What Does My Solicitor Actually Do When I Sell a House?

When you sell a property, your solicitor (or licensed conveyancer) handles the legal process known as conveyancing. But what does that actually involve? Most sellers know their solicitor "does the legal stuff," but few understand the specific tasks being carried out on their behalf — or how their own actions can speed things up or slow things down.

This guide breaks down every task your solicitor performs at each stage of a property sale in England and Wales. Understanding the process helps you prepare better, respond faster to requests, and spot potential problems before they derail your sale.

Overview: the solicitor's role in a property sale

Your solicitor acts as your legal representative throughout the transaction. They are responsible for ensuring the sale is lawful, that you have good title to sell, and that all legal obligations are met. In England and Wales, your solicitor must be regulated by either the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or, if you use a licensed conveyancer, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). For more on the differences between these professionals, see our guide on solicitor vs conveyancer.

At a high level, your solicitor's job is to:

• Prove you legally own the property and have the right to sell it
• Draft and negotiate the contract of sale
• Answer legal questions from the buyer's solicitor
• Manage the exchange of contracts, making the sale legally binding
• Handle the transfer of funds on completion day
• Register the change of ownership with HM Land Registry

The work is not glamorous. It involves a significant amount of paperwork, checking, and correspondence between legal professionals. But each step exists for a reason — to protect both you and the buyer from legal problems after the sale.

Stage-by-stage breakdown of what your solicitor does

A property sale moves through six distinct stages. Here is exactly what your solicitor does at each one.

Stage 1: Pre-marketing preparation

Ideally, you should instruct a solicitor before you even list your property. At this early stage, your solicitor will:

• Carry out identity checks. Under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, your solicitor is legally required to verify your identity before acting for you. This is known as anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. You will need to provide photo ID (passport or driving licence) and proof of address (a recent utility bill or bank statement). Electronic ID verification services are now commonly used, costing £10 to £30 per person.
• Obtain your title documents from HM Land Registry. Your solicitor downloads official copies of your title register and title plan. The title register confirms who owns the property, any mortgages or charges registered against it, and any restrictions on sale. The title plan shows the property boundaries. Each official copy costs £7 from the HM Land Registry portal.
• Review the title for potential issues. Your solicitor checks whether there are any restrictions, old charges that should have been removed, boundary discrepancies, or covenants that could affect the sale. If problems are found early, there is time to resolve them before a buyer is involved.
• Request a mortgage redemption statement. If you have an outstanding mortgage, your solicitor contacts your lender to find out exactly how much you owe, including any early repayment charges. This ensures the correct amount is repaid on completion day.

Stage 2: Post-offer — drafting the contract pack

Once you accept a buyer's offer (or earlier, if you have prepared in advance), your solicitor assembles the contract pack. This is a bundle of documents sent to the buyer's solicitor and forms the legal basis of the transaction. It includes:

• The draft contract of sale. This is a legal document setting out the terms of the sale — the property being sold, the price, the completion date, and the conditions both parties must meet. Your solicitor drafts this using a standard form based on the Law Society's Standard Conditions of Sale.
• Official copies of the title register and title plan.
• The TA6 Property Information Form. This is a detailed questionnaire you complete about the property, covering boundaries, disputes, building work, flooding, services, and more. Your solicitor reviews your answers before sending them to the buyer's solicitor. Read our guide to the TA6 form for a full walkthrough of every section.
• The TA10 Fittings and Contents Form. This lists every item in the property and states whether it is included in the sale, excluded, or available by separate negotiation.
• Any additional documents. These may include building regulations certificates, planning permissions, FENSA certificates for replacement windows, electrical safety certificates, guarantees for building work, and indemnity insurance policies.

The speed at which this contract pack is assembled depends heavily on you. If you have already completed your TA6 and TA10 forms and gathered your certificates, your solicitor can send the pack within days of an offer being accepted. If you have not prepared anything, this stage alone can take two to three weeks. For more on timelines, see our conveyancing timeline guide.

Stage 3: Pre-exchange — handling enquiries

After the buyer's solicitor receives your contract pack, they review every document and raise conveyancing enquiries — written questions about anything that needs clarification. Your solicitor's role at this stage is to:

• Receive the enquiries and forward them to you with explanations of what the buyer's solicitor is asking
• Help you draft accurate and complete responses
• Obtain any additional documents or certificates needed to satisfy the enquiries
• Negotiate any amendments to the draft contract requested by the buyer's solicitor
• Arrange indemnity insurance policies where necessary (for example, to cover missing building regulations certificates for older work)

Enquiries can go through several rounds. The fewer gaps and ambiguities in your original TA6 form, the fewer enquiries the buyer's solicitor will raise. This is one of the strongest arguments for completing your forms thoroughly the first time.

