conveyancing

conveyancing

the practice (some would say art) of transferring ownership in property. In some cases the law takes care of the transfer - this is so in many everyday transactions for the sale of goods where the property is transferred according to the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) if the parties have not sought to regulate matters for themselves. In many other cases difficult issues usually involve the writing of some instrument. Thus, some incorporeal moveables have to be transferred by assignation, and real or heritable property may often have to be conveyed by a formal written document, usually one recorded in a register.

In England and Scotland the conveyancing of land is largely the domain of solicitors, although often members of the Bar specialize in resolving problems that are contractual or relate to land law. In both jurisdictions there are practices that grow up to facilitate what is often, but not always, a piece of non-contentious business - it is this practical part of the business that conveyancers consider their art.

In England there is a body of people who are licensed conveyancers but not solicitors or barristers. The same system exists in Scotland, but no sub-solicitor conveyancing profession has yet emerged as a market force, so conveyancing is still done at the time of writing by solicitors, indeed the body set up to regulate non-solicitor conveyancers has been dissolved and taken over by the Law Society of Scotland.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006