O’Hara Solicitors has over 45 years of experience in residential conveyancing in the Waterlooville and surrounding areas. We offer a unique approach of conveyancing using our years of experience mixed with up to date technology and processes that work hard to make your property transaction go through as smoothly as possible.

What Is Residential Conveyancing?

Residential conveyancing is the legal process of transferring land or property from one person or entity to another. Solicitors and licensed conveyancers in the UK generally use the Law Society Conveyancing Protocol and the framework is used as the ‘preferred practice’ for buying and selling homes.

Buying or selling a property can be one of the most exciting milestones but it does not come without its stresses. It can be a lengthy process with emotions running high. O’Hara Solicitors aims to make your residential conveyancing journey as simple and stressless as possible, cutting through the legal jargon and keeping you in the loop every step of the way.

As well as buying and selling property, we also cover many other complex area of property transactions including remortgaging, transfer of equity, equity release and auction purchases and sales.

We combine our years of experience and know-how with the most up to date technology to make sure you are connected to us throughout the entire process. Using our app and customer portal, we can ping you updates with email and push notifications of key moments of your conveyancing to keep you and all parties involved engaged and informed of the latest details to your matter.

For more information on how this works click here.

With our digital onboarding system, we can now get your case up and running quickly with a limited disruption for you, making it as simple as possible to get all the information over to us for the swiftest start to your journey.

Who Does The Conveyancing?

The conveyancing process when buying or selling a home is done by a specialised solicitor or conveyancer. Doing the process yourself isn’t really a viable option due to the complexity to the conveyancing process.

A solicitor or conveyancer will:

• give legal advice specific to your transaction
• handle the contracts
• carry out local council searches on your behalf
• manage communication within the chain
• manage the money transaction applicable to the purchase or sale of a property
• deal with the Land Registry

Buying and selling houses can become very stressful, so having a solicitor or conveyancer who can answer all and any questions you may have make it a lot easier. O’Hara Solicitor’s conveyancing team make sure you are kept up to date every step of the way. Our own app is set up to track your conveyancing progression so you know where your file is at in real time. For more information on how our case tracking app works click here.

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We have experience with property law in the UK and have represented various buyers, sellers and property developers for all types of conveyancing transactions and property matters. We can:

• help you understand the issues involved in purchasing or selling property in England and Wales including residential property, vacant land, units, flats and rural land;
• assist with buying or selling at public auction/private treaty;
• provide information about the costs involved (including taxes);
• advise on the terms contained in your contract for sale;
• negotiate terms and conditions for the sale or purchase of property
• provide advice on meeting lender requirements;
• arrange title searches and land enquiries;
• help with the legal requirements for subdivisions and property developments;
• provide advice on building contracts;
• advise on and negotiate neighbourhood disputes including dividing fence disputes;
• represent you in dispute resolution and at Court.

If you need any assistance, contact one of our solicitors at via our contact page or call (023) 9225 9822 for expert legal advice

Why Choose O’Hara Solicitors For Conveyancing?

Our conveyancing team work hard to make the conveyancing process easier for you to understand. We use up to date technology to provide you real-time updates on your matter at every step of the way using our app. Not tech-savvy? No problem, we cater to whatever style of communication you are most comfortable with to make the process as easy as possible for you.

• Proactive and dedicated family run firm
• Receive key updates on your matter via our O’Hara Solicitors App
• Over 45 years of legal experience
• Flexible if unable to come to the office.

What Is The Residential Conveyancing Process? Who Is Involved?

Estate Agents

Many sellers use an estate agent who will value the property and put it on the market. The agent facilitates the physical showing of the property, takes any offers made by potential buyers and presents the offer to the seller to either accept or reject.

Solicitor

A solicitor becomes involved when an offer has been made by a potential buyer and accepted by the seller. Both parties should each instruct their own independent solicitor so there is no conflict of interest.

Initial Enquiries

Once instructed, each solicitor will send their new client a client care letter explaining the process and the costs involved, including Stamp Duty and VAT on estate agents fees. Many solicitors offer a flat fee for conveyancing and others an estimate of costs. The solicitor will liaise with the estate agent and mortgage lender and ensure that the purchase is registered with the Land Registry.

The solicitor will advise the buyer that they must pay stamp duty which changed during the Covid pandemic being payable on properties over £500,000. The threshold recently changed back again on 1^st July 2021 where buyers must pay 3% on properties over £250,000, 10% on properties over £925,000 and 12% on properties over £1.5 million. First time buyers do not have to pay stamp duty.

The seller’s solicitor will request a copy of the deeds from the seller who may have them at home or at their bank or building society. The solicitor will also enclose a property information form to complete which asks questions about the property, disputes with neighbours, boundary and access issues, planning permission/building consent and any neighbouring proposed/planned development.

The seller should also identify the fixtures and fittings the seller wants to leave in the property and include in the sale, and include arrangements about what will happen upon completion.

The buyer’s solicitor will ask about finances and how a buyer will be raising the money to pay for a purchase and will have checks in place to ensure that money laundering does not occur. They will liaise with the buyer’s mortgage lender to confirm that the funds will be available to purchase the property. The buyer must have the deposit monies (usually 10%) ready before exchange of contracts which is paid to their solicitor’s client account and transferred to the seller’s solicitor upon exchange of contracts. The rest is paid upon completion.

Property Searches

The buyer’s solicitor will undertake property searches to flag any areas of concern. The usual searches are of the title, local authority, mining, utilities, environmental, chancery etc. Any issues flagged will be raised with the buyer’s solicitor.

The buyer’s solicitor will also arrange for any required surveys to be carried out. A full building survey by a RICS surveyor is usually recommended, especially for older properties. This will give a full, detailed report on the structure of the property. This will also give the buyer peace of mind that they are making a good investment or show any issues that may prove too costly to move forward with the purchase.

Both parties will negotiate any issues arising from the searches, fixtures and fittings and the surveys, with the aim of reaching an agreement.

Exchange of Contracts

Once the initial stage is complete, the seller’s solicitor will draft the Contract for Sale and send it to the buyer’s solicitor to check and arrange for the buyer to sign. The contract will include dates for completion which is usually a few weeks after exchange of contracts (up to 28 days) but could be sooner or later than that (depending on the circumstances).

The buyer must ensure that they have buildings insurance cover for the property in place before exchange of contracts.

On the day of exchange each solicitor will usually arrange a telephone call during which they each read out the contracts to check they are the same and then post the signed contract to each other.

The parties are then legally bound to fulfil the contract and with the sale/purchase. If a party pulls out after exchange of contracts they can be sued by the other party.

Completion

On completion day the monies are transferred from the buyer to the seller’s solicitor at an agreed time and the keys exchanged. The seller should vacate the property by the completion date unless otherwise agreed. Both solicitors send their clients a final letter regarding completion and any outstanding client care matters regarding funds etc.

What Does Residential Conveyancing Cost?

Every residential conveyancing case is different with variables that can change or alter the final cost. To be able to give you the most accurate estimate at the beginning of a transaction, we use our instant conveyancing quote calculator to help give you an idea of how much your conveyancing will cost including all disbursements.

Sometimes, a conveyancing matter will have the odd curveball thrown at it. We have created a full list of additional costs that may incur in such situations which we also send out on any tailored quote to our potential clients. We like to give full transparency every step of the way.

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