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Conveyancing Solicitors in London
No matter what sort of property transaction you are looking to complete in London, our expert conveyancing solicitors are available to guide you through the entire process from start to finish.
If you are buying, selling or remortgaging, there are plenty of exciting times ahead, but they also come with risks that have the potential to leave you out of pocket. Our conveyancing team can make sure that those risks are carefully navigated so you can focus on your upcoming move.
At Bird & Co, we provide a tailored conveyancing service to individuals, couples and families, that is designed to make the process as straightforward as possible. We use our wealth of combined experience to advise on a wide range of conveyancing matters, using this knowledge to support people from all walks of life.
We also offer a simple online conveyancing service. This means that we can reach a wide pool of clients across London, whether you are in North London, South London, East London or West London.
Get in touch with a member of our conveyancing team in London by giving us a call, or get a quote online.
How our conveyancing solicitors in London can help you
Our expert conveyancers in London have a wide range of expertise, using this to help people from across London to move homes. Our expertise includes:
- Buying and selling your home
- Buying property at auction
- Advice for first time buyers, such as:
- Help to Buy
- Shared Ownership
- Remortgaging
- Equity release
- Advice about buying as joint tenants or tenants in common
- Buying and selling listed property
- Buying and selling leasehold property
- Collective enfranchisement and buying the freehold of a house
- Lease extension
- Transfer of equity
- Gifting property and Deeds of Gift
- Buy to let conveyancing
- Buying and selling land
- Commercial conveyancing
- Stamp Duty advice
We are on the panel for most lenders, so will be on hand to support you whether you are using a national firm or a local building society to get your mortgage.
Why choose Bird & Co’s London conveyancing solicitors?
We have a dedicated online conveyancing service. This provides you with the benefit of being able to complete your conveyancing transaction without having to leave the comfort of your own home.
Our conveyancing service has been designed to make the process as straightforward as possible, which means you can complete your transaction with minimal fuss, no matter what it might be.
When you work with our team, you will have a direct line of correspondence, as well as a direct email address for the solicitor handling your case. Whenever you have a question, you will know where to find a prompt response.
We are proud to be accredited with the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme. This means we will:
- Provide high quality legal advice
- Get your conveyancing transaction completed as efficiently as possible
- Provide top quality customer service and respond to queries quickly
- Keep you regularly updated and never leave you in the dark about the status of your transaction
- Be upfront and honest about your fees – we will provide you with an accurate quote before you instruct us so that you can decide whether we are right for you
- We are also Lexcel accredited by the Law Society. Lexcel is awarded to firms which demonstrate the highest standards of customer service and practice management.
Why instruct our online conveyancers instead of a conveyancer in London?
If you instruct one of our online conveyancers in London, you will experience a number of benefits, including:
- We have in-depth knowledge of the national property market, as well as a detailed understanding of the local markets across London. This gives us an advantage over other firms which exclusively deal with local transactions.
- Our online systems have been developed with sensitive communication in mind. We understand how vital it is to keep our clients and the documents they transfer secure. We do this by implementing secure procedures such as encrypting emails and putting malware protection in place.
- We can get your conveyancing done quickly and efficiently. There are a number of potential delays associated with the traditional conveyancing process. These can be avoided when you work with our online conveyancers.
- Online conveyancing tends to be more cost-effective. Conveyancing fees can quickly mount up when work is completed in the traditional manner. Many of these fees are not associated with online conveyancing.
- We have dealt with property transactions around the country, even for clients who are on the other side of the world. We use video conferencing to stay in touch with anyone who would be unable to visit our offices.
- Our legal obligations to you remain the same as if we were meeting in person as there are no differences to the general conveyancing process. We are fully insured just in case.
Our conveyancing fees – how much does our conveyancing cost in London?
We provide a range of flexible fees for our conveyancing services, including fixed fees for straightforward work. If additional fees are required to complete your transaction, your solicitor will keep you informed and carefully explain the reasons why.
Additional costs that occur during the conveyancing process are referred to as disbursements. Examples of disbursements could include conveyancing searches or registering a transaction at HM Land Registry.
You may also need to consider how tax will affect your property transaction, such as Stamp Duty Land Tax or Capital Gains Tax. Your solicitor can help you to clarify whether you will owe tax, calculate how much is owed and file the return with HMRC.
Conveyancing FAQs
How does the conveyancing process work in London?
There are three stages to the conveyancing process that you need to be aware of. These are:
- Offer and acceptance
- Exchange of contracts
- Completion
When the buyer and seller agree on a purchase price for a property, they will agree to enter into a contract. At this early stage, the transaction is not legally binding and either can pull out of the transaction without receiving a financial penalty.
