Residential Conveyancing Solicitors
Buying or selling your home can be highly stressful, but having the right legal advice and support can make the process much easier while ensuring you aren’t caught out by any unexpected problems, either during the sale or after the deal is done.
Tayntons’ conveyancing solicitors in Gloucester can help you through the entire process of buying or selling a home, as well as with a wide range of other residential property transactions, including remortgaging, buy-to-let property, leasehold property, transfer of equity and more.
While conveyancing typically takes around 12 – 16 weeks, any problems can cause significant delays. Our many years of experience and a strong knowledge of the Gloucestershire property market means we can offer reliable, competitively priced conveyancing to ensure your transaction goes ahead smoothly and on time.
Our clients use a market-leading conveyancing app to ensure their sale or purchase proceeds as quickly and smoothly as possible. You will receive a notification as soon as there is something that needs your attention, such as a message to view or a document requiring signature.
You will be able to access the app easily and securely and use it to upload information or check on the progress of your transaction.
Our residential property solicitors can also provide support via email or through the post. By dealing with your transaction this way we can help to reduce the number of visits to our offices and provide a prompt and efficient service.
With a strong focus on communication, we will keep you up-to-date at every stage of the conveyancing process so you are never left wondering what is going on or how long you will have to wait for the next step. We will always be available to answer your questions in person, over the phone or by email, making sure anything you need to know is explained in plain English so you can have complete confidence in the way we handle your conveyancing.
Speak to one of our residential conveyancing solicitors now by calling 0800 158 4147 or request a call back and a member of our team will be in touch promptly.
Our residential conveyancing services
Buying residential property
Whether you are buying your first home, moving to a new property, investing in a buy to let, or buying residential property for any other reason, we can provide reliable, competitively priced conveyancing.
Our services include:
- Reviewing contracts of sale & Home Information Packs
- Raising queries with the seller’s solicitor
- Negotiating any required amendments to the contracts
- Handling transfer of the deposit to the seller’s solicitor
- Arranging conveyancing checks
- Exchanging contracts with the seller’s solicitors
- Transferring the balance of payments on competition
- Dealing with the payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)
- Registering the change of ownership with the Land Registry
Selling residential property
If you are selling your home or an investment property, we can handle the whole process for you, including:
- Drafting contracts of sale & preparing Home Information Packs
- Answering queries from the buyer’s solicitor
- Dealing with any required amends to the contracts
- Taking receipt of the buyer’s deposit
- Exchanging contracts with the buyer’s solicitor
- Taking receipt of the balance of payments
- Transferring funds to your lender (where required)
- Dealing with the payment of Capital Gains Tax (for investment properties)
Remortgage conveyancing
We can help you to remortgage your home swiftly and smoothly, dealing with issues such as:
- Requesting a redemption statement from your current lender (showing how much is owed on your mortgage and any repayment fees you will need to cover)
- Reviewing the terms of your new mortgage
- Conveyancing checks
- Transfer of funds from your new lender to your old lender
- Notifying the Land Registry of the change of lender
Read more about our remortgage conveyancing services.
Transfer of equity
If you need to change the legal ownership of a property, adding or removing someone from the property title, there is a strict legal process for doing so.
We can guide you through transferring equity in a property, including:
- Securing the consent of your lender
- Drafting the Deed of Transfer
- Notifying the Land Registry
- Advising you how the transfer may impact other issues, such as your Will
Leasehold conveyancing
Buying, selling and owning leasehold property typically involves a number of issues that are different from those connected to freehold property. It is therefore important to take advice from residential property experts with experience dealing with leasehold property matters.
Our expertise includes:
- Buying leasehold property
- Selling leasehold property
- Explaining the terms of lease agreements (including ground rents, service charges and the liabilities of both freeholders and leaseholders)
- Lease renewals
- Leasehold enfranchisement
Our conveyancing fees in Gloucestershire
We offer competitive fixed-fee conveyancing, meaning you will know upfront exactly how much your conveyancing should cost.
We are committed to keeping our pricing transparent, so will provide a complete breakdown of the conveyancing costs involved in your property deal, including our fees and third-party costs (known as disbursements). That way you can see exactly what you are paying for and make a fair comparison with our competitors.
For a free, no-obligation conveyancing quote, please use the link below.
Common questions about conveyancing
What searches does a conveyancer do?
