House Buying Solicitor Fees: What You Need to Know

Buying a home can be one of the most exciting steps you’ll take in your life, but it can get expensive. One of the expenses you’ll need to plan for is the fees your conveyancing solicitor will charge, and understanding what those fees might look like can be essential to make certain you have enough cash on hand to pay them.

Why Are Conveyancing Solicitors Part of the Process?

A conveyancing solicitor has a pretty important role when you sell your home. The biggest one is that they handle all of the legal aspects to transfer the ownership of the property from the previous owner to you. The process can take quite some time, as he or she will need to handle certain legal checks, deal with the contracts on the property, and handle the transfer of the money to the seller. All of that gets quite costly.

What Are House Buying Solicitor Fees?

Generally, you can expect to pay your conveyancing solicitor between £2,000 and £3,000, depending on the complexity of the sale. What makes up those numbers? Actually, there are a lot of different kinds of charges involved.

• Searches: Your solicitor will use the help of your local authority to assess whether there are any potential problems with the property you’re buying. For example, maybe a planning application will affect the property’s value in the future. Perhaps there are flood risks. These kinds of searches tend to cost £200 or more. While some searches are required, others depend a bit on where your property is located, and your solicitor may still recommend other searches to help protect your property.
• Land Registry Fees: Your solicitor will complete all of the necessary paperwork to transfer the ownership with the Land Registry, but it’s not cheap to do so. Depending on the value of your home, this could cost between £200 and £500.
• Disbursements: Your solicitor will also need to make certain that all of the money reaches the right places, and these are called disbursements. There are fees for those, however. It can cost up to £600 in most cases.
• Solicitor’s Fee: In addition to all of those fees, you’ll actually need to pay the solicitor for his or her time, and most of them will either charge you a flat fee or charge you an hourly rate. In general, you can expect to spend about £1000 or more on the cost of just working with your solicitor.

Do I Actually Need a Solicitor?

After reading about all of those fees, you may wonder if you actually need the help of a solicitor in the first place. The simple answer here is no, it’s not legally required that you have a solicitor. The more complex answer, though, is probably. It can be tough to handle all of the conveyancing on your own, as there’s a lot of legal work and documentation involved, and if you don’t get it right, you could be in serious trouble down the road. You could make a mistake that would cost you both time and money. A solicitor, though, will make certain that doesn’t happen.

Can I Save on House Buying Solicitor Fees?

There are some ways to save on some of those fees. You can usually omit a few searches. You can also talk a solicitor out of doing a few other things that might save you some time and money. The reality, though, is that you probably want to take the solicitor’s advice and do what they suggest. Do your research to connect with a good solicitor before you even get started, too. Talk to others who have bought a house recently. Look at online reviews and pricing structures, too, so you’re sure you understand what you’re expected to pay before you actually even instruct a solicitor. Once you connect with someone who can truly help you handle the legal transfer of ownership, you’ll be able to better understand those fees and why you’re being expected to pay them. The key is just to work with a reputable provider who can help, not someone who can offer you the cheapest possible option available today.