Conveyancing Fees, Costs and Guides for UK Home Movers

Conveyancing fees vary depending on the property price, the type of transaction, and the solicitor you choose. For a straightforward purchase, legal fees typically sit between £800 and £1,500 plus VAT, with disbursements such as searches and Land Registry fees on top.

For a sale, fees are generally lower. The fastest way to get an accurate figure for your specific transaction is to use our conveyancing fees calculator and compare instant quotes from regulated solicitors directly.

Conveyancing fees are what your solicitor charges for their legal work. Disbursements are third-party costs your solicitor pays on your behalf, such as local authority search fees, Land Registry registration fees, and bank transfer charges.

Disbursements are not set by your solicitor and vary depending on the local authority and property value. You can read more in our guide to conveyancing disbursements.

For a straightforward purchase with no chain, conveyancing typically takes eight to twelve weeks from instruction to completion. Sales take a similar amount of time. The main variables are how quickly searches come back from the local authority, how promptly all parties respond to enquiries, and whether there is a chain.

Leasehold properties and new builds can take longer due to additional legal requirements. Our blog has a detailed guide on how to speed up the conveyancing process.

A conveyancer handles all the legal work involved in transferring ownership of a property from one person to another. That includes reviewing the title, raising enquiries with the seller's solicitor, ordering and reviewing property searches, reporting on the mortgage offer if there is one, exchanging contracts, and managing the completion process.

If you have a mortgage, your conveyancer also acts for your lender and reports to them on the title and searches before funds are released. You can read more about what questions to ask your conveyancing solicitor before you instruct anyone.

No. Most conveyancing in England and Wales is now handled remotely, with communication via email, post, and phone. You are not required to use a solicitor based near the property or near you. What matters is that the solicitor is regulated by the SRA or CLC and, if you have a mortgage, that they are on your lender's panel.

Use our find a conveyancing solicitor tool to compare fixed fee quotes from regulated solicitors across England and Wales instantly, regardless of location.

Fixed fee conveyancing means your solicitor quotes you a set price for the legal work upfront, and that price does not change unless the scope of the transaction changes significantly. It is the standard approach for residential conveyancing and makes it much easier to compare quotes between firms.

All solicitors in the Conveyancing Calculator network quote on a fixed fee basis. You can read more on our fixed fee conveyancing page or compare quotes directly using the conveyancing fees calculator.

No completion no fee means that if your transaction falls through before completion, you do not pay your solicitor's legal fees for the work done up to that point. It protects buyers and sellers from losing money on legal costs if a sale or purchase collapses. Not all solicitors offer this as standard, so it is worth checking before you instruct.
Use our conveyancing fees calculator to compare quotes and check which solicitors include no completion no fee as part of their fixed fee quote.

Both are regulated professionals who can handle residential conveyancing. Solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and can handle a wider range of legal work beyond property. Licensed conveyancers are regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and specialise exclusively in property transactions.

For straightforward residential conveyancing, either is appropriate. All firms in the Conveyancing Calculator network are regulated by either the SRA or the CLC.

You can read more about qualities to look for in a conveyancing solicitor before you make your choice.