Conveyancing fees have increased across most transaction scenarios and some firms are still not displaying their prices despite regulatory requirements to do so, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has found.
A report by the LSB, which regulates the legal sector, found 36% of conveyancing providers have increased their prices within the past 12 months.
The average price for conveyancing on the sale of a freehold property is now £718, up 3.7% from £692 when the report was conducted in 2017.
The cost for the legals on the sale of a leasehold has increased by 7% from £785 to £840 over the same period.
There are larger jumps for purchases.
The average price for the conveyancing of a freehold property purchase has increased 18.8% from £750 to £891 between 2017 and 2020 and the purchase of a leasehold now costs 19.9% more at £1,024 compared with £854.
A conveyancer dealing with both the sale and a purchase of a freehold would now typically charge £1,564 compared with £1,360 in 2017, a 15% increase.
The report also found that despite it being a regulatory requirement for conveyancers to disclose their prices, 6% do not do so, the LSB said.
Commenting on the report, Sheila Kumar, chief executive of trade body The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), said: “It is good to see that the regulatory changes have made a significant difference to the number of practices who are displaying prices on their websites.
“We know from our own monitoring that most CLC practices are compliant and where there are issues we are taking a hands-on approach in ensuring they come into compliance while being ready to take other regulatory steps if necessary.
“We continue to believe that while price is important for consumers it is not the only way that users of legal services should select their provider.
“That is why, as well as supporting the transparency measures currently in place, we are exploring individually and collaboratively how best to further advance this agenda particularly through the use of quality indicators.
“We are looking at how best to define indicators which are easily understandable and are of true use to consumers.”
Comments (3)
It’s probably still not enough though to be fair – when you look at the eye-watering amounts some of them are paying in referral fees to estate agents there is very little meat left on the bone come the end of the transaction.
“Conveyancers did not walk away from property deals during the lock-down, and close up shop – they stayed open and got deals through.”
Conveyancers carry ALL the risk, and yet charge the lowest of removal men, mortgage advisers, surveyors and certainly estate agents.
The public count on their conveyancers, almost like friends in the process.
So good on them, for raising their prices and better reflecting their quality.
The cost to a seller for transferring a freehold property has only increased by 3.7% in three years.
This isn’t a big increase in three years especially when compared with house price gains over the same period. It makes complete sense that leasehold conveyancing costs have increased, due to risk and complexity.