Conveyancing

House of Commons Library

Improving the home buying and selling process in England

This Commons Library briefing paper provides an overview of the home buying and selling process in England, stakeholder concerns with the current process, and Government proposals to improve the process, making it "quicker, cheaper and less stressful". The paper also provides a comparison with the conveyancing process in Scotland.

The home buying and selling process

• Conveyancing involves the legal transfer of home ownership from the seller to the buyer. The conveyancing process is complex and multi-staged. In most cases buyers and sellers rely on advice and support from a range of professionals, including estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors and mortgage lenders. Key features of the process include:
  • Properties are generally marketed by estate agents.
  • Sellers accept offers to purchase 'subject to contract'. Such agreements are not legally binding; either party can withdraw without penalty until the point at which contracts are exchanged.
  • Once an offer is accepted, both parties will instruct a conveyancer (either a solicitor who specialises in the transfer of land or a licensed conveyancer) and begin the conveyancing process.
  • The legal principle ‘Caveat emptor’ (buyer beware) applies - this places the onus on the buyer to find out if there are any physical defects or legal issues relating to the property. The buyer's conveyancer will gather information about the property from various public authorities and the seller’s conveyancer.
  • Once contracts have been signed and exchanged the parties may not withdraw from the agreement without penalty. The final stage of the process is completion - at this point the financial transaction is completed and ownership of the property changes hands.
  • Many homes are bought and sold as part of a chain, and consequently there may be multiple buyers and sellers going through these processes at the same time.

  
  The home buying and selling process in England and Wales is not mandated in detail by law; the law provides a broad framework in which the parties are free to decide how to shape their own transactions. However, in practice most transactions follow standard industry protocols and are completed through a private contract. The conveyancing process in Scotland differs from that in England and Wales.

Concerns with the current process

• The home buying and selling process is complex and can take months to complete.
• However, there has been limited progress in other parts of the process, particularly in the official search and legal conveyance stages.

Proposals to improve the home buying and selling process

• The consultation response sets out the Government’s ‘Plan of Action’ to improve the home buying and selling process in England, including proposals to:
  • Introduce further estate agent regulation. The Government will:
• The most recent attempt to reform the home buying and selling process was the introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPs) by the last Labour Government.
• The Coalition Government supported a voluntary, industry-led approach to improving the home buying and selling process, believing that improvements would be driven by the market led development of innovative products.


  The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) plans to set up a stakeholder group to support implementation of the proposals. Stakeholders have been broadly supportive of the Government’s proposals to improve the home buying and selling process.

Conveyancing in other countries

• The Scottish conveyancing system is different to that in England and Wales. Key differences include:
  • Properties are often marketed and sold by solicitors, rather than estate agents.
  • The seller must provide potential buyers with a ‘Home Report’ on their property, consisting of a survey/valuation, an energy report and a property questionnaire.
  • Searches can be completed within as little as 24 hours as search companies operating in Scotland receive data feeds direct from the local authorities.
  • Law Society of Scotland guidelines state that solicitors should not be involved in gazumping and gazundering.
  • Where possible contracts (missives) are negotiated and agreed as soon as possible. Once concluded, the terms of the missives are legally binding.

  
  In many countries the home buying and selling process is quicker than in England, more property information is provided up front, buyers and sellers have greater certainty that the sale will go ahead, there are less transaction failures and chains of sales transactions are less common. However, the fees and taxes associated with buying a property in other countries may be more expensive.