Conveyancing is generally paper pushing and there are people that insist on doing the entire conveyancing without the use of a Property Lawyer. This is however not advisable as the transaction concerned could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and a small error could render your purchase valueless. For example, if you do not get clean title (a property that is free of encumbrances like mortgages) you may not be able to sell the property. You may owe another company that may have placed a caution or a charge of some sort rendering you liable to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds. Hence it is better to get a Property Lawyer to deal with the conveyancing.

Conveyancing in the UK has different pressures and if you are going to do the conveyancing without the help of a Property Lawyer you need to understand not only the process but also the possible problems that you will face.

Let us look at the problems from a buyer's point of view. Firstly as a buyer you want to make sure that the property, as above mentioned, is passed to you without any encumbrances. Secondly, you want to make sure you proceed with the transaction quickly as you could have incurred expenses on surveys, given notice to your Landlord or you may have a sale linked to your purchase and delays in the purchase may cause your linked transaction to collapse. Thirdly, you want to move quickly as you do not want the Seller to gazump ( sell the property to another buyer willing to pay more for the property) you. Fourthly you need to make sure the property has all the relevant planning permissions in place. The last thing you need is for the local council to turn up and ask you to demolish a conservatory or other essential feature of the property thus costing you money. The above are just some of the issues that a good property lawyer is aware of when conducting a conveyancing transaction for a buyer.

Now as a seller, you also have a lot to lose if the conveyancing is not done properly or it is delayed. Firstly delays can be costly. You could be paying thousands of pounds on mortgage interest per month and this is accumulated every month that the transaction is delayed. Secondly delays may (during a property market downturn) cause you to be gazundered by the buyer. This happens when the buyer attempts to reduce the purchase price at the eleventh hour because he or she knows that you need to push the sale through. This is generally true and the seller is left in a tight corner especially if the proceeds from the sale was going to be used in the purchase of another property.