Conveyancing:

Dealing with the Title Deeds
The seller's solicitor will order the title deeds from the seller's Building Society or Bank and will usually send these to the purchaser along with his qualified acceptance of the purchaser's offer so that the purchaser can check that the titles contain no unusual or onerous conditions before a contract is concluded.

Searches
The selling solicitor will have to produce to the purchaser before the date of entry Searches in the Property Register, showing his client's title and in the "Personal Register" showing that his client has not been made bankrupt and is not subject to any court orders such as would prevent him granting a valid title to the purchaser. These Searches are paid for by the seller and they are carried out by an independent firm of Searchers, who specialise in providing this service.

Local Authority Certificates
The seller usually has to produce for the purchaser certificates from the Local Council showing, for example, that there are no statutory notices affecting the property which might require the owner of the property to carry out certain repairs (e.g. to the roof).

These certificates will usually also disclose whether the roads have been taken over by the Council for maintenance purposes or are still private roads (which may be the case in a fairly new estate of houses) and whether the sewers have also been taken over, as well as some other information, such as whether there are any planning proposals affecting the property.

Discharging the Loan
Where the seller has a loan from his Bank or Building Society, it will be necessary to prepare a Discharge of the Security document and (if a life policy has been assigned to the Bank or Building Society) a re-assignation of the policy to release the benefit of the policy from the lender. When the property is finally sold and the price paid to the seller's solicitor the solicitor will immediately have to repay to the client's lender the whole amount of the outstanding loan.

Date of Entry
The date of entry will have been decided in the Missives, although it may subsequently be amended by agreement. On the date of entry, the seller's solicitor will have to deliver to the purchaser's solicitor the keys of the property and a signed Disposition which will transfer the title of the property into the purchaser's name. In exchange for this, the purchaser's solicitor has to deliver to the seller's solicitor a cheque in favour of the seller's solicitor for the full amount of the purchase price (unless any deductions from the price have been previously agreed.)