Solicitors To Sell Your House

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Solicitors can help the process of selling a house run more smoothly, handling the legal paperwork. When using a solicitor to sell a house, you will need to pay a fee. This page will outline what work a solicitor carries out when you’re selling your home and the fees that are charged for this work.

Our estimates* for how much a solicitor charges to deal with your house sale cover all of the work required to complete the sale in a standard transaction.

We have a specialist team of house sale conveyancing experts with years of experience successfully selling properties.

Contact our conveyancing solicitors to sell your house today!

Selling a house

When selling freehold or leasehold residential property, there are a number of legal processes involved including the drafting of contracts and, agreements, and negotiating mortgages. These require professional assistance from someone who knows how to deal with these things effectively, such as a property solicitor.

Our conveyancing team are experienced professionals who help sellers with their legal requirements from start to finish, helping to make the process as smooth as possible during what can be a stressful time for buyers and sellers alike.

Legal fees to sell your house

The below can help provide an estimate for how much solicitors fees are when selling a house.

For properties with a value of up to £1 million, our conveyancing solicitors fees start from £1,150 (plus VAT at 20% = £230) for a freehold property that does not have unexpected complications, up to £2,500 (plus VAT at 20% = £500) (an additional leasehold fee of £600 plus VAT at 20% = £120) is charged for a leasehold property sale).  For the sale of properties of £1 million+, our online quote tool will calculate the conveyancing fee at a 0.27% (plus VAT at 20%) of the sale price. These figures may vary in cases with special complications or where you have particular requirements.

You might also need to pay an additional £300 legal fee (plus VAT at 20% (£60)) for a shared ownership property.

  • Electronic money transfer fee** £30 (plus VAT at 20% (£6)) 
  • Digital conveyancing fee*** £3.40 (inclusive of VAT at 20%) per client, per matter.
  • AML & ID check fee £25 (plus VAT at 20% (£5)) per client

A typical subtotal for properties with a value of up to £1 million is:£1,419.40 - £3,069.40 (inclusive of VAT at 20%) with an additional £600 legal fee (plus VAT at 20% (£120)) for a leasehold property and an additional £300 legal fee (plus VAT at 20% (£60)) for a shared ownership property.

*These fees vary from property to property and on occasion can be significantly more than the ranges given above. For this type of work we charge an overall fixed fee. If our fixed fee work needs to be discussed with you dependent on your circumstances we will do this.

**In addition to our legal fees, we charge a fee for transferring money electronically.

*** In addition to our legal fees, where a client chooses to use our digital conveyancing tools package as part of their conveyancing instruction, (this will include using our App, online portal and secure digital conveyancing services) our digital conveyancing fee will be charged.

Referral fee (if any)

If our firm pays a referral fee, the maximum we pay is £125 (plus VAT at 20% (£25)).  If we pay a referral fee, this will be detailed in your Client Care Letter so that you know how much and to whom we have paid the referral fee on your matter. A referral fee is not payable by you as the property seller.

For more information on our conveyancing fees, contact our team of experts today.

Payments to others in all cases

Payments to others (also known as "disbursements") are costs related to your matter which are payable to third parties, such as fees for obtaining information from the Land Registry. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. The disbursements which we anticipate will apply are set out separately below.

With leasehold properties, there are certain additional disbursements which will be set out in your lease and landlord's leasehold information pack relating to the property. This list is not exhaustive and other disbursements may apply depending on the terms of the lease.  We will update you on the specific fees once we have reviewed the lease when we obtain copies of your title documents.

  • HM Land Registry fee re official copies of your title deeds : £8-£16 (plus VAT at 20% (£1.60 - £3.20))

    A typical subtotal for properties with a value of up to £1 million is: £1,471.20 - £3,130.80 (inclusive of VAT at 20%) with an additional £600 legal fee (plus VAT at 20% (£120)) for a leasehold property and an additional £300 legal fee (plus VAT at 20% (£60)) for a shared ownership property.

