Conveyancing is the rather old fashioned name which describes legal work involving the buying and selling, re-mortgaging and letting of properties.

Impossible to say, how long is a piece of string? If you are buying an empty property and have the cash available we could complete the conveyancing process in a week or two if the Sellers' solicitors were able to cooperate.

If you need a mortgage you cannot exchange until you have a mortgage offer.

If you have a property to sell does your buyer need a mortgage offer? This forms the start of the property "chain". You could be very well organised and arrange for a mortgage offer to be issued within a few days of agreeing to purchase the property. Unfortunately, this may be wasted effort on your part if your buyer is less well organised and has not made a prompt application. In other words, this chain would not be ready to exchange until the slowest person in the chain is ready to proceed which is normally when his mortgage offer arrives.

At the present time the answer is "yes". Obviously each party will lose costs already incurred which cannot be recovered from the other party, e.g. their legal fees, survey fees and other expenses. Requests are often made to the withdrawing party to make a contribution, but they are not legally obliged to pay anything.

There are two methods by which property can be jointly owned and these differ in relation to what happens on the death of one of the co-owners.

1. Joint Tenancy - the property automatically passes to the survivor regardless of who is entitled to the deceased's property under the terms of the Will or intestacy.
2. Tenancy in Common - where each co-owner has a share in the property which will pass according to his or her Will or intestacy.

Commonly most married couples choose the first option. If you choose the second option we recommend that the respective interest which you will each hold in the property is acknowledged in a Declaration of Trust.

If either party has children, who are not of their present spouse/partner, then this needs to be discussed more fully as the choice made above may affect inheritance by your children on your death.

When a married couple is purchasing property it can be more tax efficient to hold the property as Tenants in Common as this enables you to take advantage of tax relief's on your death (these may not be available if you hold the property as Joint Tenants). In the course of making a Will and carrying out a tax planning exercise in the future you may therefore be advised to change your joint ownership to Tenants in Common.

These are obligations which are imposed when a land owner sells off some land and wishes to retain some control over what happens with the land that has been sold. For example:

• A brewery sells a property and imposes a covenant which prohibits the sale of alcohol.
  
• A developer builds a terrace of houses in the "Georgian" style. He may require a covenant that the exterior of the properties are always painted in a certain colour.
  
• A prohibition which states that caravans and boats cannot be parked within the property.
  
• A restriction which limits the number of cars allowed to park.

This is an Insurance Policy taken out to deal with a defect in the title of the property being sold. Defects can be in many forms, some of a technical nature and sometime serious.

For example there might be an old restrictive covenant which stated that not more than two dwellings are to be built on the land being sold. If the house you are buying is one of three houses built on the piece of land you will want to be satisfied that the land owner who benefits from the restrictive covenant cannot make a claim because your property is one too many. If the land owner can be found it is best to request approval for the third house or request a release from the covenant. If that is not possible because the land owner or his successors cannot be found then an Indemnity Policy could be used to deal with this defect.

The Insurance Policy is intended to protect the owner of the property. These policies attract a single premium which is usually payable by the Seller. If the risk is regarded as small the premium can be as low as £150. The value of the policy will usually reflect the price of the property.

Because this policy will be kept with the Title Deeds it may be necessary to apply to increase the value of the property if it has increased since the policy was first taken out. Sometimes this is unnecessary as the simple passage of time can resolve the defect making the policy redundant.

Provided you have not exchanged contracts the answer is yes. For example, you have made an offer on a property but the survey reveals that the electrical wiring is outdated and needs to be replaced. You obtain an estimate and the cost for the work is £2,000.

You can take this cost on yourself but you may argue that you had no means of knowing the state of the property when you made your offer in good faith. Therefore you decide to ask the current owner to help meet the cost of the electrical rewiring. This request is usually submitted via an estate agent (you can help the estate agent by providing them with a copy of the Electrical Report and Estimate as this establishes how the £2,000 figure was arrived at). It is also important to indicate to the Agent what sort of contribution you wish the owner to make. You may be happy to pay 50% and require the owner to pay the other 50%. Equally, you may already be stretching yourself financially and cannot afford to pay anything towards the electrical costs. If that is so, you should say so. At least the Seller will know that you are unlikely to be able to proceed if he refuses to make a full contribution towards the electrical costs. It must be realised that some owners will refuse to agree any contribution and his may mean that the sale falls through.

In the example of the £2,000 cost for electrical work, the seller may agree to pay the whole of the cost.

The price of the property could be reduced by £2,000 but this might affect the amount you borrow particularly if you are obtaining a 95% Mortgage. If the price of the house is £50,000 you may be taking out a loan for £47,500. By reducing the price to £48,000 your loan may also be reduced to £45,600. You therefore haven't gained very much.

You could instead agree an "allowance toward the cost of repairs". Here the price of the property remains at £50,000 but you actually pay only £48,000 on completion. As the price in the contract and the transfer is unchanged there is no requirement for your lender to become involved and you are therefore still able to borrow £47,500.

Provided the property is empty you may well be allowed to have access to the property before completion. The usual reason is that there is essential work which needs to be carried out. If this is required we recommend that you notify us as soon as possible so that a request can be made to the Sellers' solicitors. If this is to be agreed (and it is often refused) access is normally permitted provided you have exchanged contracts, paid a deposit and signed a key undertaking.

The key undertaking which comes in many forms usually provides that you will not take possession of the property, that you will only carry out works which are referred to in the key Undertaking and that you will become responsible for any services which may be used whilst you have access to the property. Important - If the intended work will require more than a few days' work, you need to check with your contractor how long they will need to complete the project and when they can start. It is only by knowing this information that you can calculate the completion date. In other words there is little point arranging for access, agreeing a completion date for two weeks after exchange if your contractor cannot do the work for a month!

Generally, no. The main reason is that money needs to be transferred to complete the sale and this can only be received when the lawyers' offices are open, which are usually Monday to Friday only.

But what happens if the legal work is completed on a Friday? Can the parties then move on the following day? Unfortunately this also causes problems! Generally most purchases involve Mortgage funds of one sort or another. That being the case the buyers' solicitor is only allowed to use the mortgage monies on completion, provided he is satisfied that Vacant Possession will be given on completion. Therefore, if the seller has reached agreement with his buyer that he will move out on the Saturday, vacant possession cannot be given and the monies cannot be used until the Monday.

If the property is leasehold, the legal title will include an additional set of Title Deeds and a Lease. We will contact the Freeholder / Managing Agent to check that the terms of the Lease have not been breached and we will calculate the rent/ service charge payments due on completion.

Even if Stamp Duty is not payable on your purchase, an 8 page Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) Self-Assessment Tax Return Form must be completed and submitted to the Inland Revenue in every case. Failure to file this return within the Inland Revenue's 28 day deadline will incur a fine, further the property cannot be registered in your name without the Inland Revenue having acknowledged receipt. We will complete this form on your behalf free of charge as part of the service.

This is the fee charged by the bank to transfer your funds to the seller’s solicitor, or your finance company on a sale, on the day of completion.

To comply with anti-money laundering rules we will apply online for an identity check against each client's name. If you have recently changed your name or moved house, it may be necessary to perform a search against more than one name or address.

This is the fee payable to HM Land Registry to register the new charge.