Lawpack's guide to conveyancing
Conveyancing is the name given to the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from one person to another. This is a guide to selling your property without an estate agent; it is not a guide to doing your own conveyancing; for this we suggest you use a professional, either a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer.
You can find names of both practitioners in your local Yellow Pages, or for solicitors in England and Wales log on to www.solicitors-online.com; in Scotland the website address is www.lawscot.org.uk; and for licensed conveyancers try www.conveyancer.org.uk.
A solicitor can be a general legal practitioner or operate as a specialist in a chosen field of law. A licensed conveyancer is a specialist who concentrates solely on dealing with property. In addition the training and education requirements of each vocation differ.
Of course, if you know and trust a firm of solicitors in your local area this is the obvious route for you. You may appreciate their local knowledge and personal service. But solicitors can be slow to respond and won't necessarily rate your property sale as their highest priority. Because licensed conveyancers do nothing but conveyancing they have been able to streamline the whole process, which may give you a better service.
In Scotland, licensed conveyancers are rare and almost all conveyancing is done by solicitors.