Once you have found a buyer for your property, whether through an estate agent or privately, the conveyancing process begins. You will be asked to fill in some forms which relate to the property that you are selling and the items that you want to take with you and leave behind at the property when you go. Once these forms are back with your solicitor, the contract can be drafted and sent, with copies of these forms and copies of your deeds, to your buyer's solicitor. This is known as the 'contract package'.

When your buyer's solicitor receives the contract package, the ball really starts rolling. The buyer's solicitor will check the legal title to the property, carry out the necessary searches and look through your buyer's mortgage offer. Once the solicitor is satisfied with everything, he will report to his clients and call them into the office to sign the contract. You will be asked to sign your part of the contract by your solicitor, your buyer will provide his solicitor with the deposit, and contracts can then be exchanged.

Exchanging contracts makes the sale legally binding as well as the completion date (i.e. when you have to vacate the property). Your solicitor will not exchange contracts for you unless you have agreed that they can do this and have agreed the date for completion. On the day of completion, you have to vacate the property by the time stated in the contract - usually 1 or 2pm. Not only do you have to take your belongings with you but also your rubbish! You take the keys to the estate agent or hand them to your buyer if you have sold privately, but not before checking that your solicitor has received the money due on the day of completion from your buyer's solicitor.

Your solicitor will ensure that any mortgages secured on the property that you have sold are paid off and will send you the proceeds of sale, either directly to your bank account on the day or by cheque in the post.