Conveyancing Fees Explained

When instructing conveyancing solicitors to buy, sell or re-mortgage your property, you will want to know about the conveyancing solicitors’ fees, in particular, how much are the conveyancing fees and what they include?

Conveyancing fees are the costs and expenses you pay to your conveyancing solicitors to complete the transaction on your behalf. We will look at each element in turn.

Conveyancing solicitors’ fees

These are the conveyancing fees you pay to your conveyancing solicitor for undertaking the legal transaction on your behalf. This work differs depending on whether you are buying, selling or re-mortgaging your property and the fees will reflect this, for example, a sale will typically be cheaper than a purchase.

Most conveyancing solicitors’ fees will be a fixed price. However, it’s important to check that any quotes you are comparing cover all your specific requirements. We recommend you look for conveyancing solicitors who are transparent about costs and you ask for a quotation that provides a full breakdown of the conveyancing fees involved. Some conveyancing solicitors’ quotations don’t mention the additional costs of activities which are often a routine part of the transaction, such as dealing with your mortgage company, paying Stamp Duty Land Tax and registering your ownership at the Land Registry.

Conveyancing expenses

In the course of acting for you, the conveyancing solicitors will incur expenses which you must pay in addition to the conveyancing solicitors’ fees described above. These expenses are also commonly known as disbursements.

Expenses typically incurred by conveyancing solicitors on your behalf include:

• Land Registry fees for proving your ownership (if selling) and investigating the title to the property and protecting your interest (if buying);
• Searches investigating issues that might adversely impact the property, for example, planning, environmental and drainage;
• Information about the leasehold management of the property (if appropriate).

While these expenses can vary to some extent depending on each specific transaction, we recommend that when asking for a conveyancing fees quote you ask for a breakdown of the anticipated expenses. Conveyancing solicitors should be able to provide you with indicative expenses.

Unexpected work

Occasionally transactions take an unexpected turn and the conveyancing solicitor is required to undertake work to deal with the issue. In these situations, it’s usual for the conveyancing solicitor to make an additional charge. Such conveyancing fees are often charged on a time spent basis at a given hourly charging rate (which should be out in the conveyancing solicitors’ terms of business). It’s best practice for your conveyancing solicitors to speak to you when the issue arises and agree with you any additional work and the associated costs before commencing that work. This ensures you are fully informed and don’t get any surprises.

At Bradley Haynes Law we believe in being transparent about conveyancing fees and so you will find them clearly set out on our website. We will always provide you with a written quote that breaks down the conveyancing fees and, once you have instructed us, we will again confirm the costs in our client care letter to you.

Read more about our conveyancing solicitors‘ services or alternatively, you can contact us at Bradley Haynes Law on 01905 900 919 or at Gemma@bradleyhayneslaw.co.uk