The legal fees cover the work that your solicitor or conveyancer puts in to ensure the legal transfer of ownership of the property. Fees are dependent on the value of the property being bought or sold.

View our purchase fees

View our sales fees

View our remortgage and transfer of equity fees

How much will I need to pay for disbursements?

Disbursements are the taxes or payments made to a third party by your solicitor as part of the home buying process. Disbursements are not part of your solicitors handling fee.  They include:

• Verification of ID fees.
• Searches fees.
• Bank transfer fees.
• Land Registry fees.
• Freeholder notice fees.
• Stamp Duty Land Tax.

The higher the value of the property that you are buying or selling, the more you will pay in conveyancing fees. Leasehold properties also incur higher fees due the extra legal work involved.

Buying an older property, or a property that you plan on doing major renovations to, may also bring with it additional costs in the form of needing to pay for a RICS Building Survey which could cost around £500 – £2,000, depending on the size of the property. 

Buying or selling a leasehold property is more complicated as it includes additional work in the form of:

• Examination of the Lease.
• Examination of the freeholder management pack to establish annual service charges, payment history and details of any anticipated expenditure.
• Drafting a Deed of Covenant.

Remortgaging is the process of changing the mortgage on your property to a new lender.

If you are adding an additional person to the mortgage when you remortgage, this is known as a Transfer of Equity. It involves the changing of legal ownership of the property (subject to an existing lender or with a new lender) and therefore requires a solicitor.

You will typically be asked to make a small payment on account (usually around £300) to cover the initial searches.  

The remaining balance will be paid before exchange of contracts.

We offer a fixed fee service – and a no completion, no fee conveyancing service. Should your sale or purchase unfortunately fall through, you will pay us any third party disbursements already incurred.

It will cost an estimated £400 plus VAT to transfer equity with True Solicitors. A full breakdown can be found on our Transfer of Equity fees page. 

What’s the process for transferring equity? 

Once you’ve decided you need to transfer equity, you should follow the steps below: 

• Check the requirements of your lender.
• Decide to remain with your existing lender or change to a new lender. 
• Instruct your conveyancing solicitor. 
• Let us take care of the paperwork.

Why and when would you need to transfer equity? 

There are several situations in which you may need to transfer equity: 

• You want to add a new person like a spouse or partner to your property title and mortgage. 
• You jointly own a house and your co owner or you want to buy out the other.

Do I need to instruct a solicitor for an equity transfer? 

• We recommend you instruct a solicitor to transfer equity.