by Clare Stevens
Shopping for a home can be a little more complicated than finding the property and the money to pay for it. Between you and the night you sip champagne on the porch of your newly acquired house lie mounds of paperwork, with very small print, and jargon that you probably have neither the time nor inclination to wade through.
Why you need a conveyancer
Thats what conveyancers are for. As solicitors who specialise in real estate properties, they can handle all the documents and make sure that you are fully protected by the law.
For example, if youre selling your home, your conveyancer will prepare the contracts and the property deeds. If youre buying one, he will coordinate with your mortgage lender and handle all the necessary searches to make sure that youre not being swindled out of your well-earned pounds. These include a local authority search (to check if your property is sitting on what will later be converted into a highway), a drainage search, a land registry search (so you know youre talking to the real owner of the property), and a land charges search (to assure the mortgage lender that you can afford the payments)....