Conveyancing Disbursements Explained

Conveyancing disbursements are third-party costs your solicitor pays to external organisations on your behalf during a property transaction. They include Land Registry fees, local authority search fees, environmental and drainage searches, bankruptcy checks and bank transfer charges. Unlike your solicitor's professional fees, disbursements are set by the organisations that charge them and cannot usually be negotiated. Your solicitor must list them separately on your bill under the Solicitors Act 1974.

No. Disbursements and solicitor fees are two separate categories of cost. Your solicitor's legal fees cover their professional time for handling the transaction, while disbursements are third-party charges passed on at cost. Under Section 67 of the Solicitors Act 1974, solicitors must itemise disbursements separately from their own fees. When comparing conveyancing quotes, check that both the legal fees and the estimated disbursements are clearly listed so you can compare on a like-for-like basis.

Both buyers and sellers pay their own disbursements, but the buyer's costs are significantly higher. Buyers pay for property searches, Land Registry registration, bankruptcy checks, Stamp Duty Land Tax and bank transfer fees, typically £300 to £800 before SDLT. Sellers mainly pay for title document copies (£14) and a mortgage redemption statement (£50 to £100), with total seller disbursements usually between £50 and £200.

Disbursements already paid to third parties are not refundable if your transaction collapses. Search fees paid to the local authority and other search providers have been spent on work already completed and cannot be reclaimed. This applies even under no sale no fee arrangements, which waive the solicitor's legal fees but not disbursements. Land Registry fees and Stamp Duty are only paid at completion, so these are never lost if the deal falls through beforehand.

For a typical freehold purchase in 2026, average conveyancing disbursements in the UK total between £300 and £800 before Stamp Duty Land Tax. Leasehold purchases add £200 to £600 in additional fees for notice of transfer, deed of covenant and management information packs. Seller disbursements are much lower, typically £50 to £200. The exact total depends on the property price, location and whether a mortgage is involved.

Yes. HM Land Registry fees are one of the most significant disbursements in any property purchase. Your solicitor pays the registration fee to the Land Registry on your behalf and passes the cost on to you. The fee follows a fixed scale based on the purchase price and ranges from £20 for properties up to £80,000 to £455 for properties valued between £801,001 and £1,000,000 on the current 2026 electronic fee scale.

A notice of transfer fee is charged by the freeholder to update their records when a leasehold property changes hands. The fee typically ranges from £100 to £250. If you are taking out a mortgage, you will also pay a separate notice of charge fee (usually the same range) to inform the freeholder that a lender has a financial interest in the property. Both fees are standard leasehold disbursements that freehold buyers do not pay.

Most disbursements paid to government bodies, such as Land Registry fees, Stamp Duty Land Tax and local authority search fees, are exempt from VAT. However, some third-party search providers charge VAT on their services, including certain environmental and drainage searches supplied by private companies. Your solicitor's own legal fees are subject to VAT at 20%. Always check whether quoted disbursement figures include or exclude VAT so you can compare costs accurately.