How Much Are Solicitor Fees for Buying a House?

What the fee actually covers

A conveyancing quote has two halves. The legal fee is what the solicitor or licensed conveyancer charges for their own work: reviewing the contract and title, raising enquiries, reporting to you and your lender, exchanging contracts and completing. Taylor Rose quotes £850 to £1,500 plus VAT for buyers in 2026; Homeward Legal's worked example at the £277,000 average house price is £790 for a freehold and £1,000 for a leasehold.

The second half is disbursements, the third-party costs the firm pays on your behalf. Homeward Legal's example puts these at around £550 for a standard purchase with a mortgage, made up of the search pack, Land Registry fees, a bank transfer fee and identity checks. We break those down in the guide to conveyancing disbursements.

Stamp duty is separate again. It is a tax paid through your solicitor, not a fee, and can dwarf everything else. Work it out with the stamp duty calculator.

Why leasehold costs more

Every source we checked charges more for a leasehold purchase: the HomeOwners Alliance says around £300 more, and Homeward Legal's examples show £1,000 against £790 in legal fees. The extra covers reading the lease, checking ground rent and service charge history in the management pack, and dealing with notice fees and deeds of covenant the freeholder demands on completion.

If you are buying a flat, get those leasehold extras itemised in the quote before you instruct. The leasehold management pack is paid by the seller, but the buyer-side notice and certificate fees are yours.

How the price scales with the property

Legal fees rise with the purchase price because the firm's risk and insurance exposure rises with it. Homeward Legal's 2026 table runs from £1,200 to £1,400 all-in for a £150,000 freehold up to £1,900 to £2,500 for freeholds over £600,000, and £2,300 to £3,000 for leaseholds at that level. Part of that climb is the Land Registry fee, which is banded by price, and part is the legal fee itself.

Use the conveyancing cost calculator to see a full estimate for your price band, tenure and mortgage position before you collect quotes.

How to pay less without cutting corners

• Get three fixed-fee quotes and compare the total including VAT and disbursements, not the headline legal fee. A £600 headline can become £1,100 once disbursements land.
• Ask whether the quote is no-completion, no-fee. If the purchase falls through you would still owe the disbursements already paid out, but not the legal fee.
• Check the extras list: gifted deposit paperwork (£50 to £100 per the HomeOwners Alliance), Help to Buy ISA redemption (capped at £50 plus VAT), and unregistered property supplements (£120 to £240) are all common add-ons.
• Do not choose on price alone. Slow conveyancing costs chains, and a lender panel mismatch can force you to pay a second firm.
• Screen the property before you instruct. A cheap pre-offer check that flags a serious problem saves the whole legal fee on a purchase that was never going to complete.