Conveyancing Solicitors in Manchester

If you are carrying out a property transaction in or around Manchester, our expert conveyancing solicitors will be on hand to make sure that everything goes ahead as smoothly as possible.

If you are buying, selling or remortgaging a home, you will no doubt be aware of some of the risks associated with carrying out such a significant property transactions. That is where our expert property solicitors will be able to lend their expertise, guiding you through the entire process to help you avoid those potential pitfalls.

At Bird & Co, we provide a convenient, reliable conveyancing service that is designed to make the entire process as straightforward as possible.

We offer a quick and efficient online conveyancing service, which means we are able to reach a wide number of clients in and around Manchester, including Stretford, Salford and Disbury.

To get in touch with a member of our conveyancing team in Manchester, give us a call and a member of our team will be in touch with you very shortly, or get an online conveyancing quote. 

How our conveyancing solicitors in Manchester can help you

Our team of conveyancing solicitors have expertise in a wide range of conveyancing matters, including:

• Buying and selling your home
• Advice for first time buyers, such as:
  • Help to Buy
  • Shared Ownership
• Remortgaging
• Equity release
• Advice about buying as joint tenants or tenants in common
• Buying and selling listed property
• Buying and selling leasehold property
• Collective enfranchisement and buying the freehold of a house
• Lease extension
• Transfer of equity
• Gifting property and Deeds of Gift
• Buy to let conveyancing
• Buying and selling land
• Commercial conveyancing
• Stamp Duty advice

We are on the panel for most major lenders. This means that we will be able to support you whether you are using a national firm or local building society.

Why Choose Bird & Co’s Conveyancing Solicitors in Manchester?

We provide an online conveyancing service, which means that we will be able to guide you through the conveyancing process remotely. There will be no need for you to visit us at our physical offices – everything can be taken care of without you having to leave the comfort of your home.

The service we provide is designed to make the conveyancing process as straightforward as possible.

When you work with us, you will always have direct correspondence with our conveyancing team, as well as a direct email address for the solicitor who is handling your case.

We are accredited by the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme. This means that we will:

• Provide high quality legal advice
• Get your conveyancing transaction completed as efficiently as possible
• Provide top quality customer service and respond to queries quickly
• Keep you regularly updated and never leave you in the dark about the status of your transaction
• Be upfront and honest about your fees – we will provide you with an accurate quote before you instruct us so that you can decide whether we are right for you

We are also Lexcel accredited by the Law Society. This demonstrates our commitment to delivering the highest standards of customer service and practice management.

Why instruct our online conveyancers instead of a conveyancer in Manchester?

• Our property lawyers have in-depth knowledge of the national property market, as well as the local Manchester market. Other firms may only be able to deal with local transactions.
• Our online systems have been developed with sensitive communications in mind. We have a number of procedures which ensures all of the legal documentation involved in online conveyancing transactions is kept secure. These include encrypting emails, securing our devices and putting malware protection in place.
• We can get your conveyancing done quickly and efficiently. As we can carry out the conveyancing process remotely, there are fewer potential delays to worry about.
• Online conveyancing tends to be more cost­-effective. Traditional conveyancing work incurs various additional costs. These can be avoided with online conveyancing.
• We have dealt with property transactions around the country, even for clients who are on the other side of the world. We often keep in touch with our clients outside the UK using video conferencing.
• Our legal obligations to you remain the same as if we were meeting in person. There are no differences to the overall conveyancing process and we are fully insured just in case.

Our conveyancing fees – how much does our conveyancing cost in Manchester?

We provide a range of flexible fees for our conveyancing work. This includes fixed fees for straightforward conveyancing work, where you will have a clear idea how much you will need to pay from the outset. If additional costs are required to complete your transaction, these will be clearly explained to you by your conveyancing solicitor.

Additional costs that are associated with the conveyancing process are known as disbursements. Examples of disbursements include registering transactions at HM Land Registry and conveyancing searches.

If your transaction is going to be affected by tax, such as Stamp Duty Land Tax or Capital Gains Tax, your conveyancing solicitor will be able to help you calculate how much is owed and file the return with HMRC.

Conveyancing FAQs

How does the conveyancing process work in Manchester?

There are three main stages to the conveyancing process. These are:

• Offer and acceptance
• Exchange of contracts
• Completion

When an offer is accepted on a home, the buyer and seller agree to enter into a contract. As contracts have not yet been exchanged, the transaction is not yet legally binding.

At this stage, the buyer will work with their conveyancing solicitor to carry out a number of conveyancing searches. The searches and checks they carry out could include:

• Reviewing property information provided by the seller and making further enquiries if necessary (done by the conveyancing solicitor)
• Conducting conveyancing property searches, such as local authority checks (done by the conveyancing solicitor)
• Carrying out an independent survey (done by the buyer)

The buyer will also apply for a mortgage at this stage.