Stage 4: Exchange of contracts

Exchange is the moment the sale becomes legally binding. Before exchange, either party can walk away without penalty. After exchange, pulling out carries serious financial consequences.

Your solicitor's tasks at exchange include:

• Confirming that all enquiries have been satisfactorily answered
• Agreeing a completion date with the buyer's solicitor (and with all other parties in any chain)
• Ensuring the buyer has paid their deposit (typically 10% of the purchase price) to the buyer's solicitor
• Exchanging contracts by telephone with the buyer's solicitor, using an agreed Law Society formula (usually Formula B or C)
• Sending you written confirmation that exchange has taken place

The actual exchange takes only minutes — it is a formal telephone call between the two solicitors. The weeks of preparation leading up to it are what take the time.

Stage 5: Completion day

Completion is the day you hand over the keys and receive your money. Your solicitor manages a precise sequence of financial transactions. For a detailed walkthrough, see our guide on what happens on completion day.

On completion day, your solicitor will:

• Receive the purchase funds from the buyer's solicitor via CHAPS bank transfer (this usually arrives by early afternoon)
• Redeem your mortgage by sending the outstanding balance to your lender via CHAPS
• Pay the estate agent's commission directly from the sale proceeds
• Deduct their own fees and disbursements
• Transfer the remaining proceeds to your bank account (again via CHAPS, which typically arrives same day)
• Confirm completion to the buyer's solicitor, the estate agent, and you — at which point the keys are released

Stage 6: Post-completion

Your solicitor's work does not end when you hand over the keys. After completion, they handle:

• Land Registry registration. Your solicitor (or more commonly the buyer's solicitor) submits the transfer deed to HM Land Registry to formally register the buyer as the new owner. The registration priority period is 30 working days from the date the application is lodged.
• Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) return. The buyer's solicitor submits the SDLT return to HMRC within 14 days of completion. While this is primarily the buyer's responsibility, your solicitor may need to provide supporting information.
• Confirmation of mortgage discharge. Your solicitor confirms that your mortgage lender has removed their charge from the Land Registry register. This is known as a DS1 or e-DS1 form.
• Final accounting. Your solicitor sends you a completion statement showing exactly how the sale proceeds were distributed — the amount received, what was paid to the lender, estate agent, and solicitor, and the net amount transferred to you.

Solicitor tasks mapped to conveyancing stages

This table shows each key task, when it happens, and how long it typically takes:

What you handle vs what your solicitor handles

Not everything is your solicitor's job. Here is a clear breakdown of who is responsible for what during a property sale:

The pattern is clear: you are responsible for providing accurate information and documents, while your solicitor turns those into legally binding paperwork and manages the formal process. The better your preparation, the less back-and-forth is needed — and the faster the sale completes.

What your solicitor does with the title deeds and Land Registry

Your property's title deeds are the foundation of the entire transaction. In England and Wales, most properties are now registered with HM Land Registry, which maintains a digital record of ownership. Your solicitor interacts with the Land Registry at multiple points:

• At the start: Downloads official copies of your title register (which confirms ownership, mortgages, and restrictions) and title plan (which shows property boundaries).
• During the sale: Uses the title information to draft the contract and respond to any title-related enquiries from the buyer's solicitor.
• Before exchange: Confirms that no new entries have been added to the title since the sale process began (for example, a new court order or bankruptcy notice).
• After completion: Ensures the transfer deed (TR1) is submitted to the Land Registry so the buyer is registered as the new owner, and confirms that your mortgage lender's charge has been removed.

If your property is unregistered — which is rare but can occur for homes that have not changed hands since compulsory registration was introduced — your solicitor will need to work from the original paper deeds and may need to apply for first registration on behalf of the buyer. This can add time to the process. For more on the registration process, see our guide on the transfer of ownership process.

Preparing the transfer deed (TR1)

The TR1 form is the official Land Registry document that transfers legal ownership of a registered property from seller to buyer. It is one of the most important documents in the entire transaction.

Although the TR1 is usually drafted by the buyer's solicitor, your solicitor plays a key role:

• Reviewing the draft TR1 to ensure all details are correct — property description, title number, names of all parties, and the agreed sale price
• Arranging for you to sign the TR1 (your signature must be witnessed, and your solicitor or a member of their team usually acts as the witness)
• Holding the signed TR1 until completion, at which point it is released to the buyer's solicitor for submission to the Land Registry

If you are selling jointly (for example, as a married couple), all registered owners must sign the TR1. Your solicitor will coordinate this and ensure all signatures are properly witnessed.

