Conveyancing London Properties – What makes conveyancing London properties different?

From a pure technical legal perspective conveyancing London properties is no different to conveyancing a property anywhere else in England and Wales. There are no specific Land Registry rules for conveyancing in London, in fact one can argue that in certain areas of the UK, such as Wales and Cornwall, conveyancing can be more complicated than conveyancing in London because specific searches and enquiries are required for those regions.

What makes conveyancing London properties different is the pace and the nature of the characters of the parties involved in a London conveyancing transaction.

So what makes London so different?

London estate agent negotiators' are generally (although not always) more actively involved in a property transaction.  With many years of conveyancing London properties under our belt, Fridays Property Lawyers has a lot of experience with London estate agents.

London estate agent negotiators' are under a lot of pressure. Stories of exceptionally  high attrition rates at some of London’s  top estate agencies are well known. Such high attrition rates are due to pressure to perform with earnings being heavily weighted towards commission as opposed to a high basic salary. This results in individual negotiators sometimes being overzealous and applying pressure on all parties in the transaction including the seller, the conveyancing lawyers and the buyer. 

The reaction from the conveyancing lawyer should not be to ignore the estate agent (as some do) but rather to reassure them and help them understand the delays.  The best conveyancing lawyers can even use this to their advantage by asking agents to assist chasing up certain documents ( for example panning documentation or information from a freeholder).  Not responding to the agents can be counterproductive as they will undoubtedly speak in less favourable  terms about the conveyancing lawyer and this will only in turn wind up the various parties in what is generally (accepted to be) a stressful enough transaction.

At the risk of generalising it is probably fair to say that estate agents outside London are, on the whole, more experienced and take a slightly more “hands off” approach.  This does not mean that they are any less professional. On the contrary, the experience they have gathered over the years dictates that they know more precisely when to get involved. 

When  purchasing a London property it makes sense to retain a conveyancing solicitor or a property lawyer who is experienced in dealing with London estate agents

Conveyancing lawyers in London are used to dealing with clients based in London. Social studies of urban life not surprisingly indicate that the pace of life is speeding up (see www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0235779220070502 ).  Experienced conveyancing lawyers will generally lament the fact that conveyancing London property transactions have sped up dramatically as a result of client demands.  It appears that the London public in particular expect transactions to go through in half the time that they were going through 20 years ago. Paradoxically, the law has become more complicated. Prices have gone down and that qualified solicitors specialising in conveyancing have reduced.

An increasing use of email has meant that communications are more immediate.  The use of post seems to be frowned upon by many London sellers and buyers who often term post  as “pigeon mail”.  Whilst it is true to say that many firms outside London are equally comfortable with email and fast pace of transactions but generally speaking property lawyers in London specialising in conveyancing London transactions have learned or should have learnt to cope with the ever increasing demands for a speedier transaction.

If you are purchasing a leasehold property in London, it is sensible to instruct conveyancing lawyers who are familiar with leasehold property. 

Generally speaking, conveyancing lawyers who are based in London will be used to leasehold conveyancing given the significant numbers of leasehold properties in London.

It is generally accepted that it is no longer a pre-requisite to live close to the conveyancing lawyer who will be conducting the conveyancing transaction.  There are still nevertheless benefits for being within an hour or so travelling distance to your conveyancing lawyer.  Many online conveyancing services will advise you that you will never need to attend their offices but the fact remains is that there are exceptional circumstances when you will be required to attend an office or certainly be in a position to sign a document very quickly.  No law firm can categorically claim at the beginning of the transaction that there will not be a last minute requirement for you to sign a document.  It may well be that shortly before completion for some obscure reason the lender wants you to sign an additional document or the mortgage offer is re-issued in which case you may need to re-sign the Mortgage Deed.  Alternatively, the lawyers in the transaction may decide at the last moment that you need to sign an additional document such as a Deed of Covenant, Licence to Assign. 

Whilst it is accepted that it is preferable for these documents to be signed well in advance of completion, often they can turn up at the last moment.  In particular, this may well happen with certain documents such as a Licence to Assign where the document may be drafted by a third party lawyer (such as the Landlord’s lawyer) and the document may only be available at the last moment.  Suffice to say, at Fridays because of the proactive approach that we take, this is very rare but nevertheless, as stated above, no law firm can categorically state that this never happens.  Given the stress and pressure involved in purchasing a property, being far from your conveyancing lawyer can add to that stress should the need arise for you to sign any last minute documents.  Please also note that it is not unheard of for a client to execute the document incorrectly and therefore it needs to be sent back at the last moment.

Fridays  Property lawyers actively promotes internally to it’s conveyancing lawyers to see their clients.  A person may buy  and sell a number of properties throughout their  life and it is preferable to establish a relationship with one  conveyancing lawyer.  Often this relationship is made all the more stronger by actually meeting the conveyancing lawyer face to face. We believe that a desire to have a faceless attitude towards clients results in an ethos and culture  of dealing with files rather than dealing with clients. Fridays Property Lawyers ( Formerly Fridays Solicitors ) and it’s conveyancers should always remember that they are dealing with people  rather than files. Our conveyancing in London team see the vast majority of clients.