Buying a house involves a huge investment and a lot of legal paperwork. It involves preparing, verifying, and lodging various legal documents as well as preparing the property for settlement. Not handing the paperwork associated with pre-contract, pre-completion, and post-completion stages correctly can result in your contract being voided.

Therefore, it is better to consult a conveyancing solicitor in the UK to ensure that no legal issues will affect your ownership of the property.
A licensed and experienced conveyancer knows real estate law. A conveyancer helps you to prepare documentation or clarify documentation, research property and certificate of title, check for easements, put your deposit into a trust account, calculate rates and taxes, and conduct a property settlement.
Let’s understand in detail why you need a conveyancer.

A conveyancer conducts legal property searches, which include the local authority, environmental and water searches.
Through these inquiries and checks, the conveyancer uncovers any potential issues related to the property. These issues can be public rights of way, compulsory purchase orders, enforcement notices for the property, and flood risks.
Here is the list of searches carried out by a conveyancer:

1- Conduct Property Searches

● Local authority searches. It includes checking whether the property is a listed building, located in a conservation area, subject to a tree protection order, needs improvement or renovation grant, or situated in a smoke control zone.
● Checking title register and title plan at the Land Registry
● Water authority and flood risk searches
● Chancel repair search
● Environmental searches, which can include landfill sites, former and current industry, detailed flooding predictions, radon gas hazards, or ground stability issues.

2- Secure Your Mortgage

Conveyancer helps you to secure a mortgage by finding the right lender for you and carrying out the required checks.
A mortgage lender usually determines the value of the property to ensure that it is worth the agreed amount. In this case, your conveyancer can act as a mediator between you and the lender, ensuring that you are complying with all the conditions. The conveyancer helps you to provide all the required information and documents that the lender requests before releasing funds.
Here are the documents that a lender may ask you to present to secure a mortgage:
● Your utility bills
● Proof of benefits received
● P60 form from your employer
● Payslips for the last three months
● Last three- or six-months’ bank statements of your current account
● Passport or driving license to check your identity
● Tax return form SA302 in case you have more than one source of earning

3- Deal with Exchange of Contracts

Exchange of contracts is taken care of by your conveyancer. They read out the contracts to ensure that the contracts are identical.
A conveyancer also helps you to lodge an interest in the property. It makes the deeds to the property frozen for 30 days to allow you to make the payment to the seller. It also enables you to send an application to the Land Registry to transfer the deeds into your name.
Towards the end of the conveyancing process, your conveyancer provides you a statement with the final amount to be paid to the seller. Once you make the payment, the seller drops the keys at the estate agents for your collection.
5- Provide Post Completion Support
A conveyancer also helps you to tie up some loose ends even after the completion of the conveyancing process.
It includes:

● Ensuring that you receive your legal documents after 20 days of completion of the process.
● Making payment for Stamp Duty Land Tax on your behalf.
● Sending out a copy of the title deeds to your mortgage lender. The lender will hold the title deeds until you pay your loan amount.
● Giving you a bill for the payment.

Final Thoughts
A conveyancer conducts multiple tasks for you to ensure that your interests are protected during the transfer and settlement process. It includes negotiating with the seller and their agent, making sure that the property description is as per the certificate of title, and calculating the adjustment of rates and taxes payable at settlement.
Ultimately, their job is to finalize the process of buying a house and ensure it is smooth and stress-free for you. Therefore, it is worth hiring the right conveyancer to support you when the need arises while buying a house.