Conveyancing Fee Charges

The cost of conveyancing

Conveyancing is unfortunately not a cheap process. Along with a basic fee there are additional costs such as Land Registry fees and electronic transfer fees. When these are added up the typical cost is between £600 and £800. The exact fee will depend on certain factors, such as:

• whether the property is freehold or leasehold – leasehold property transactions are more complex so fees can be greater
• what type of solicitor or conveyancer you instruct – some are better value for money than others

It is very important to be thorough and judicious when choosing a solicitor for conveyancing – it will not do to simply visit your regular solicitor or go to a high street law firm. Instead, you should ideally get a number of different quotes from specialist licensed conveyancers and solicitors to compare before making a choice. It is worth noting, however, that a very cheap quote should start alarm bells ringing, as the poverty of the service by the individual or company may be a reflection of a dubious quality of service.

Local knowledge

Don’t be fooled by firms whose local knowledge is part of the perks of their service. This doesn’t really come into the equation, so it’s not worth paying extra for.

Disbursements

On top of everything, there are miscellaneous fees charged by conveyancing solicitors as disbursements. These include indemnity insurance, file storage, identity checks and more, and could cost an extra £200. Check beforehand with your solicitor to see what extras they charge and try to negotiate a flat, fixed-fee with them so there are no surprises.

Stamp Duty

Stamp duty can also add significantly to the costs of conveyancing. For details of the amount payable on different values of property, see our Stamp Duty page.

Land Registry Fee & Land Registry Search Fee

A fee of £220 must be paid to the Land Registry in return for registering you as the legal owner of the property. A small fee must also be paid for a preliminary search to be carried out to check that the state of the register has not changed and to give the buyer priority over any other application to change it which is made within the next 30 days.

How to convert houses to flats

It used to be the case that many houses had restrictive covenants placed upon them, stating that the house must be an individual dwelling.

In need of advice about restrictive covenants?

Restrictive covenant insurance is also known as restrictive covenant indemnity insurance or restrictive covenant contingency insurance.

Just the facts about conveyancing solicitors

Conveyancing is the name for the legal process involved in buying or selling land and property anywhere in the UK. It can be a complicated process.