Once the searches have been completed and both parties are happy to progress, contracts will be signed and exchanged. This is a pivotal moment, as the transaction will now be legally binding.

Completion is where the transaction becomes official. At this stage, a transfer deed will be submitted to HM Land Registry and the seller will need to leave the property, ready for the buyer to move in.

How long does conveyancing take in Manchester?

Under normal circumstances, a conveyancing transaction will take around 12-14 weeks to reach from the date an offer is accepted and conveyancing solicitors are instructed.

However, there are a number of different factors which can have an effect on the time it takes to complete a transaction. If there are likely to be significant delays to the process, your conveyancing solicitor will keep you informed.

What searches are involved in conveyancing in Manchester?

If you are buying a home, your conveyancing will carry out various checks to make sure that there are no issues with the property. These are called conveyancing searches:

There are three main types of conveyancing searches:

• Local authority checks – to check the surrounding area for planning, pollution, highway, pollution or other related issues
• Environmental searches – to check for issues such as flooding or land contamination
• Water and drainage searches – to check matters such as water and drainage access

If further checks are required, your conveyancing solicitor will let you know. This will usually depend on the type of property in question and where it is situated.

How do you instruct our conveyancing solicitors in Manchester?

All you need to do to get started is give us a call or you can request a conveyancing quote using our simple online form.

Our Manchester conveyancing team will be able to run through the initial stages of your transaction and, once your file is opened, your conveyancer will take care of all of the legal details related to your transaction.

Whether you are moving to, from, or across Manchester, our conveyancing solicitors will be able to lend their expertise.

Get in touch with our conveyancing solicitors in Manchester

Get in touch with our conveyancing solicitors in Manchester by giving us a call and a member of our team will be in touch with you very shortly, or get an online conveyancing quote.

Online Conveyancing in Manchester

An increasing number of our clients prefer to deal with the entire conveyancing process online, through email and Skype, as well as over the phone. This is often referred to as “online conveyancing”, but the process and standard of conveying we provide will be exactly the same as if you were dealing with us face-to-face.

Many people find online conveyancing simpler and more convenient, as it means you can contact us when it is convenient for you, rather than needing to take time out of your day during office hours. The process remains completely secure and you can even share important documents with us online with total confidence due to our high quality cyber security precautions.

Search Fees in Manchester

Every local authority is different. We use an excellent, trusted national search provider, which means we can provide reliable searches to clients in Manchester and all over the country. The search provider we use is fully insured, meaning your interests stay protected, whatever happens.

How the conveyancing process works

First, fill in our conveyancing quote form for conveyancing in Manchester. You can find the links at the top of this page.

Our helpful conveyancing support team will then guide you through the initial stages and, once your conveyancing file is opened, your Manchester conveyancing solicitor and their small team will deal with the legal side of the conveyancing transaction. You'll be given direct contact details for your conveyancing lawyers and they'll keep in touch with you every step of the way.

Whether you're moving to Manchester or away from Manchester, our conveyancing team can help you do so cost-effectively with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience.

Fees for conveyancing in Manchester

Our fees are transparent and, so long as the situation does not change (for example so long as your property doesn't turn out to be leasehold when we thought it was freehold) the fee we quote is the fee you will be charged.

All our conveyancing fees are dependent on the nature and value of the transaction, so we naturally charge a bit more for more complicated and high value work. However, the fee charged will be the same for a customer in Newcastle as it would be for someone in London, or indeed in Manchester.

There are some aspects of our conveyancing fees that we can't change as fees charged by other bodies such as HM Land Registry, or by HMRC for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) are out of our control.

Introduction to Manchester

Manchester is one of the UK’s best known and most popular cities, and is often considered the heart of Northern England. With a population of 541,300, Manchester is the UK’s third largest city, behind London and Birmingham. It is also at the centre of the UK’s second largest continuous urban area. It is the third most visited city in the UK, behind London and Edinburgh.

Manchester was one of the leading centres of the industrial revolution, initially driven by textile manufacturing. It later became a major centre for engineering, banking and insurance. Manufacturing in the city declined in the second half of the 20^th century and now Manchester’s economy is focused on the service industry, education, health, distribution and IT.

Many major businesses are headquartered, or have a significant presence, in the city including The Co-operative Group, Umbro, Kellogg’s, Adidas, Siemens, AstraZeneca, Google and Pannone. The nearby city of Salford is one of the UK’s major broadcast media hubs, with the BBC, ITV and Sky all have significant operations in the area.

Manchester has a distinctive architectural style, with the wide spread use of red brick throughout the city and a large number of Victorian buildings adding to its character. It is also home to six nature reserves, including Chorlton Water Park, Boggart Hole Clough and Highfield Country Park.

