The current uncertainty with COVID-19 raises questions which are of concern to clients that may have already commenced a process to buy or sell a property or who may have been thinking about doing so.
There has been no change in the law around conveyancing as a result of COVID-19 as of the date of publishing of this update. The Law Society Conveyancing Committee has confirmed that there is no change to the requirements around the signing, stamping and registration of documents.
If the parties have already signed a contract, the standard law society conveyancing contract does not contain any “force majeure” clause which would excuse a party from performing its contract obligations if those obligations are impossible because of some unforeseen event outside its control. If a party is unable to perform its obligations, such as if they are in self-isolation and prohibited from vacating a property on the agreed closing date, then they will be in breach of the contract and the other party will be able to rely upon the usual available dispute resolution contract options. In practice, we would expect that parties are understanding of such difficulties and if acting for a party in such difficulties, we would endeavour to communicate notice of such difficulties to the other party’s solicitor as early as possible to agree an acceptable solution. However, the parties may not be entirely free to agree such concessions if for instance a party is bound by a separate contract in a chain which they are unable to obtain an amendment themselves. 
If no contract is signed, then both parties are free to walk away from the proposed sale at any time if one or both of the parties does not wish to continue with the sale because of concerns over COVID-19. The parties are also able to negotiate specific contract clauses which seek to govern what will happen if COVID-19 prevents the usual conveyancing practices from occurring in the normal course. We can discuss potential additional special conditions which seek to address the particular concerns of clients in this regard.
This is an evolving situation as no one knows quite how long COVID-19 will effect us and what level of restrictions will be necessary to ensure the overriding objective of preserving public health.