AML checks and ID verification

Anti-money laundering (AML) checks are not optional — they are a legal requirement. Under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, solicitors and conveyancers must verify the identity of every client before acting for them in a property transaction. The SRA provides detailed guidance on how firms must comply.

In practice, this means:

• Providing photo identification (passport or photocard driving licence) and proof of address (a utility bill, bank statement, or council tax bill dated within the last three months)
• Your solicitor running electronic verification checks through a third-party provider
• If you are selling jointly, each owner is verified separately
• Your solicitor checking the source of any funds involved in the transaction (particularly relevant if you are also buying)

These checks typically cost £10 to £30 per person and are usually completed within a few days. Your solicitor cannot begin substantive work on your transaction until the AML checks are passed.

When to be concerned about your solicitor's performance

Conveyancing involves unavoidable waiting periods — for search results, mortgage offers, and the buyer's solicitor to complete their work. But some delays are caused by your own solicitor, and it is important to recognise the difference.

Normal waiting:

• Waiting 2 to 8 weeks for local authority search results (this is the council's speed, not your solicitor's)
• Waiting for the buyer's mortgage offer to be issued
• Waiting for the buyer's solicitor to raise and then resolve enquiries
• Coordinating exchange dates across a property chain

Warning signs of a problem:

• No update for more than two weeks with no clear explanation
• Emails and phone calls going unanswered for more than three working days
• Your case being passed between different people with no continuity
• Your solicitor cannot tell you the current status when you ask
• The estate agent or buyer's solicitor raising concerns about your solicitor's responsiveness

If you have concerns, start by raising them directly with your solicitor or their firm's complaints handler. If the issue is not resolved, you can escalate to the Legal Ombudsman (for complaints about service quality) or the SRA (for concerns about professional conduct). For practical steps on dealing with delays, see our guide on what to do about a slow solicitor.

What "no sale no fee" actually means

Many conveyancing firms advertise a "no sale no fee" or "no completion no fee" guarantee. This sounds straightforward, but the details matter.

What is covered: If the sale falls through before completion, you will not pay the solicitor's professional fee — the main charge for their legal work.

What is usually not covered: Disbursements your solicitor has already paid on your behalf — Land Registry official copies (£7 each), ID verification charges, and any search fees. Some firms also charge an "abortive transaction fee" of £100 to £300 for work done on a sale that does not complete.

The trade-off is that no sale no fee firms typically charge 10% to 25% higher fees when the sale does complete, to offset the risk of unpaid work. Whether this premium is worthwhile depends on your circumstances. If you are in a long chain or selling a property with known complications, the protection can be valuable. For a full breakdown of what these fees look like, read our conveyancing costs guide.

Always ask your solicitor specifically: "If the sale falls through, what do I actually pay?" Get the answer in writing before you instruct them.

How Pine helps you prepare before instructing a solicitor

One of the biggest sources of delay in conveyancing is the gap between accepting an offer and getting the contract pack ready. If you have not completed your TA6 and TA10 forms, gathered your certificates, or thought about potential title issues, your solicitor has to wait for you before they can do their job.

Pine helps sellers close that gap. You can complete your property information forms with plain-English guidance, gather your supporting documents in one place, and order property searches at near-trade prices — all before you instruct a solicitor. When you are ready, you download a solicitor-ready pack and hand it straight to your legal team. The result is a faster contract pack, fewer enquiries, and a shorter path to exchange.

Sources and further reading

• HM Land Registry — Title registration, official copies, and the transfer process (gov.uk)
• The Law Society — Conveyancing protocol, TA6/TA10 forms, Standard Conditions of Sale, and the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (lawsociety.org.uk)
• Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) — Transparency Rules, solicitor register, and anti-money laundering guidance (sra.org.uk)
• Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) — Licensed conveyancer regulation and public register (clc-uk.org)
• Gov.uk — Buying and Selling Your Home — Government guidance on the property transaction process (gov.uk)
• HomeOwners Alliance — Consumer guidance on selling a home, solicitor fees, and choosing a conveyancer (hoa.org.uk)
• Money Laundering Regulations 2017 — The legislation underpinning AML checks in property transactions (legislation.gov.uk)

Related guides

• When to Instruct a Solicitor Before Listing
• What Are Undertakings in Conveyancing?
• Week-by-Week Conveyancing Timeline for Sellers
• What Order Do Things Happen When Selling a House?
• What Is a Panel Solicitor?
• What Does Conveyancing Actually Include?
• Dual Representation in Conveyancing: When One Solicitor Acts for Both Sides

Frequently asked questions