The lowest fixed conveyancing costs in the UK

97% of customers recommend us because we deliver on our guarantee that the Conveyancing Costs you see on your quote are what you pay when you move home.

Low costs don’t mean low service - our highly proactive Solicitors ensured that we helped 4,227 clients achieve an easier home move in 2011.

How much does conveyancing cost?

Anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes shopping around for the best Conveyancing Costs could be forgiven for thinking there is no simple answer.  It can be difficult to match up quotes, as there are so many different ways in which Solicitors present their costs.

Trickier still, some don’t even present all of their costs clearly, preferring to obscure them by referring to these in their terms and conditions (the small print).  Often these extras are described in a manner that suggests they are exceptional costs rather than being part of the standard legal process.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these are nominal "add-ons" charged when you move home; often these costs can add up to many 100s of pounds.

These unbudgeted-for costs make it difficult to calculate what the total bill for the legal work on your home sale or purchase will actually be.

Fridaysmove Guarantee the costs we quote are the costs you pay when you complete. 

Average conveyancing costs in the UK

A question often raised by property journalists is “what are the average costs of moving?”.  Given that it is difficult enough to compare two quotes, it is a significant challenge to map out average costs over the many 1000s of Solicitors firms that operate in the UK.

Furthermore, Solicitors' bills are not logged at a central register in the same way that the purchase price of property is recorded at the Land Registry.

It wouldn’t even be theoretically possible to obtain a quote from every Solicitor in the UK in a day, and then contrast them, as so many costs are hidden and contingent on the specific details of the matter.

The question would therefore have to be addressed either anecdotally or by looking at a representative sample.

The first step is to agree what constitutes Conveyancing Costs, as Solicitors' invoices often contain other 3rd party costs incurred on the client’s behalf.  These are usually referred to as 'disbursements'.

How to calculate Cost of Conveyancing:

1. Get the associated terms and conditions*.
   Once you have these, you would need to comb through them to find the hidden costs.  Some interpretation may be required, as common charges may be purposefully described in order to make them look exceptional.

   A complete list of hidden costs can be found here.

2. Strip out the disbursements from the quote**.  
   Disbursements should be charged at cost.  However, subtracting these 3rd party payments can be difficult, as some companies add a margin to, or ‘mark up’, disbursements.  This practice is understandably frowned upon by the regulators, but still happens. The easiest way to tell if the disbursement has been marked up is if it is described as a 'fee'.

   For example, if Local Authority Searches are described as ‘Local Authority Search Fees’ then there is probably a margin.  Similarly, if Office Copies are called ‘Office Copy Fees’ the same is true.

   In these cases, you could estimate around a 20% mark up cost. If you can find these disbursements in terms and conditions, you should find a noticeable difference in price between those firms who add a mark up, and those who pass on the disbursement at cost.

Adding all of these additional costs together will give you a better idea of what you could end up paying for the actual legal work itself.

Calculating an average Conveyancing Cost

There are approximately 8,000 Solcitors' practices offering property legal services in the UK.  It would be near-impossible to consider all of these.

Therefore, a statistician would need to decide what constitutes a reasonable sample size and profile.

It would make sense to consider Costs sample group to include roughly 50 firms comprised of small high street firms (some of whom still charge by the hour), medium-sized regional firms, and larger nationwide companies.

Of course, this is far too convoluted if you are simply attempting to find the best deal!

Important – Conveyancing Costs is no guarantee of service whatsoever!

It would be easy to rely on the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’. However, the legal sector is in the midst of a revolution, with some companies operating highly sophisticated IT systems and processes that, in theory, enable them to deliver an extremely good service at a fraction of the usual cost.

At the other end of the spectrum, old-fashioned Solicitors often charge an hourly rate which may not incentivise them to complete the process as quickly as possible.

This is not to criticise either type of company, and is intended to offer up an example of how there is no guaranteed correlation between quality of service and Cost. Lower costs can mean a Solicitor is more efficient and more competitive, and higher fees may simply be an indication of an older, 'hourly rate' mentality.

Call us on 033 0660 286 for more informationor get a quick quote with our Conveyancing Cost Calculator.

* Never instruct a property lawyer who will not provide their terms upfront, and be honest about the full cost of their service.

** Never instruct a solicitor who will nly give you an ‘estimate’ and be careful as sometimes estimates are incorrectly labelled quotes.