Guides

Conveyancing, explained a stage at a time.

Whatever brought you here — buying, selling, a leasehold flat, a remortgage, or just wanting to know how long it all takes — start with the guide closest to your situation. Every one links to your itemised quote.

How To Use This Page

Conveyancing isn't one process — it's several, depending on what you're doing.

"Conveyancing" covers the legal work behind every kind of residential property transaction, but a first-time buyer's questions aren't the same as a landlord's, and a straightforward freehold sale doesn't raise the same issues as a leasehold flat with a management pack to chase. Rather than one long page trying to answer everything at once, each guide below focuses on one situation, in enough depth to actually be useful.

If you're not sure where to start, the quickest way in is usually by transaction type: buying, selling, or a remortgage with no sale or purchase involved. From there, a handful of situations change what your solicitor actually needs to check — a leasehold flat brings lease length, ground rent and service charges into play; a new build adds a developer's contract and a fixed exchange deadline; a buy-to-let or second home adds the Stamp Duty surcharge and, often, a limited company structure to work through.

The remaining guides cover the process itself rather than a transaction type: what a conveyancing solicitor actually does at each stage, realistic timings and what commonly causes delay, what a property search checks, and exactly what a disbursement is and why it's listed separately from our legal fee. Read whichever guide matches where you are, then use the calculator below or on any guide page to see your own itemised, fixed-fee quote.