Following this, the buyer will work with their conveyancer to carry out several checks on the property. Checks might include:
- Reviewing property information provided by the seller and making further enquiries if necessary (done by the conveyancing solicitor)
- Conducting conveyancing property searches, such as local authority checks (done by the conveyancing solicitor)
- Carrying out an independent survey (done by the buyer)
Once the checks have been completed and both parties are happy to proceed, contracts will be signed and exchanged. From here on out, the transaction is considered to be legally binding and pulling out would result in a penalty.
The transaction is deemed official when it reaches the completion stage. A transfer deed is submitted to HM Land Registry and the seller is required to leave the property.
How long does conveyancing take in London?
The time it takes to complete a conveyancing transaction can vary but, when there are no significant hurdles to overcome, it tends to take around 12-14 weeks to reach completion. This is from the date that conveyancers are first instructed.
If there are likely to be delays while your transaction is ongoing (such as issues further along the property chain), your solicitor will inform you of your options.
What documents does a property solicitor in London need for conveyancing?
When conveyancing, the property solicitor will need the title deeds, which establish proof of ownership and outline any legal restrictions or easements affecting the property. These deeds are crucial in verifying the seller's right to transfer ownership. Additionally, the solicitor will request the official copy of the registered title from the Land Registry, which provides detailed information about the property's boundaries, any charges or restrictions registered against it, and the name of the current owner.
Other important documents include local authority searches, which reveal crucial information such as planning permissions, building regulations, and any proposed developments in the vicinity. Environmental searches are also conducted to identify any potential risks or contamination issues that could affect the property.
Additionally, the solicitor will request the local search results, including the Local Authority Search, Drainage and Water Search, and Environmental Search. These searches provide valuable information about planning permissions, building regulations, flood risks, contamination risks, and other local factors that may affect the property. Other necessary documents include the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), which assesses the property's energy efficiency, and the Fittings and Contents Form, listing the items to be included or excluded from the sale.
What searches are involved in conveyancing in London?
If you are buying a property your conveyancer will carry out a number of checks to ensure that there are no immediate issues that you need to be made aware of.
The three main types of conveyancing searches are:
- Local authority checks – to check the surrounding area for planning, pollution, highway, or other related issues
- Environmental searches – to check for issues such as flooding or land contamination
- Water and drainage searches – to check matters such as water and drainage access
Further checks may be required, but this will depend on the type of property and where it is located.
How do you instruct our conveyancing solicitors in London?
Get in touch with a member of our conveyancing team in London by giving us a call, or get a quote online.
Our London conveyancing team will be able to run through the initial stages of your conveyancing transaction and, once your file is opened, your conveyancer will take care of all of the legal details related to your transaction.
Whether you are moving to, from, or across London, our conveyancing solicitors will be able to lend their expertise.
Get in touch with our conveyancing solicitors in London
Get in touch with a member of our conveyancing team in London by giving us a call, or get a quote online.
Online Conveyancing in London
There isn't really any such thing as online conveyancing. Clients come to us for conveyancing in London, Hampstead, Greenwich and all sorts of other places, having first found us via our website.
After that, the relationship between you and your conveyancer is the same as any other. We have the same professional obligations towards you, and deal with your conveyancing file in the same way.
It might feel like online conveyancing because you can talk to us through email on your computer, but really it is proper conveyancing.
Search Fees in London
Every local authority is different. We use an excellent, trusted national search provider, which means we can provide searches to clients in London and all over the country, knowing that we will get a product we're happy with and that we know is properly insured and protects your interests.
What is the process to instruct us for your conveyancing?
First, fill in our conveyancing quote form for conveyancing in London. You can find the links at the top of this page.
Our helpful conveyancing support team will then guide you through the initial stages, and once your conveyancing file is opened your London conveyancing solicitor and their small team will deal with the legal side of the conveyancing transaction. You'll be given direct contact details for your conveyancing lawyers and they'll keep in touch with you every step of the way.
Whether you're moving to London or away from London to somewhere else, our conveyancing team can help you do so with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience.
Fees for conveyancing in London
Our fees are transparent and, so long as the situation does not change (for example so long as your property doesn't turn out to be leasehold when we thought it was freehold) the fee we quote is the fee you will be charged.
We don't add extras on for things like photocopying, postage, or the like. Those are our overheads and we don't pass them on to you.
All our conveyancing fees are dependent on the nature and value of the transaction, so we naturally charge a bit more for more complicated and high value work. However, the fee charged will be the same for a customer in Newcastle as it would be for someone in London, or indeed in London.
There are some aspects of our conveyancing fees which we can't change. Fees charged by other bodies such as HM Land Registry, or by HMRC for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) are out of our control.