What your Conveyancer Really Needs to Know Before You Buy

07 Oct 2026

What Your Conveyancer Really Needs to Know Before You Buy 

Most buyers assume their solicitor will handle the legal side of a purchase without needing much input from them. In reality, the searches and enquiries your conveyancer carries out are only as thorough as the information they have to work with, and there are some things they can only investigate properly if you raise them first.

Peter Heron has been guiding buyers through this kind of process in Sunderland since the 1960s, and it's often the smaller, easily overlooked details, like the ones covered here, that make the biggest difference to how smoothly a purchase goes.

Your solicitor will run some standard local authority searches, which will cover the basics. They include nearby development proposals, planned infrastructure changes, flooding risk, and historical liabilities. They will also raise standard enquiries to confirm that the sale includes vacant possession and to request documentation such as planning approvals, building regulations certificates, and listed building consent, where relevant. 

All of this happens more or less automatically, regardless of which property you're buying or selling, and it is a standard part of the conveyancing process.

Things can get more complicated if the properties have had unauthorised alterations. For example, if the previous owner extended a property or converted a garage without the correct permissions, and that work isn't shown in Land Registry records, your conveyancer won't know to check for it unless you flag it. If you've noticed anything about a property that looks like it might have been altered, perhaps an extension that looks newer than the rest of the house or a loft conversion that wasn't mentioned in the listing, raising it with your solicitor before exchange gives them the chance to investigate properly, rather than discovering it after you've already moved in.

The same logic applies to your own plans for the property, not just its history. Your solicitor hasn't visited the house and doesn't know why you're buying it, so if there's a specific reason behind your decision, they can't automatically factor it in. Buying a countryside property partly for its view? Let your solicitor know, and they can research whether neighbouring landowners have previously applied for planning permission on adjacent land, even if no application is currently active. Planning to run a business from home, perhaps something like panel-beating from a large garage? Your conveyancer needs to check whether local planning rules allow that kind of commercial activity before you commit, not after you've already signed contracts and discovered the restriction the hard way.

Lease or title restrictions are another important area worth asking about. Some properties are subject to older covenants that can restrict things such as the colour you can paint the exterior or whether you can park a caravan on the driveway, to give just a couple of examples. Indemnity insurance can sometimes cover the financial risk associated with breaching a restriction, but it doesn’t necessarily remove the inconvenience or uncertainty of discovering an issue after you have completed your purchase. It’s also worth bearing in mind that some mortgage lenders may not accept title indemnity insurance as a solution to certain restrictions. This could potentially cause difficulties with your own mortgage or create a problem when you come to sell the property to a future buyer who requires mortgage finance.

Most purchases go through without any of these complications becoming relevant. Buyers who have the smoothest experience tend to treat their conveyancer as a genuine partner in the process. That means sharing context rather than assuming the legal side will take care of itself in the background.

The takeaway is simple: the more detail you give your conveyancer up front about recent alterations, your intended use and anything unusual you've noticed about the property, the better placed they are to spot issues before they become a problem for you. An open, ongoing conversation with your legal team significantly reduces the risk of delays or unwelcome surprises after you've moved in, and it costs no more than a phone call or an email.

Peter Heron has been Sunderland's number-one family-run estate agency since the 1960s, which means genuine local knowledge of the streets, the properties and the kinds of issues that tend to come up in this part of the North East. If you're buying in Sunderland and want an agent who'll help you ask the right questions from the start, get in touch with our team.