Buying a property is, for most people, the largest financial transaction of their lives. The legal process — conveyancing — is designed to protect you from the things you cannot see on a viewing: legal defects, planning issues, neighbour disputes, environmental risks, and title problems that could affect your use of the property or your ability to sell it in future.
Step 1: Instruct a Solicitor Early
The most common mistake buyers make is waiting until their offer is accepted before instructing a solicitor. By that point, the estate agent is pressing for a completion date, and you are immediately on the back foot. Instruct a conveyancing solicitor before your offer is accepted if you can — or on the day your offer is accepted at the latest.
Step 2: Freehold or Leasehold?
Freehold means you own the property and the land outright. Leasehold means you own the right to occupy the property for the remaining term of a long lease. Across the UK, most flats are leasehold. An increasing number of houses built since 2000 are also leasehold.
Check the tenure before making an offer, and ask about lease length, ground rent and annual service charge. If the lease has fewer than 80 years remaining, the cost of extending it rises significantly — the addition of "marriage value" was modified by the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, but lease length remains critically important for mortgage availability.
Step 3: Your Solicitor Reviews the Contract Pack
Once issued, your solicitor reviews: the draft contract; official copies of the title register and plan from HM Land Registry; the seller's property information form (TA6) — disclosures about the property, disputes, and known defects; and (for leasehold) the lease itself, three years' service charge accounts, and management information.
Your solicitor raises enquiries with the seller's solicitors on anything that requires clarification — planning permissions, building regulations consents, boundaries, rights of way.
Step 4: Order the Search Pack
Conveyancing searches reveal information not in the title documents. For a residential purchase, the standard pack includes:
Local authority search — planning permissions, enforcement notices, road adoption, tree preservation orders, listed building status, conservation area designations.
Drainage and water search — whether the property is connected to the public sewer and where the relevant infrastructure is located.
Environmental search — flood risk (fluvial and surface water), ground contamination, land instability, radon gas levels, proximity to landfill sites. Areas with chalk or clay geology, historic industry and river flood plains make this search particularly important.
Additional searches depending on the property: chancel repair liability (in certain parishes), mining searches (in former coalfield and quarrying areas), highways.
Step 5: Mortgage Offer and Lender Requirements
Your lender will instruct a valuer and issue a mortgage offer once satisfied with the valuation and your financial position. Your solicitor acts for both you and your lender. Issues that concern you as a buyer — a short lease, a planning irregularity — will also concern the lender and may affect their willingness to lend.
2026 note: lender turnaround times have varied significantly. Do not agree a completion date with the estate agent before you have a mortgage offer in hand.
Step 6: Commission an Independent Survey
A mortgage valuation is not a survey. For any property other than a brand-new build, commission an independent survey:
- RICS Homebuyer Report (Level 2): for most conventional properties in reasonable condition
- Full structural survey (Level 3): for older, unusual, or significantly altered properties
Survey findings can support price renegotiation or a decision not to proceed.
Step 7: Exchange of Contracts
Exchange is the point at which both parties become legally committed. At exchange the buyer pays the exchange deposit (typically 10% of the purchase price) and a completion date is set. Neither party can withdraw without financial penalty. Before exchange your solicitor must have completed the title investigation, received satisfactory search results, reviewed the mortgage offer, and reported to you on everything material.
Step 8: Completion and Post-Completion
On completion day, your solicitor transfers the balance of the purchase price. When received, you collect the keys. Your solicitor then: submits the Stamp Duty Land Tax return to HMRC and pays any tax due within 14 days; and registers the transfer of ownership at HM Land Registry.
Common Issues That Catch Buyers Out
Missing building regulations or planning consents: extensions and loft conversions without the necessary consents are common in older housing stock. Your solicitor will advise on the risk and the resolution options.
Short leases: do not assume the lease length is adequate without checking. The Land Registry title register states the original term and start date, not the remaining term — calculate it.
Flood risk: river valleys, tidal areas and low-lying land carry meaningful flood risk in many parts of the country. Where a property is in an identified flood zone, check buildings insurance availability before exchange.
Boundary issues: where a property has been subdivided, extended or developed, boundary questions are best identified and understood before exchange, not after completion.
Bonsai Law acts for residential property buyers, sellers and investors across the UK. Contact us for a fixed-fee quote and an honest assessment of your timescale.
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