Anticipated disbursements for leasehold properties*

  • Leasehold information pack - there is a certain amount of information which every landlord or management company is required to provide when a leasehold property is sold.  They are entitled to charge a fee for this, and we find that the fees charged can range from £150 (plus VAT at 20% (£30)) to £500 (plus VAT at 20% (£100)).  We are unable to confirm the fee payable for a particular property until the landlord’s initial information is received.
  • Notice of Transfer fee – this fee, if chargeable, is set out in the lease. Often the fee is between £50-£250 (plus VAT at 20% (£10-£50)).  This fee is usually paid by the buyer of the property, but sometimes a charge is also made to the seller.  This will be set out in the lease. 
  • Deed of Covenant fee – this fee is charged by the landlord or management company for the property and can be difficult to estimate. Often it is between £100-£500 (plus VAT at 20% (£20-£100)).  Again, this fee is usually paid by the buyer of the property. The terms of the lease will confirm the position.

*These fees vary from property to property as they are set by individual landlords and management companies.  This means that on occasion they can be significantly more than the ranges given above.  We can give you an accurate figure once we have sight of both the lease and the leasehold information pack provided by the landlord/management company.

It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur other costs other than those described above. However, we would be very happy to provide you with a more tailored quote for all stages of your particular case once we know about your specific circumstances.

Stages of selling a house

As a guide, we find that the average conveyancing transaction is currently taking approximately 12 – 14 weeks to complete – from the day we receive your instructions. This depends on a number of factors and we cannot guarantee these timescales.

The time frames for selling a house given below are likely to change given that we are seeing the average times of a transaction increase significantly due to matters outside of our control. We will keep our clients updated as their house sale transaction progresses to include providing them with any completion dates suggested by other parties involved in the transaction.

If you have any questions about this, please contact a member of our Residential Conveyancing team.

Stage 1 – Instructions & Preparation

  • Take your instructions and give you initial advice.
  • Obtain an up-to-date copy of the title to the property from Land Registry.
  • Provide you with Property Information forms for you to complete.
  • For leasehold properties, contact the landlord or management company to obtain the leasehold information pack.  You will be required to pay their administration fee for this before they will issue the pack to us (most landlords/management companies will provide the pack within ten working days of the fee being paid by you, however this could be substantially longer if dealing with an unresponsive landlord/management company)
  • Draft contract documents and submit to your buyer's conveyancer, once completed forms are received from you.
  • Obtain further planning documents if required.

This stage of selling a house will usually be complete within 2 to 3 weeks.

Stage 2 – Pre-exchange enquiries & preparation

  • Address any necessary enquiries once raised by the buyer's conveyancer.
  • Send final contract to you for signature.
  • Approve and advise on Transfer.
  • Send final Transfer to you for signature.
  • Agree completion date.
  • Request redemption statement from mortgage lender.

This stage of property sales will usually be complete within 3 to 4 weeks, depending on how promptly the buyer's conveyancer deals with our correspondence.

Stage 3 – Pre-completion & completion formalities

  • Exchange contracts and notify you that this has happened.
  • Complete sale.
  • Deal with payment of estate agent's commission.
  • Account to you for net sale proceeds.

This stage will usually be complete within 2 weeks. 

Step-by-step, we'll walk you through the process of selling a house and are happy to discuss what questions solicitors ask when selling a house. Get in touch with our conveyancing experts.

How long will my property sale take?

How long it will take from the offer being accepted until you need to move out of your property will depend on a number of factors. The average process of selling a house takes between 8-12 weeks. It can be quicker or slower, depending on the parties in the chain.

For example, if you sell to a first-time buyer with a mortgage in principle, it could take 6 weeks. However, if you are selling a leasehold property that requires an extension of the lease, this can take significantly longer, between 3-6 months. In such a situation, additional charges would apply.

Our property sale fee assumes that:

  • This is a standard transaction and that no unforeseen matters arise including for example (but not limited to) a defect in title which requires remedying prior to completion or the preparation of additional documents ancillary to the main transaction.
  • The transaction is concluded in a timely manner and no unforeseen complications arise.
  • All parties to the transaction are co-operative and there is no unreasonable delay from the parties providing documentation.
  • No indemnity insurance policies are required. Additional disbursements and legal fees may apply if indemnity policies are required.
  • In relation to leasehold – these fees relate to the assignment of an existing lease and not the grant of a new lease.

You can get an instant conveyancing fee estimate online using our Online Conveyancing Tool.

You can see the legal advisers who work in our Residential Conveyancing Team.

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, please inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

We are very proud to be able to say that our residential property team have WON the award for Residential Property of the Year at the Yorkshire Legal Awards 2022, acknowledging us being a market leader and providing a high quality conveyancing service for clients.