What Does a Conveyancing Lawyer Do?

Have you ever wondered what a conveyancing lawyer actually does?

When you decide to move house, you find a new home; make an offer; negotiate the price; and eventually agree to buy.

Once this is done, you have to choose a conveyancing lawyer and go through a process known as conveyancing.

This may seem to be an unnecessary delay when all you want to do is move into your new home, but it is actually vitally important.

So why is it so important and what does your conveyancing lawyer do?

What Does a Conveyancing Lawyer Do?

Firstly, it is your conveyancing lawyer‘s job is to check that the title of the property is in order and that your seller can legally sell the property to you. Your conveyancing lawyer ensures that the seller owns the land they are selling, and also that the legal rights required come with the property.

Next, your conveyancing lawyers Brisbane undertakes a number of searches against the property. This is to ensure that, amongst many other things, there are no legal concerns with the property.  For instance, if a loft or garage conversion has been carried out, your conveyancing lawyer will check to ensure this was carried out in accordance with the planning rules and building regulations.

Similarly, if new windows have been installed, your solicitor will check that these were carried out in accordance with all necessary regulations.

Your Queensland conveyancing lawyer will also ask the seller to answer questions from their knowledge of the property to ensure that you have all the relevant and crucial information that you need. Examples of this include enquiries about property flooding to boundary maintenance and access concerns.

What Does a Conveyancing Lawyer Do?

Your conveyancing lawyer will then carefully check any formal legally binding contracts to ensure that all of the necessary terms are included. These terms include many important legal provisions for what will occur should your seller try to pull out of the deal after contracts are exchanged.

Once all of the legal formalities are taken care of, your solicitor will report to you about the property and ensure that you are aware of any issues that may affect your decision to proceed with the transaction.

These issues include any defects in the title that may need insurance or a concern that could affect the value of the property. Your solicitor will also provide you with a breakdown showing how much will be needed for your deposit, fees and stamp duty land tax to buy the property.

When everything is finalised then your solicitor, in agreement with everyone else in the chain, will fix a moving date and then exchange the legal contracts. Once this has occurred, everybody is bound to complete their part of the deal on the specified completion date.

Your solicitor will then prepare all of the documents necessary to transfer legal ownership of the property to you on the completion date and will ensure that either you, or your mortgage company, have sent sufficient monies to complete your purchase. Stamp duty and land tax must also be paid at this date.

On the completion date, the purchase monies will be sent to your seller’s solicitor and you will then receive the keys to your new home.

Your solicitor will then conclude your purchase by ensuring that your stamp duty is paid and the transfer documents are submitted to the Land Registry in order to change the legal title into your name.