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Conveyancing
Every firm's conveyancing fee, side by side
The published legal fee from each firm we read, in one table, with what kind of number it is and where it came from.
The legal fee is the one part of a conveyancing bill that really does change from firm to firm. Every regulated firm has to publish its price on its own website, so the numbers already exist in public. Here is each one we read, in a single table, quoted and dated. The published legal fee runs £500 to £5,500 before VAT across the firms we read.
Read the second column before the first. These numbers are not like for like, so the lowest one is not the cheapest firm. One is a fixed fee, the next is a floor that a bill only climbs from, the next a range, the next a worked example the firm picked. Some are quoted before VAT and some after. And every one of them is only the legal fee, before the searches, the Land Registry fee and the tax on the same bill.
Every firm's published legal fee
In alphabetical order. We do not rank these firms, recommend them, or call any of them cheap or dear, and the order never moves for money. Each figure is quoted from the firm's own page and stamped with the day we read it, shown at the top of this page.
| Firm | Published legal fee | What kind of number | From the firm's own page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashtons Legal | £1,800 including VAT, of which the purchase fee is £1,500 | Worked example | www.ashtonslegal.co.uk |
| Bell Lamb and Joynson Solicitors | £995.00 plus VAT, £1,194.00 with it | Fixed fee | www.bljsolicitors.co.uk |
| Beswicks Legal | £1248 including VAT | Worked example | beswicks.com |
| Birketts | From £2,500 plus VAT | From (a floor) | www.birketts.co.uk |
| Blacks Solicitors LLP | £600 to £1850 plus VAT | A range | www.lawblacks.com |
| Clarke Willmott | £2,000 plus VAT | Worked example | www.clarkewillmott.com |
| Dodds Solicitors | £680 plus VAT, £816 with it | Worked example | dodds-solicitors.co.uk |
| Gorvins Solicitors | £1750 plus VAT | Worked example | www.gorvins.com |
| Hugh James | £1,595.00 plus VAT | Fixed fee | www.hughjames.com |
| Irwin Mitchell | From £2,395 plus VAT | From (a floor) | www.irwinmitchell.com |
| JMW Solicitors | £850 to £1,450 plus VAT | A range | www.jmw.co.uk |
| Knights | £4,500 minimum plus VAT | Fixed fee | www.knightsplc.com |
| Lanyon Bowdler | £800 to £5,000 plus VAT, or £960 to £6,000 with it | A range | www.lblaw.co.uk |
| Lodders Solicitors | £2,500 to £5,500 plus VAT across the two examples published | A range | www.lodders.co.uk |
| Napthens | £1,200 plus VAT | Fixed fee | www.napthens.co.uk |
| Nelsons | £900 to £2,000 plus VAT, or £1080 to £2,400 with it | A range | www.nelsonslaw.co.uk |
| Osbornes Law | £1,350 to £3,500 plus VAT | A range | osborneslaw.com |
| Rothera Bray Solicitors | £900 to £3,000 including VAT | A range | rotherabray.co.uk |
| Stephensons Solicitors LLP | £960 including VAT | Fixed fee | www.stephensons.co.uk |
| Taylor Rose MW | £500 to £5,000 plus VAT | A range | www.taylor-rose.co.uk |
| Woodfines | £2,225.00 plus VAT | Worked example | www.woodfines.co.uk |
Why the lowest number is not the cheapest firm
Four things make these figures impossible to line up as they stand, and every one of them is in the table above once you read past the headline:
- The kind of number differs. A fixed fee is a promise. A number marked from is a floor, and the bill only goes up from it. A range gives a lowest and a highest and no more. A worked example is one real transaction the firm chose, not yours.
- The price they quote against differs. A fee quoted on a small house and a fee quoted on a large one are not the same product, and firms rarely pick the same example to quote on.
- VAT is inside some and not others. A figure before VAT looks a fifth cheaper than the same figure after it. Each fee here is quoted exactly as the firm quoted it, so check which side of VAT each one sits on.
- It is only the legal fee. The searches, the Land Registry fee and the tax are on top, and together those can come to more than the fee itself.
So the table is something to read a real quote against, not a league table to pick the bottom of. The honest use of it: when a firm sends you a number, find its row, see what kind of number it is, and ask what the other two layers of the bill will be.
The fee is one layer of three
The full bill is the legal fee plus the disbursements plus the tax. The complete breakdown, with every disbursement sourced, is on the conveyancing fees page. The statutory Land Registry scale has its own page, and the tax, with a calculator that collects nothing, is on the stamp duty page.
Questions people ask
Which conveyancing firm is the cheapest?
There is no honest single answer, because the published figures are not like for like: some are fixed fees, some are floors or ranges, some are quoted before VAT and some after, and all of them are only the legal fee. The table lets you read a real quote against them rather than pick a bottom line.
Why do conveyancing fees vary so much between firms?
The legal fee is the part of the bill a firm sets itself, so it reflects how the firm prices its time and the work it wants. The disbursements and the tax on top are set by other bodies and barely move, which is why the advertised fee is where the difference sits.
Are these the full costs of conveyancing?
No. Every figure here is the legal fee only. The searches, the Land Registry fee and the tax sit on the same bill and can add up to more than the fee. The full breakdown is on the conveyancing fees page.