Conveyancer

A Conveyancer deals with the settlement and title transfer process by ensuring that their client is meeting all legal obligations and that their client's rights are protected during the transaction of buying and selling property. This includes freehold/leasehold sales and purchases, re-mortgages, new build, right to buy, shared ownership schemes and buying and selling at auction.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Communicating with clients to receive instructions and give advice, via telephone, email, and letter.
• Researching details about the property being bought, sold or transferred, including but not limited to, finding out who the legal owner is, ensuring this corresponds with the instructions received, what covenants/rights (if any) the property is subject to and what works have been carried out to date.
• Receive and review mortgage instructions from lenders, undertake specific tasks as required and ensure all special conditions are satisfied.
• Drafting official documents, such as contracts, transfers, undertakings, declarations of trust, declarations of solvencies and financial statements.
• Review contract and title documentation on behalf of your client(s), agree terms, and raise any necessary enquiries with the conveyancer acting for the other party to the transaction.
• Reporting to your client(s) on all aspects which affect their matter.
• Working and building relationships with estate agents, solicitors, brokers, developers, management companies, Land Registry & HMRC.
• Conducting official office copies.
• Preparation of draft contract packs and issuing to buyer's conveyancer.
• Conducting and reviewing property searches to ensure there are no adverse matters which affect the property.
• Calculating stamp duty land taxes, preparing HMRC forms, submitting stamp duty application online and ensuring the appropriate payment is made within the required timeframe.
• Enquiring all contract documentation has been signed/witnessed correctly and is in registerable format.
• Ensure all post completion documents received from the conveyancer acting on the other side of the transaction are correct, and attending to the registration (if required) with The Land Registry.
• Review identity documents, source of funds, source of wealth and proof of address, to ensure that correct compliance procedures have been carried out.
• Exchanging contracts and following the matter through to legal completion.
• Support the development of your assistant through training and performance management.

Person Specification:

• An eye for detail: You will be dealing with many legal and official documents so the ability to be accurate with your research is essential.
• Mathematical skill: Many of your responsibilities will involve dealing with money.
• Communication skills: You will need to be able to communicate your advice to clients and work with estate agents and solicitors.
• Problem solving skills: This is important for ensuring that your clients are not at risk of any fraud or issues with the property.
• IT skills: As records are increasingly being kept on computerised systems you will need a good level of computer literacy.
• Negotiation skills: Important for getting the best deal for your clients and protecting their best interests.
• Written communication skills: There will be a great deal of reporting and drafting of official documents so good writing skills are important.
• Research skills: To ensure that you have a thorough understanding of each case.