Selling your home, without the mystery.
The buyer gets all the sympathy, but a sale has its own legal work, its own deadlines and its own ways of falling apart. This is the seller’s side of conveyancing in England and Wales, stage by stage.
Aseller’s conveyancing is fundamentally about proving and disclosing: prov ing you own what you are selling, free of problems the buyer cannot see, and disclosing what you know about the property honestly. The buyer’s solicitor will test both. Every document you cannot find, and every question answered “not known” that could have been answered properly, converts directly into weeks of delay and renegotiation risk.
Disclosure also has sharper teeth than it used to. Consumer protection law now bans omitting material information from property transactions outright, with the competition regulator able to enforce directly. The old game of saying as little as possible is not just bad tactics, it is a legal risk.
Six stages, roughly twelve weeks.
From instruction to the balance landing in your account, this is the sequence every sale follows. Scroll through to see what happens, when.
Instruction & the property forms
Week 1You appoint us; we run ID checks, obtain your title from HM Land Registry, and send you the protocol forms: the TA6 property information form and TA10 fittings and contents form (plus TA7 for leaseholds). Answer them carefully and honestly, they become part of the contract, and misstatements follow you after completion.
Contract pack out
Weeks 1 – 2We draft the contract and send it to the buyer's solicitor with the title, your completed forms and supporting documents: guarantees, planning and building regulation sign-offs, gas and electrical certificates where held. A complete pack on day one is the single biggest accelerator of a sale.
Enquiries answered, management pack ordered
Weeks 2 – 8The buyer's solicitor raises enquiries from the pack and their searches; we draft responses with you. For leasehold sales we order the management pack from the freeholder or agent on day one, it typically costs £200 to £600 and is the most common cause of leasehold delay.
Exchange of contracts
Weeks 8 – 10When the buyer's mortgage offer, searches and enquiries are settled, both sides sign and contracts are exchanged. The buyer pays a deposit, the completion date is fixed, and from this moment neither side can walk away without serious financial consequences.
Completion day
Weeks 10 – 12The buyer's money arrives, we redeem your mortgage from the proceeds, settle the estate agent's invoice if you ask us to, deduct agreed fees, and send you the balance, usually all within the day. Keys are released once funds land.
After completion
The following weeksWe confirm your mortgage is discharged at HM Land Registry, deal with any undertakings given to the buyer's solicitor, and send you the completion statement and your file. Keep it: buyers of your next home, and HMRC, sometimes ask questions years later.
Roughly one agreed sale in four fails before completion. Sellers are not passengers in that statistic: most collapses trace to delay, and most delay traces to preparation. The sellers who complete fastest instruct their solicitor before accepting an offer, return the protocol forms within days, locate guarantees and certificates up front, and, on leaseholds, pay for the management pack immediately rather than arguing about it for a fortnight first.
My working method is built around exactly this: contract pack out inside a week of instruction, enquiry responses turned around in days, and a weekly note telling you precisely what is outstanding and whose court it is in.
Five questions sellers ask most.
01How long does selling a house take in 2026?
A typical sale runs 12 to 16 weeks from accepting an offer to completion, longer for leasehold, and around half that if your buyer is chain-free. The biggest variables are the completeness of your paperwork at the start and the speed of the chain around you.
02Do I need searches when I am selling?
No. Searches are the buyer's job and cost. Your job is disclosure: the protocol forms and the documents behind them. What you should do is assemble everything early, because a missing FENSA certificate or building regulation sign-off found in week eight causes exactly the delay it would have avoided in week one.
03What if the buyer pulls out?
Until exchange of contracts, either side can withdraw without penalty; roughly a quarter of agreed sales fail this way. The government's reform roadmap proposes binding earlier contracts, but that is not yet law. Your practical protections are speed, a complete pack, and a well-vetted buyer.
04Will I pay capital gains tax on my sale?
Usually not on your own home: private residence relief covers a property that has been your only or main residence throughout ownership, with some final-period allowances. Sales of second homes, rental properties, or homes with significant periods of absence or business use can trigger CGT, and UK residential property gains must be reported and paid within 60 days. If any of those apply, take advice before completion, not after.
05What does selling cost in legal fees?
Market averages run around £1,020 for a sale plus modest disbursements (official title copies, bank transfer fees, and the management pack on leaseholds). My fixed fees start at £600 plus VAT, quoted in writing before you instruct me, with every disbursement itemised.
A fixed fee, before you commit.
No surprises at completion.
Tell me a little about the property, leasehold or freehold, mortgage or not, and where you are in the process. I'll come back within one working day with a written fixed-fee quote.
- Email sajjad@faranitaylor.com
- Direct 020 7242 1666
- Office Mermaid House, 2 Puddle Dock, London EC4V 3DB
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