The city is one of the UK’s strongest cultural centres, being particularly well known as the birthplace of many successful bands, including Oasis, The Smiths, Joy Division, The Stone Roses, The Fall, Elbow and Take That.  Manchester has a number of significant music venues, including the 21,000-seat Manchester Arena, which is the busiest indoor arena in the world. Other venues include Manchester Apollo, Albert Hall and the Manchester Academy. The Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music are both based in the city, making Manchester a leading centre for musical education.

Manchester also has a number of exceptional performing arts venues, including Manchester Opera House, the Palace Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre. The Manchester International Festival has been held in the city every two years since 2007.

Manchester is also well known for its large gay and lesbian community, centred on the Canal Street area. The area contains a number of LGBTQI+ bars and attracts around 20,000 visitors each weekend, as well as being the site of the annual Manchester Pride festival every August.

As one of the UK’s major transport hubs, Manchester is particularly well connected to the rest of the country and internationally via Manchester Airport – the UK’s third busiest airport. The city is particularly well served by local and national train services, with Manchester’s four train stations being the fourth busiest group of stations in the UK. Trains to Birmingham take around 1 hour 30 minutes, while trains to London Euston take around 2 hours.

For local travel, Manchester has an extensive bus network and the Manchester Metrolink tram system, making getting around the city without a car particularly easy.

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is the name for the metropolitan country centred on the city of Manchester. With a population of 2.8 million, Greater Manchester is one of the UK’s largest metropolitan areas, spanning 493 square miles. As well as the city of Manchester, the area includes the city of Salford, as well as many major towns such as Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan.

Bolton

Bolton is located 10 miles northwest of Manchester and, with a population of 128,139 according to the 2011 census, it is a major settlement in its own right. Although historically part of Lancashire, Bolton is now at the centre of its own authority, the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton.

The town has a relatively diverse economy, with many jobs in service industries, such as data processing, call centres and IT, as well industries such as hi-tech electronics, paper manufacturing, packaging, textiles and food production. The Reebok clothing brand has its European headquarters in Bolton, while the town is also home to Warburtons bakery.

Bolton is also popular with tourists, thanks to attractions such as Hall i’ th’ Wood, Smithills Hall, Barrow Bridge and the Bolton Steam Museum. The town contains a number of examples of neoclassical architecture, including the Grade II listed town hall, designed by William Hill.

Bolton is connected to the rest of Manchester by various local roads and buses coordinated by Transport for Manchester. It is also well connected nationally by the A6, A666 and the M61, as well as by Bolton railway station, which is on the West Coast Mainline and takes passengers to Manchester Piccadilly, plus destinations such as Wigan, Southport and Blackburn.

Bury

Bury is a town 8 miles north of Manchester and is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The town has a population of around 78,723 based on figures from 2015, while the borough was home to 187,474 people in 2011.

Bury is well known for its many independent shops and food outlets, as well as its traditional market with a number of world famous black pudding stalls. The town also has a £350million shopping centre, The Rock, opened in 2010, as well as a cinema, bowling alley and various popular chain stores.

Local attractions include Bury Art Museum, Bury Castle, Peel Tower and heritage railway East Lancashire Railway. The Mets art centre hosts a range of theatre, music and comedy events.

Bury has good connections to the local area, including Manchester by bus and trains, as well as being on the Manchester Metrolink tram network.

Oldham

Oldham is located 7 miles northeast of Manchester and is the centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The town has a population of 96,555 at the 2011 census, while the borough’s population was recorded as 230,800 in 2015.

Oldham’s economy was traditionally reliant on textile manufacturing, engineering and coal mining, but it now better known for retail, publishing, healthcare and food processing.

Oldham is connected to Manchester by buses and trams, as well as being easily commutable by car, making it a popular choice for those working in Manchester.

Rochdale

Rochdale is 10 miles northeast of Manchester at the centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The town had a population of 107,926 at the time of the 2011 census, while the borough’s population was 211,699 at the same time.

A large percentage of Rochdale’s residents work in Manchester and other surrounding towns. Rochdale is well connected to the city and the rest of the local area by bus, rail and the Manchester Metrolink tram network.

Stockport

Stockport is a town 7 miles southeast of Manchester with a population of 136,081. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, which has a population of around 290,600 according to mid-2016 estimates.

The M60 and A6 meet at Stockport, making it convenient for travel to Manchester and London. Stockport railway station is connected to the West Coast Main Line, with regular trains to Manchester, London, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and many other major cities.

Wigan

Wigan is a town 16 miles northwest of Manchester and is the administrative centre for the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The town’s population was 97,000 in 2011 while the borough’s population was 318,100.

Wigan offers a number of jobs in retail, food manufacture and distribution, while also being popular with commuters to Manchester. It is well connected by road, being at the meeting point of the A49 and A577, which link to the M6, M61 and M58. The town also has two railway stations and a strong local bus network.