Completion is the day a property purchase becomes real: the buyer pays the balance, the seller delivers the transfer, and possession changes hands. For a solicitor, it is the most pressure-sensitive part of a conveyancing transaction — funds move in cleared form, deadlines are tight, and the work depends on professional undertakings that bind you personally. Getting the mechanics right protects your client, the lender, and you.
This lesson takes you through completion from the moment the contract is exchanged to the final post-completion tasks, including what happens when something goes wrong.
- Completion and Passing of Title — what completion is and when legal title actually passes in registered and unregistered land.
- Pre-Completion Preparation — the forms, statements, searches and lender requirements that must be in place beforehand.
- Priority Searches — how to protect the buyer's priority across the registration gap.
- Completion Day — timing, payment method, dating the transfer, and giving vacant possession.
- Completion by Post — how the Law Society Code governs remote completion and the agency it creates.
- Post-Completion and Undertakings to Discharge — paying tax, registering the buyer, and clearing the seller's mortgage.
- Delay, Notice to Complete and Remedies — what late completion triggers and how each side enforces the contract.