Conveyancing Process – selling your property

We understand that the legal process to sell your property may be a new experience for you and we are committed to making it as easy as possible. Here is a quick overview of what to expect once HS2 Ltd has agreed to purchase your property, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport.

The process, known as conveyancing, can only begin after HS2 Ltd has agreed to purchase your property and usually takes around three months, although this can vary from case to case. To avoid delays, you should appoint a legal advisor (such as a solicitor, legal executive, or licensed conveyancer) as soon as possible after accepting our purchase price offer.

The key steps

1. Before the conveyancing process – HS2 Ltd must agree to purchase your property through one of the discretionary property, statutory blight, or express purchase schemes.
2. Title pack – Once we have instructed our solicitors to start the conveyancing process, they will contact your legal advisor to request a title pack. The title pack contains several documents we call protocol forms. It is important you provide any information requested by your legal advisor as soon as possible to help them complete these forms and avoid delays.
3. Searches – Our solicitors will carry out detailed checks to see if there are any issues that could impact the sale of the property, such as a planning application. We complete searches to find out about the property and to make sure we are paying the right price for it.
4. Due diligence – Our solicitors review the documents they receive, such as the protocol forms and searches. This review will identify any issues that need to be addressed. Your legal advisor may ask you to take out indemnity insurance, at your cost, to cover such issues.
5. Contract and transfer issued – Once all queries have been resolved, a draft contract of purchase and a transfer will be sent to your legal advisor. These are the documents that will confirm the sale of your property and transfer ownership.
6. Completion date agreed – Once the contract and transfer documents are agreed, signed by you, and returned to us, the Department for Transport will sign and seal the documents on behalf of the Secretary of State. Our solicitors will then agree a completion date with you.
7. Exchange – This is the final exchange of legal documents confirming the completion date. We pay a 10% deposit of the purchase price to your legal advisor.
8. Day of completion – On the day of completion you will hand over the keys to our agents who will undertake a final inspection and release the remaining 90% of the purchase money to your legal advisor. We reserve the right to postpone completion if there are any issues on the day.

Further information

Conveyancing can be complicated, and this is only a very brief overview. The most important thing is that you appoint a legal advisor from the start to guide you through the process.

You can contact the Helpdesk by:

• Freephone: 08081 434 434
• Minicom: 08081 456 472
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: by completing our website enquiry form