Conveyance

Conveyance refers to a document affecting a property transfer. The act of transferring property title from one person to another is called conveyancing.

Conveyancing is divided into three stages:

1) The pre-contract stage refers to the initial talks or negotiations wherein the details that are to be included in the contract are ironed out. This stage is important because any oversight on either party, whether the buyer or seller, can lead to an unsatisfactory contract terms, which in turn can result in either or both of the parties backing out of the deal.

2) Upon agreement, the contract is then drawn and the process enters the second phase, which is before completion of the transfer. During this time, papers have been drawn but are not yet signed. Everything is inspected to ensure that the title is clean and that everything is in order.

3) Upon signing of the papers and completion of the transfer, the third stage begins. This is when the involved parties then tend to their own affairs tying up loose ends such as tax matters.

In order to make sure that everything goes well, a lawyer or licensed conveyancer is usually hired to do all the legwork. However, a buyer who is savvy enough in real property matters can actually do it on his own, since most of the things done in conveyance simply involve searching for relevant information. Note though that in the end it can prove more costly if important matters are overlooked.