Average legal fees when buying a house
Conveyancing fees tend to rise slightly with the value of the property and range from around £500 up to £1650 with an average fee of just under £1000 All prices should include VAT, but you should check this.
Conveyancing fees are broken down
The prices quoted above should include all the fees below with the exception of stamp duty which does vary with the price of the property.
For information on fees when selling a house check out this article.
Solicitors legal fee – £550
Your solicitor or licensed conveyancer will charge a legal fee for their time working on your conveyancing. You want to make sure this is a fixed fee and not charged by the hour.
Conveyancing searches – Ave £280
Search pack fees vary from £189 to £375. Further searches may be required,
depending on what the standard searches reveal during the conveyancing
process. The search pack will include local authority search, environmental
search, and water and drainage search.
There may be additional searches that may be required such as Chancel repair liability and Coal mining search which will be around £75.
Money laundering checks – £6
Your solicitor may want to ensure you are not money laundering if you are buying the property with cash or through a number of bank accounts. This is a normal check and you should not worry about it.
Land Registry fee for transfer of ownership – £145
These fees will vary depending on the price of the property. One tip is to use the online portal rather than by post as it will save around 50% in fees.
Bank Transfer Fee – £40
When the bank transfers the money from the buyer’s conveyancer to the seller conveyancer there will be a cost with the average fee of around £40 which includes VAT.
Stamp Duty Land Tax – Varies
Stamp duty is charged depending on which price band the property falls into. See Gov website for full details.
