Conveyancing Terms to Know Before You Buy

A glossary of the jargon you will meet between offer and completion, so you can follow your solicitor from the first search to the day you get the keys.

Summary

• Conveyancing is the legal process of buying and selling property, and it runs from accepted offer to completion day.
• A local authority search is a required step, and it reveals charges, planning history, road schemes and radon areas.
• An accepted offer does not complete a sale, and gazumping or gazundering can happen while a purchase is still going through.
• The deposit, usually 10% of the price, is paid to the seller on exchange of contracts.
• Leasehold means owning the right to occupy for a fixed term, and extending a lease gets costlier below 80 years.

Between having an offer accepted and picking up the keys, buyers sit through weeks of legal work punctuated by words they may never have heard before. Conveyancers use this vocabulary every day, so they do not always stop to explain it. This glossary covers the terms most likely to appear, in roughly the order a purchase unfolds.

Who Does the Legal Work

Conveyancing. The legal work behind buying and selling land and property, from an accepted offer to the day the seller is paid.

Licensed conveyancer. A specialist in property transactions, as distinct from a solicitor, who qualifies across the wider law. Compare fees and what each quote includes before you instruct anyone.

Disbursements. Expenses your conveyancer must pay out on your behalf during the purchase, then pass on to you in the final bill. Ask for the expected list upfront so quotes can be compared like with like.

Searches: What They Reveal

Local authority search. A set of enquiries every buyer’s conveyancer must make with the council before completion. The answers flag matters that could affect the property, and the search has three parts.

Local land charges search. Local land charges restrict how land or property can be used. In England and Wales you can check for them yourself through the government’s search service. The search is free; an official search certificate costs £15.

The Chain and Where Deals Wobble

Chain. Seller 1 sells to Buyer 1, who is also selling their own home to Buyer 2, and so on. Each transaction depends on the others, so one collapse can hold up several moves at once.

Sold subject to contract. The status a listing takes once a seller has accepted an offer. It sounds final, but sales do fall through before completion.

Best and final offer. A phrase estate agents use when more than one buyer is interested. Each potential buyer submits the highest offer they are prepared to make, and the details are not shared with the others.

Gazumping. A seller can accept a higher offer from another buyer while the sale is still going through. The original buyer loses the home, along with any money already spent on surveys and searches.

Gazundering. The mirror image. A buyer reduces their offer late in the process, leaving the seller to accept a lower price or put the property back on the market.

Exchange and Completion: The Two Dates That Matter

Exchange of contracts. The point at which buyer and seller swap signed copies of the contract, the mirrored document recording each side’s rights and obligations.

Deposit. The money the buyer hands over when contracts are exchanged. It is normally a tenth of the price, though a seller may accept less, and your conveyancer will want it transferred shortly before exchange.

Completion. The final step of the transaction. The seller receives the money and you receive the keys.

Valuations and Surveys

Valuation. A check your lender arranges to satisfy itself that the property supports the loan it is making. It serves the lender’s interests, not yours.

Survey. Your own inspection of the property’s condition. Surveys come in different types, and the fuller ones cost more but examine more, which can surface defects while there is still time to renegotiate or walk away.

Ownership and Contract Terms

Title. The legal ownership of the property. Your conveyancer checks the title to confirm the seller has the right to sell and that nothing registered against it will cause you problems.

Fixtures and fittings. The items included in the sale, such as the kitchen units or fitted wardrobes. The seller completes a form listing what stays and what goes, so read it before you commit.

Indemnity. An insurance policy taken out to cover a specific legal problem with the property, such as a missing document, rather than fixing the problem itself. Policies vary, so check exactly what is and is not covered.

Leasehold and Shared Ownership

Leasehold. Buying the right to occupy a property for a fixed number of years, typically 99 or more, rather than owning the building itself. The freeholder owns the structure and any common parts, and is likely to be your landlord. Leases lose value over time, and it can cost considerably more to extend one once fewer than 80 years remain. Our guide to leasehold vs freehold explains the difference in detail.

Shared Ownership. A scheme where you buy a share of a home and pay rent on the rest. You can buy further shares later, a process called staircasing. Under the newer model, the minimum further share fell from 10% to 5%, with the option to increase your stake in 1% steps during the first 15 years. Terms differ between schemes, so read the lease before you sign.

Next steps

• How Much Does It Really Cost to Buy a Home?: a breakdown of the costs that cluster around exchange and completion, beyond the deposit itself.
• Budgeting for UK Household Bills: Council Tax, Energy and the Rest: the regular costs that begin as soon as you move in.
• Leasehold vs Freehold: what each form of ownership means for your rights, costs and responsibilities.

Questions readers ask