Exactly what searches you will need will depend on the circumstances, however, there are three standard searches we will normally carry out:
Local Authority Searches – Looking for issues with the property (such as listed status or rights of way) and the surrounding area (e.g. new roads or developments nearby).
Environmental Searches – Looking for issues such as subsidence, flooding or land contamination.
Water and Property Searches – To identify who is responsible for the property’s water supply, sewers and drains, as well as if any public sewers run under the property.
Other types of searches that may be required include mining reports and chancel repair liability searches, depending on any specific issues in your local area.
Should I use the conveyancing solicitor recommended by a developer?
If you are buying a new build property, the developer will often recommend their own conveyancer and may cover the cost of your conveyancing if you use their recommended solicitor.
While this might seem like an attractive option, it is usually safer to choose your own independent conveyancing solicitor, so you can be sure they only have your interests at heart.
There are various horror stories of buyers who used their developer’s recommended conveyancer, only to discover later that key information was not explained to them – for example, that the property was leasehold not freehold and what this means, or how the developer’s warranty works.
If you use the developer’s recommended conveyancer, you may save some money in the short-term, but you are taking a huge risk in the long-term, which could end up being far more costly.
When does the sale of a property become legally binding?
The sale only becomes binding on both parties once contracts have been exchanged. Up until this point, both the buyer and seller are free to pull out at any time for any reason.
For buyers, this means that should a problem be uncovered during conveyancing, you can decide whether to try to negotiate a reduction on the sale price or pull out of the purchase entirely.
For sellers, this means you are free to accept a higher offer or decide to stay put if you want to do so up until you exchange contacts.
However, once contracts have been exchanged, both parties are committed to completing the sale on the agreed date for the agreed price.
If the buyer were to pull out after this point, the seller is entitled to keep their deposit and can take legal action against the buyer if they wish. Should the seller pull out, the buyer can take legal action to force them to complete the sale on the agreed terms.
Do I need to have a survey when buying a property?
It is always a good idea to have a property survey, even if the property is a new build. There are various different types of survey you can have which offer different levels of thoroughness with prices to match.
Your options are (in order of cheapest to most expensive):
RICS Condition Report – A basic search identifying any clear risks, urgent defects and potential legal issues – does not include specific advice on fixing any issues.
New-build snagging survey – Provides an independent inspection of new build property to highlight any issues the developer needs to fix before you take ownership.
RICS HomeBuyer Report – Looking for structural problems, such as subsidence, as well as surface-level issues, such as damp. May offer an estimate of the property’s value and cost of any work required to fix the issues identified.
RICS Building Survey – A more in-depth survey looking for both minor and major issues. Will provide specific advice on how to fix any issues uncovered and the likely costs involved. Will also explain the likely consequences of not remedying those issues.
Building or full structural survey – The most extensive (and expensive) type of survey, this will cover the full range of potential issues with the property and provide detailed advice on how to fix those issues and costs involved.
Whichever type of survey you go for, it is important to use a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited surveyor.
This provides assurance the survey is carried out to the highest standards and means that, if your surveyor misses any problems they should have identified, you could potentially make a professional negligence claim against them for any losses you incur as a result.
Why choose Tayntons’ residential conveyancing solicitors?
Tayntons’ conveyancing solicitors in Gloucester have been supporting people with buying and selling property and all other types of residential property conveyancing for many years. As well as properties in Gloucester, we also work with clients throughout Gloucestershire, including Cheltenham and the Forest of Dean.
Our expertise and knowledge of the local property market means we can offer reliable conveyancing while helping to minimise the potential for any issues that could hold up your transaction or cause problems after the deal is done. Our goal is to make your conveyancing as straightforward and stress-free as possible while ensuring everything goes ahead on schedule.
Our clients use a market-leading conveyancing app to ensure their sale or purchase proceeds as quickly and smoothly as possible. You will receive a notification as soon as there is something that needs your attention, such as a message to view or a document requiring signature.
You will be able to access the app easily and securely and use it to upload information or check on the progress of your transaction.
Tayntons was one of the first firms in Gloucestershire to be accredited by the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) for the excellence of our residential property services. We are also Lexcel accredited by the Law Society in recognition of our strong practice management and client care.
Get in touch with our residential conveyancing solicitors in Gloucester
Need help buying or selling a home, or with any other type of residential property deal in Gloucester, Cheltenham, the Forest of Dean or across Gloucestershire?
Please contact our residential conveyancing team today by calling 0800 158 4147, emailing us at info@tayntons.co.uk or requesting a call back.
