Conveyancing quotes: what a solicitor must tell you before you commit
Buying or selling a home is the legal service most people shop around for, and it is one of the services for which a regulated firm in England and Wales that publicises it as being on offer must publish prices on its website (publicly funded work is excluded). In practice our scan finds price information on only a small minority of firm websites: the current figure is on the statistics page. Here is what a proper quote contains, and where the missing costs hide.
What the published price must include
For residential conveyancing (freehold or leasehold sale and purchase, mortgages and remortgages), the SRA Transparency Rules require the firm's website to show six things:
- The total cost, or an average or range with the basis for the charges (fixed fee or hourly rate)
- What the price includes and what it does not
- The disbursements the firm expects, and what each costs
- Whether the quoted figures include VAT
- The key stages of the transaction and how long they typically take (the conveyancing timescales guide covers what a normal timetable looks like in practice)
- Who will do the work, and their experience and qualifications
A quote that gives you a single headline number with none of the above is not the full picture, and on the firm's own website it is less than the rules expect.
The costs that get left out
- Disbursements: search fees, Land Registry fees and bank transfer fees are costs the firm passes on. Together they commonly add several hundred pounds, so a quote that says "plus disbursements" without figures is not comparable with one that itemises them.
- Leasehold extras: on a leasehold purchase, the landlord or management company usually charges its own fees for information packs and notices. These often surface mid-transaction; a good quote flags them at the start.
- VAT: check every figure. A quote that looks 20% cheaper than the others sometimes just excludes it.
- Add-on charges: some firms charge separately for handling the mortgage lender's requirements, the stamp duty return, or gifted deposits. Ask what the headline fee actually covers.
- Aborted transactions: roughly a quarter of property transactions fall through. Ask in writing what you pay if that happens.
How to compare firms properly
Get the total figure in writing from two or three firms, on the same basis: fee plus VAT plus all expected disbursements for your specific property (freehold or leasehold, price band, mortgage or cash). Firms expect this and a firm that hesitates to put its numbers in writing before you commit is telling you something. The cheapest headline fee is often not the cheapest total.
The solicitor prices guide has a template email you can send, and the legitimacy guide covers the free checks that catch cloned firms before any money moves, which matters in conveyancing more than anywhere else. If an email ever tells you the firm's bank details have changed, stop and phone the firm on a verified number before paying anything.
See whether a firm publishes what the rules expect
You can run a free SRA website check on any firm you are considering: our scanner reads the public pages and reports whether it found price information, the clickable SRA badge and complaints information. The transparency statistics show how firm websites across England and Wales compare.
This guide is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice. Website findings are automated, come from public pages only, and are not a legal opinion.