Between having an offer accepted and getting the keys, there is a period, commonly two to four months in the UK, during which nothing visible happens and someone you have paid appears to be doing nothing. That someone is your conveyancer, and they are doing a great deal. Knowing what, and in what order, turns the most frustrating part of buying a home into merely a slow one.

This is the UK process, with a note at the end on where Cyprus differs.

The cast

Your conveyancer is a solicitor or licensed conveyancer acting for you. Their job is to make sure that what you are buying is what you think it is, that the seller has the right to sell it, and that nothing attached to it will come back to bite you.

The seller’s conveyancer does the same job from the other side, and the two of them do most of the work by sending documents and questions to each other.

Your lender’s interests are also being represented, usually by your own conveyancer acting for both, which is why the mortgage offer has to arrive before things can move.

The stages, in order

1. Instruction and identity. You appoint the conveyancer, they verify who you are (anti-money-laundering rules make this thorough), and they ask where the deposit is coming from, with evidence. Do this the day your offer is accepted, not a week later.

2. The draft contract. The seller’s side sends over the contract pack: the draft contract, the title (the legal record of who owns what), and forms the seller has completed about the property, its fittings, and any disputes or works. Your conveyancer reads all of it.

3. Searches. Your conveyancer orders searches from outside bodies, and this is where the calendar starts to matter, because each has its own turnaround:

  • Local authority search: planning permissions, building regulations, whether the road is adopted, anything the council knows that affects the property. Some councils return it in days; some take weeks.
  • Water and drainage: is the property connected, and where the pipes run.
  • Environmental: flood risk, contaminated land, ground stability.
  • Others as needed: mining, chancel repair, and so on, depending on the area.

4. Enquiries. Reading the contract pack and the searches raises questions, and your conveyancer sends them to the seller’s side. Why is there no building regulations certificate for the extension? Who maintains the shared driveway? The seller’s answers come back, more questions follow, and this back-and-forth is where a great deal of the time goes, especially when the seller is slow.

5. The mortgage offer and the report on title. Once the lender has valued the property and approved you, the formal offer arrives. Your conveyancer checks its conditions and, when satisfied with everything, sends you a report on title: a plain-language summary of what you are buying and anything you should know. Read it. It is the document that matters.

6. Exchange of contracts. Both sides sign identical contracts, the deposit (usually ten percent) is sent, and the conveyancers “exchange” them, at which point the deal is legally binding. Before exchange, either side can walk away for any reason and lose only their costs. After it, pulling out means losing the deposit and potentially being sued. A completion date is fixed at exchange.

7. Completion. On the agreed day, your conveyancer sends the balance of the money, the seller’s conveyancer confirms receipt, and the keys are released. Your conveyancer then pays the stamp duty on your behalf and registers you as the new owner.

Why it takes so long

Three things, in roughly this order of blame. Chains: if the seller is buying, and their seller is buying, every link has to be ready to exchange on the same day, and the slowest link sets the pace. Slow searches and slow sellers: a council that takes six weeks, or a seller who takes a fortnight to answer each round of enquiries. Leasehold: flats and some houses are leasehold, which adds a freeholder or management company to the cast, and they are under no obligation to be quick.

What you can actually do

Instruct your conveyancer immediately, and get the identity and deposit paperwork to them the same week. Get the mortgage application in early; the offer is often the last thing holding up exchange. Answer your own conveyancer’s questions the day they arrive. Ask, politely and regularly, what the current holdup is; conveyancers prioritise the files that ask. And do not book removals, or give notice on a rental, until exchange. A completion date before exchange is a hope, not a date.

Where Cyprus is different

The shape is similar, the details are not, and one of them matters enormously.

In Cyprus the buyer and seller each typically have a lawyer, the contract of sale is deposited with the Land Registry to protect the buyer, and the transfer of ownership happens at the Land Registry on payment of transfer fees. The thing to know about is title deeds. Historically a large number of properties in Cyprus were sold, and lived in for years, without a separate title deed ever being issued for the individual unit, usually because the developer had not completed the process or had debts secured on the land. The situation has improved and the law has changed more than once, but the question “does this property have its own clean title deed, and if not, exactly why not and when will it?” is the first question, not the last, and the answer should come from a lawyer who is independent of the developer and the agent. Our mortgages when moving abroad guide covers the rest of buying as a newcomer.

Where this fits

Conveyancing is the legal spine of the mortgage journey, it runs alongside the survey and the rate decision, and it is covered within Module 8 of our Financial Literacy Course. The purchase taxes that your conveyancer pays at completion are linked, for each authority, from the calculator page.

Educational guidance, not legal or regulated financial advice. Conveyancing law and practice differ between England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cyprus, and change over time. Nothing here replaces advice from a qualified conveyancer or lawyer who knows the property and the jurisdiction.