Good Houses
Conveyancing quotes
Conveyancers are who you need when buying or selling a property. Their job is to make sure the documents on both sides are complete and compliant, that there is no risk buried in them, and that where there is a risk, you know about it before you are committed rather than afterwards.
You need one whether you are buying, selling, or doing both at once. They may be a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer, and either can do the work.
The government has proposed changes meant to make the process faster and more reliable. Two are worth knowing about, though neither is in force yet: sellers providing a survey report up front, so each prospective buyer no longer has to commission one and wait weeks for it, and much stricter rules on withdrawing after an offer has been accepted, with a penalty for pulling out part way through. Treat both as proposals rather than rules until they actually arrive.
Is your property suitable?
Every transaction needs conveyancing, so the useful question is not whether but how ready you are when it starts.
Get your documents together before anything else. If you are selling, that means every change you have made to the property, with the paperwork, certificates and warranties that go with them. It sounds like admin and it is the single most useful thing you can do.
Here is why. Conveyancing is the longest and most frustrating part of buying or selling a house. It routinely takes months, and the progress is slow. You cannot control how quickly the other side works, and you will spend a lot of that time waiting on people who are not you. The only part genuinely within your control is whether your own side is ready, and being ready is what stops the delay being your fault.
Typical cost range
£1,270 – £2,795
Excludes VAT.
Conveyancing is usually a fixed fee plus disbursements. The fee is the firm's own charge. Disbursements are money they pay out on your behalf, such as search fees, Land Registry fees and, if you are buying, stamp duty.
That split is where quotes stop being comparable. A low headline fee with disbursements added later can land in the same place as a higher quote that included everything from the start, so compare the total rather than the number at the top.
What moves the fee itself is freehold against leasehold, whether it is a new build, and which council is being searched, since search costs vary between authorities.
What to ask before hiring
Ask for the full breakdown in writing: the fee and every disbursement, not the headline figure.
Ask whether they have an online portal you can follow the process through. This is worth more than it sounds. It shows you what has moved, what is waiting on somebody else, and roughly how much is left, instead of leaving you to phone up and ask.
Ask whether it is no completion, no fee, and what that actually covers. It usually protects you from the firm's own fee if the sale falls through, but not from disbursements already spent on your behalf.
Ask who will handle your file day to day rather than whose name is on the quote. If the property is leasehold, ask whether the management pack fee is inside the quote.
Read their reviews, and read the reasons behind them rather than the star rating. A firm people rate badly for slow communication is telling you exactly what the next few months will feel like.
Red flags
A quote well below the others, with disbursements added afterwards that bring it back to the market rate.
No single point of contact. Slow or vague answers before you have even instructed them, which is a fair preview of how the transaction itself will go. Pressure to use the estate agent's recommended firm with no mention of whether a referral fee is involved.
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Common questions
How long does conveyancing take?
It routinely takes months, and it is the slowest and most frustrating part of buying or selling. A straightforward transaction with no chain moves fastest, but chains and leasehold complications extend it, and your transaction moves at the speed of the slowest party rather than your own.
What can I do to speed it up?
Get your documents ready before the process starts. If you are selling, that means every change you have made to the property along with the paperwork, certificates and warranties. You cannot control the other side, so the only thing in your hands is making sure the delay is never yours.
What is the difference between the fee and disbursements?
The fee is the firm's own charge for doing the work. Disbursements are money they pay out on your behalf, such as searches, Land Registry fees and stamp duty. Always compare quotes on both together, because a low fee with high disbursements is not a cheap quote.
Is the process changing?
Changes have been proposed to make it faster and more reliable, but none is in force yet. Two worth watching: sellers providing a survey report up front so buyers do not each commission their own, and much stricter rules on withdrawing after an offer is accepted, with a penalty for pulling out part way through.
How do I choose a conveyancer?
Read the reviews and, more importantly, the reasons behind them. Ask whether they have an online portal you can track progress through, which saves a great deal of phoning to ask what is happening.