How much are solicitors' fees for selling a home?

It can be hard to know what you’re agreeing to when it comes to the legal fees around buying or selling a home.

It’s not a legal requirement to have a solicitor or conveyancer when selling or buying a home, but it’s a complex process which is probably best left to the professionals.

The fees for legal work around buying and selling a home are fairly similar, though the buying side is slightly more expensive.

That's because buying a home involves more paperwork and checks, including the various searches that need to happen, the handling of the deposit and the drawing up of contracts for exchange and completion.

If you’re doing both at the same time, it makes sense to have one solicitor or conveyancer handle both transactions.

A solicitor is a type of lawyer who might provide a range of legal services, while a conveyancer is a specialist in property law.

Solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), while conveyancers are registered with the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). 

Sometimes, a conveyancer might be less expensive than a solicitor as they mainly focus on property law, rather than the entire legal spectrum. However, a solicitor will be able to help if a complex legal issue arises with the sale of your property.

Find out more how much are conveyancing fees.

If your sale is relatively straightforward, then a conveyancer can handle the entire legal process for you.

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The legal fees for selling a home are likely to cost between £1,000 and £2,500.

As soon as you decide to sell up and your home goes on the market, you’ll need to engage a solicitor or conveyancer. 

As soon as you’ve got an offer on your home and have accepted it, your solicitor will have a job to do.

There are plenty of variable elements to the legal work necessary but in most cases a conveyancer or solicitor will need to:

1. Complete ID checks

They’ll make sure you are who you say you are and do some anti-laundering checks.

2. Confirm your mortgage

If you’re also a buyer, your solicitor will check your mortgage conditions, make sure you have the funds for a deposit and that you have building insurance in place ahead of the exchange of contracts.

3. Filling out the forms

One of the first things that happens is your solicitor will be sent a number of detailed questionnaires about your property. They’ll include: 

• The Property Information form - otherwise known as the TA6 

• The leasehold information pack - otherwise known as the TA7

• The Fixtures and Fittings form, otherwise known as the TA10 

• The Completion Information and Requisitions on Title Form, aka the TA13

4. Searches

Your solicitor will also conduct a series of property searches to give you more information about the property you’re buying and flag any associated risks – such as plans to build houses at the bottom of your garden. These searches can include:

• Local authority searches

• Planning searches

• Environmental searches

• Water and drainage searches

• Flood risk searches

• Chancel repair (to check if the property is in the boundary of a parish that could charge for repairs).

5. Contract exchange

When all searches and forms have been dealt with and you’ve arranged buildings insurance for your new home, your conveyancer will review the draft exchange contract. Your deposit will also be sent to the seller’s solicitor and the completion date will be set.

6. Completion

On the agreed completion date, your buyer’s solicitor or conveyancer will pay the balance of the sale price, minus the deposit paid.

Once you’ve received the funds, your solicitor will register the property transfer with the Land Registry. If you’re buying as well as selling, they will handle the transfer of funds for your new home and they will pay Stamp Duty and other fees on your behalf. 

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If you’re buying another house at the time, your solicitor will normally handle both transactions.

That means they'll perform all of the searches for your new home and arrange for the deposit on it to be paid.

They'll also work with all of the other solicitors in the chain to line up the exchange and completion dates.

The legal fees associated with selling a leasehold rather than a freehold home can be higher.

This is because there is more legal work to do when selling a leasehold home. 

As well as searches, contracts and all the normal conveyancing for any sale, your solicitor will also need to:

1. review the terms of your lease

2. correspond with the landlord, managing agent, management company or residents’ association

3. review the management accounts

4. identify any planned works

5. ensure the mortgage lender’s requirements are met

6. investigate any disputes.

The fee you will pay for the legal work goes up in line with the value of the home you are buying or selling.

The legal work is also slightly more expensive (but usually only by a few hundred quid) for a leasehold property rather than a freehold one.

Let’s take a look at the averages:

Source: Comparemymove took the average fees of 46 conveyancers from across the UK.