Guide
Conveyancing fees calculator: which parts are fixed and which are quoted
Updated
Most conveyancing calculators return one number, which hides the only useful fact about the bill: two thirds of it is not the solicitor's to set, and the third that is can be compared line by line.
A quote is three things, and only one of them is negotiable
The legal fee is the firm's own charge for doing the work. It is the only part that differs because you chose a different firm, and it is the part a comparison is actually about.
Disbursements are payments the firm makes on your behalf: searches, the Land Registry fee, bankruptcy and priority searches. Some are fixed by a published scale and some vary by local authority.
Tax is stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland, or its devolved equivalents. It is identical whichever firm you instruct, and it is usually the largest number on the page.
The Land Registry fee is published, so no calculator should be guessing it
HM Land Registry publishes a Scale 1 fee banded by the value of the property, and charges substantially less when the application is lodged electronically through the portal or Business Gateway rather than by post. Any firm doing volume residential conveyancing lodges electronically.
| Value of property | Fee by post | Fee via portal or Business Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| £0 to £80,000 | £45 | £20 |
| £80,001 to £100,000 | £95 | £40 |
| £100,001 to £200,000 | £230 | £100 |
| £200,001 to £500,000 | £330 | £150 |
| £500,001 to £1,000,000 | £655 | £295 |
| £1,000,001 and over | £1,105 | £500 |
On a £400,000 purchase that is a £180 difference on identical work, decided purely by how the firm submits the application. A quote that shows the postal figure is worth a question (gov.uk).
The tax is not the solicitor's number
Stamp Duty Land Tax is set by rates and bands, not by the firm, and HMRC publishes its own calculator (tax.service.gov.uk). Whether you are a first-time buyer, buying an additional property, or not resident in the UK changes it, and none of those change which conveyancer you should instruct.
The practical consequence is that a calculator returning one big total flatters whichever firm bundles the tax into the headline. Strip the tax out of both quotes before comparing anything.
What to hold two quotes against
Regulated firms already publish this. Rule 1.5 of the SRA Transparency Rules requires the total cost of the service or, where that is not practicable, the average cost or range, along with the basis of the charges, a description of the disbursements and their costs, whether VAT applies, and what is included. Rule 1.3(a) applies it to residential conveyancing specifically.
- Is the legal fee inclusive of VAT? A fee quoted excluding VAT is 20% larger than it looks and is the single commonest reason two quotes are not comparable.
- Is the Land Registry fee at the portal rate or the postal rate? The scale above tells you which you have been given.
- Which searches are included? Local authority search costs vary by council, so a quote assuming a cheap authority is not wrong, just not yours.
- What triggers an additional charge? Leasehold, shared ownership, help-to-buy, unregistered title, a gifted deposit and a new-build all commonly carry supplements.
- Is there a fee if the transaction falls through? Abortive-transaction terms differ far more between firms than the headline fee does.
Why this page does not return a single number
Two of the three components can be stated exactly: the Land Registry fee from the published scale above, and the tax from HMRC's own calculator. The third, the legal fee, is the firm's price and is not published as a national figure by anybody. Adding an invented average for it to two exact figures would produce a total that looks precise and is not.
So compare the part that varies, against the two parts that do not. That is a shorter exercise than it sounds and it is the one that saves money.