Solicitors and other providers of conveyancing services often (though not always) give potential clients a fixed fee quote for work they’re offering to undertake with regards to a specific property ownership transaction.
Although that fixed fee is generally intended to reflect the entirety of the charges that a conveyancer will ask of their clients, extra charges do sometimes need to be added for certain unforeseen reasons.
It is by no means always the case that clients ultimately need to pay their conveyancer more than their initial fixed fee quote but nor is it necessarily the case that the fixed fee is unchangeable or set in stone.
Disbursements
Fees charged by conveyancers generally increase as a result of what are referred to as ‘disbursements’, meaning extra charges that service providers incur and pass along to their clients for undertakings such as information searches.
A fixed fee quote from a conveyancer should not be given or interpreted as an estimate, however. Your initial quote should be intended to reflect the precise costs involved in a transaction process.
But because in practice there are sometimes unexpected costs demanded of conveyancers as they conduct searches and go about their work, even fixed fee quotes are subject to small increases.
What you should always find reference to in a transparent conveyancing quote:
- Legal fees
- Land registry fees
- Stamp duty calculations
- Search costs
- Identity checks
- Telegraphic transfer fees
How to check if your quote is transparent
Perhaps the most obvious way in which a homebuyer can help ensure that a quote from a conveyancer is transparent is to compare it against others from similar service providers.
Thankfully, it is now easier than ever before to compare and contrast conveyancing quotes in seconds via websites such as Home Legal Direct.
As you compare quotes, be sure to look out for all the most essential elements involved in the process as listed above and assess the credentials of any potentially suitable service provider.
Once you are close to choosing your conveyancer, you can enquire with them directly to ask whether their offer is based on a fixed fee and if it might still be subject to adjustments.
What else can impact conveyancing fees?
Other factors that might influence the price you’ll ultimately be asked to pay by your conveyancer include:
| Property values – fees quoted by solicitors and other service providers will generally be higher in cases involving more expensive properties. |
| Location – Prices charged by conveyancers can vary between regions of the UK. Fixed fee deals might be more expensive in the South-East of England as compared with more northerly parts of the country. |
| Renegotiated deals – If you need to renegotiate an asking price with your seller after seeing the results of property surveys then conveyancers may need to adjust their fixed fees upwards to cover any extra work involved for them. |
| Shared ownership – Transactions that involve multiple unrelated parties taking ownership of a property will often be more complicated for conveyancers than other types of arrangement, which can lead to higher fees being charged for the necessary legal services. |
| Mortgage versus cash buyers – Conveyancing fees will tend to be lower where a property is being acquired by a cash buyer, essentially because there is less paperwork involved if mortgage lenders are not needed to enable the transaction. |
| Leasehold versus freehold – Buying a freehold property might cost less in conveyancing fees than a comparable leasehold property transaction because there is typically less paperwork involved from a conveyancer’s perspective. |
Fixed fee pros…
- Clear visibility on likely costs linked to all conveyancing services
- Price increases likely only to involve small amounts
- Greater scope to plan ahead and budget all aspects of your property move
Fixed fee cons…
- Your conveyancer may need to increase your fixed fee a little, if your case is more complicated than was initially assumed.
- Your fixed fee deal might be more expensive than a variable deal would have been, if your case is particularly uncomplicated.
Variable fee pros and cons…
- Fees might be lower with a variable deal than would have been the case with a fixed fee arrangement.
- However, with a variable arrangement, any complications or extra steps that become necessary within your process will result in extra fees that you might have avoided with a fixed fee quote.
Improving transparency
In the context of conveyancing, as in various other areas in which a solicitor’s services might be involved or required, the issue of transparency is a crucial one.
Rules introduced in late 2018 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) effectively demanded of all solicitors operating in the UK that they display their prices and details of their services in full to better inform their potential customers.
The SRA’s rules stipulate that details of pricing structures relating to specific services, including conveyancing, “must be presented in a clear and easy to understand format”.
As a result, since 2018, any solicitors’ firm with a website in the UK has been required to detail online whatever prices they charge their conveyancing customers, or else make those same details available upon request.
The SRA’s stated aim in introducing its ‘price transparency rules’ was to better inform consumers of the prices they’re likely to face when hiring solicitors but also to boost competition across the entire UK legal market.
While pricing information now needs to be communicated clearly and transparently by all solicitors offering routine legal services, there remains an onus on consumers to conduct their own research and compare quotes, if they want to save money and be sure of getting a good deal from a quality provider.
As we’ve seen, there is scope for the prices associated with the conveyancing process to increase slightly even if you’ve hired a highly reputable service provider on a fixed fee deal. In essence, it remains the case that doing the right kind of research can help ensure that you land yourself the best possible deal available to you as a homebuyer in the UK.
How we can help
The Home Legal Direct network empowers prospective homebuyers across England and Wales to quickly evaluate and compare quotes from dozens of conveyancing service providers. You can use our website to instantly access quotes from quality conveyancers who are all transparent about their fees and services.