Conveyancing costs
Part I
Typical conveyancing costs
- selling: £400 – £700
- buying: £450 – £1,000
- leasehold transactions: add £100 – £250
- remortgage: £200 – £500
- expenses (often referred to as “disbursements”): £100 – £300
Note that the more expensive your property the higher the legal fees tend to be, which is why we’ve given a range (this applies to both sale and purchase). If your property is below £500,000 then the cost will likely be towards the bottom of the range. If your property is over £1,000,000 it will be at the top of the range.
Buying
It costs more to buy than to sell, because there’s more work involved – mainly in carrying out and reviewing the various searches that have to be done.
Selling
Selling will be cheaper than buying as the process takes less work. Don’t forget that if you’re buying and selling then you must factor in the cost of both.
Remortgage
A remortgage will usually be cheaper if you switch to another mortgage with the same lender.
Market competition is fierce so some lenders will pick up the legal fees (though make sure they’re not making them up elsewhere).
Expenses (“Disbursements”)
See Part II below
Leasehold
Leasehold transactions involve extra work and so will cost about £50 – £250 more than freehold transactions (again, the more expensive the property the more you will pay extra).
Payment of fees
Don’t sign a contract that allows the solicitor to take their fees from your completion monies – you should receive a separate bill.
This way, if you’re not happy you can withhold payment until you are. (All of our recommended solicitors send separate bills.)
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Part II
Expenses (“Disbursements”)
There are plenty of dodgy solicitors who will try to tempt you in with low quotes only to add lots of expensive – and unexpected – expenses (also know as “disbursements”) to the final bill.
We’ve divided Part II into two parts:
- Legitimate Costs you should expect to pay when you are:
o selling
o buying
- “Hidden Extras” – the sort that dodgy solicitors use to pad out their bills.
Remember, if you get a conveyancing quote from our panel of recommended solicitors then all expenses will be included in the quote.
(Please note that the costs set out below are approximate and are intended as a guide.)
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Legitimate Costs
Costs when selling:
Fee for solicitor’s legal work: £400 – £700
If your property is leasehold you should expect to pay an extra £50 – £250 because of the additional work involved.
Land Registry Office Copies: £4 – £8
These confirm that you are the registered titleholder.
Telegraphic transfer fee: £20 – £35
Telegraphic transfer ensures the same day transfer of completion monies as cleared funds. Some solicitors will make a profit on this by charging more than the bank charges them: around £35 is the most you should be paying.
Costs when buying:
Fee for solicitor’s legal work: £450 – £1,000
If your property is leasehold you should expect to pay an extra £50 – £250 because of the additional work involved.
Land Registry Office Copies: £4 – £8
These confirm that the seller is the registered titleholder. You may hear them referred to as “priority searches”.
Your solicitor may have to order additional Office Copies immediately prior to completion. This is to protect you by making sure that the seller is still the registered titleholder when completion takes place.
Telegraphic transfer fee: £20 – £30
This ensures the same day transfer of completion monies as cleared funds. Some solicitors will make a profit on this by charging more than the bank charges them: around £30 is what you should be paying.
Bankruptcy search: £2 – £4
A bankruptcy search confirms to your lender that you haven’t recently gone bankrupt.
Local Authority searches: £100 – £200
The cost will vary depending on the authority.
A good conveyancing quote will ask for the postcode of the property you are buying and will be able to give you the exact cost.
Drainage search: £40 – £60
A drainage search checks the property’s water and sewerage connections. The cost varies depending on the local water company.
Chancel Repair Liability search: £15
Dating back to medieval times, Chancel Repair Liability is a requirement to contribute to the upkeep of the local parish church.
About 40% of land in England and Wales is “Chancel land”.
Some solicitors will try to get you to take out Chancel Repair Liability insurance (on which they make commission). In most cases it will not be worth you doing so, particularly since Chancel Repair Liability is being phased out from 2013.
Environmental search: £40 – £60
An environmental search will check for contamination in and around the land that you are buying.
This can be particularly important if you are buying on land that was once used for industrial purposes. Apart from not wanting to live on contaminated land, you – as the owner – could be asked to clean it up at a cost of many thousands of pounds (even though you weren’t the one who contaminated it!).
Mining searches (coal, tin, limestone, china clay): around £60 for each applicable search.
Whether a mining search is required (and which one) will depend on where you live in the country.
Land registry fee:
This is a sneaky extra tax on your property transaction.
Let’s face it, it doesn’t cost any more to register a property that’s worth a million plus than it does to register one that’s worth £50,000, but as you can see from the fee scale below that’s not how you get treated:
|
Value of property £ |
Land Registry Fee £ |
|
0 – 50,000 |
50 |
|
50,001 – 80,000 |
80 |
|
80,001 – 100,000 |
130 |
|
100,001 – 200,000 |
200 |
|
200,001 – 500,000 |
280 |
|
500,001 – 1,000,000 |
550 |
|
1,000,001 and over |
920 |
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT):
This is how much you will be taxed on your purchase and depends on the value of your property:
| Purchase price |
SDLT rate |
| Up to £125,000 |
Zero |
| Over £125,000 to £250,000* |
1% |
| Over £250,000 to £500,000 |
3% |
| Over £500,000 to £1,000,000 |
4% |
| Over £1,000,000** |
5% |
* The 2010 budget introduced SDLT relief on properties worth between £125,001 and £250,000 where the buyer or all the buyers (if more than one) are first time buyers. This relief applies to all purchases where the transaction date is on or after 25 March 2010 and before 25 March 2012.
** From 6 April 2011 a new higher rate of SDLT (5%) will apply to properties worth more than £1,000,000. This change was introduced in the 2010 budget.
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“Hidden Extras”
“PI” or “Professional Indemnity” contribution: £30 – £50
Having professional indemnity insurance in place is a Law Society requirement and as such is simply an expense of the business.
It is certainly not something that you should have to contribute towards.
Photocopying, phone calls and postage: £ variable
These are all business overheads, which you should not be charged for.
Completing your Stamp Duty Return: £50
A good solicitor will have factored in the cost of the Stamp Duty Return into their basic legal fee and not be adding it as a disbursement.
Dealing with your lender: £100 – £150
Again, this should be factored into the solicitor’s basic legal fee.
Leasehold property charge: £100 – £250
It is quite fair for a solicitor to charge extra for a leasehold transaction as there is more work involved. However, the extra charge for dealing with leasehold property should be included in your initial quote – it should not come as a nasty surprise when you get your bill.
You should be asked whether your property is freehold or leasehold when you are given a quote so this is something your solicitor ought to know from the outset.
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