What is conveyancing?
A property sale or purchase is a legal process that requires professional expertise.
That's where a conveyancer comes in. Conveyancing is the legal work done when any home is bought or sold.
What are conveyancing costs?
The cost of conveyancing for buying and selling a home varies depending on the value of the property involved.
It costs around £1,200 to £1,500 to do the conveyancing on a home that is around the national average UK house price of £267,100.
Conveyancing costs by home value
Home value | Freehold | Leasehold |
Up to £100K | £1,050 | £1,220 |
£100K to £200K | £1,140 | £1,310 |
£200K to £300K | £1,270 | £1,420 |
£300K to £400K | £1,340 | £1,490 |
£400K to £500K | £1,430 | £1,580 |
£500 to £600K | £1,640 | £1,780 |
£600 to £700K | £1,720 | £1,880 |
£700K to £800K | £1,910 | £2,050 |
£800K to £900K | £2,030 | £2,170 |
£1m+ | £2,430 | £2,520 |
Source: Comparemymove took the average fees of 46 conveyancers from across the UK.
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What are conveyancing fees?
Conveyancing fees are the cost of the legal work necessary when buying or selling a home.
Some or all of these fees might also apply when you get a new mortgage or apply for equity release.
The fees are payable to your solicitor or qualified conveyancer.
Usually the costs will be split into:
Legal fees
These are costs covering the time spent by your solicitor or conveyancer to carry out the legal work needed to sell or buy a home. This might include drawing up contracts, searches, checking paperwork and managing ownership transfer. The fees cover the hourly rate of the solicitor or conveyancer's time.
Guide: How does a solicitor help you to sell a house?
Disbursements
The word “disbursements” in this context means costs for third-party services, such as searches and mortgage checks, which your solicitor or conveyancer will pay on your behalf and then charge you for once the sales process is complete. You usually get charged at cost for disbursements.
VAT
Value Added Tax or VAT is payable on legal fees. VAT is 20%, so if your legal fees are £1,000, you’ll be charged £200 VAT.
What’s covered by conveyancing fees?
The legal work necessary when you buy or sell a home varies, but in most cases the fees payable to your conveyancer will cover:
1. Complete ID checks
They’ll make sure you are who you say you are and do some anti-laundering checks.
2. Mortgage confirmation
If you’re also a buyer, your solicitor will check your mortgage conditions, make sure you have the funds for a deposit and that you have buildings insurance in place ahead of the exchange of contracts.
3. Essential paperwork
One of the first things that happens is your solicitor will be sent a number of detailed questionnaires about your property. They’ll include:
The Property Information form - otherwise known as the TA6
The leasehold information pack - otherwise known as the TA7
The Fixtures and Fittings form, otherwise known as the TA10
The Completion Information and Requisitions on Title Form, aka the TA13
4. Local searches
Your solicitor will also conduct a series of property searches to give you more information about the property you’re buying and flag any associated risks – such as plans to build houses at the bottom of your garden. These searches can include:
Local authority searches
Planning searches
Environmental searches
Water and drainage searches
Flood risk searches
Chancel repair (this is to check if the property is in the boundary of a parish that could charge for repairs).
5. Contract exchange
When all searches and forms have been dealt with and you’ve arranged buildings insurance for your new home, your conveyancer will review the draft exchange contract. Your deposit will also be sent to the seller’s solicitor and the completion date will be set.
6. Completion
On the agreed completion date, your buyer’s solicitor or conveyancer will pay the balance of the sale price, minus the deposit paid.
Once you’ve received the funds, your solicitor will register the property transfer with the Land Registry. If you’re buying as well as selling, they will handle the transfer of funds for your new home and they will pay Stamp Duty and other fees on your behalf.
How much are the average conveyancing fees in London?
House prices dictate the amount you usually pay for conveyancing work.
In London, the average house price is £680,000, so conveyancing fees will be approximately £1,700 for a freehold property of this value and £1,900 for a leasehold property.
Read also: How much are estate agent fees?
Learn more about getting a conveyancer quote
No Sale, No Fee Conveyancing
A little like “No Win, No Fee” legal work for compensation claims or other forms of tribunal, it’s possible to appoint conveyancers on a “No Sale, No Fee” basis.
This means that if the sale of your home doesn’t complete, you won’t need to pay for the legal work.
The idea is to protect buyers and sellers from being out of pocket if someone else in the home buying chain pulls out.
Usually you’ll need to pay for conveyancing work and solicitors’ fees even if your sale or purchase collapses somewhere down the line.
Are conveyancing fees the same if I'm selling and buying a home at the same time?
If you’re buying another house at the same time, your conveyancer will normally handle both transactions.
That means they'll perform all of the searches for your new home and arrange for the deposit on it to be paid.
They'll also work with all of the other solicitors in the chain to line up the exchange and completion dates.
Buying and selling at the same time is usually slightly more expensive than simply selling or just buying.
When do you pay conveyancing fees?
Usually the fees that cover conveyancing work when you’re buying or selling a home are paid in stages.
You might be asked to pay a deposit of around 10% upfront.
Depending on how long the sales process goes on for, you might be asked to cover the costs of disbursements, such as searches, at some point towards the middle.
The rest of the fees will be payable shortly before completion.
What is fixed fee conveyancing?
A fixed or flat fee agreement with a conveyancer means you agree a price before they carry out the legal work related to the home you are buying or selling.
Even if it takes your conveyancer more or less time than they’ve accounted for in the agreed fee, you’ll pay the same.
Legal work is usually payable on an hourly basis, so a flat or fixed fee can stop costs spiralling higher than expected if the sale or purchase turns out to be complicated.
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