mortgage offer and lender report on title stage, which can shave meaningful time off the overall process.

Summary and what to do next

• Instructing a conveyancer early and getting identity checks done promptly avoids losing time at the very start
• The pre-contract pack, including the TA6 and TA10 forms, forms the basis for everything checked afterwards
• Searches and enquiries are usually the slowest stages, largely due to factors outside anyone's direct control
• A mortgage offer and report on title need to be in place before exchange can happen
• Exchange makes the sale legally binding; completion is when you actually get the keys
• Post-completion work, including Stamp Duty and Land Registry registration, continues quietly after you've moved in

That's the broad shape of how residential conveyancing typically unfolds, stage by stage, though of course every transaction has its own wrinkles. As I mentioned earlier, I'm writing this as a blogger with an interest in the property world, not as a solicitor or licensed conveyancer, so please don't treat any of this as advice tailored to your own sale or purchase. Speak to whoever is actually handling your transaction if you want guidance specific to your situation.

Need help or have questions?

I can't offer legal advice on your particular transaction, since I'm not a qualified solicitor or licensed conveyancer, but I'm always happy to point people towards more guides covering different parts of the conveyancing process if there's something specific you're trying to understand.

Our contact form is genuinely the quickest way to reach us, so just send your question through and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

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This article is written from a blogger's perspective for general information only. It isn't legal advice, and this site isn't a law firm, so please get in touch with a qualified solicitor or licensed conveyancer for guidance tailored to your own circumstances.