Solicitor Fees for Selling a House: What You Will Pay in 2026

Selling a house comes with legal costs that most homeowners only think about once they've accepted an offer. On average, solicitor fees for selling a house in the UK cost between £800 and £1,500 + VAT for the legal work itself, plus £150 to £350 in disbursements, the third-party costs your solicitor pays on your behalf. Altogether, most sellers pay between £1,100 and £2,200 including VAT and disbursements combined. This guide breaks down exactly what you're paying for, how those costs change based on your property type and region, and where you can genuinely cut costs without cutting corners. Figures in this guide are current as of July 2026 and reflect typical residential conveyancing quotes across England, Wales and Scotland.

The final figure you pay depends heavily on three things: whether your property is freehold or leasehold, where in the country you're selling, and whether your solicitor charges a fixed fee or an hourly rate. A straightforward freehold sale in the North of England can cost under £1,000 all in, while a leasehold flat sale in London can push past £2,000 once management packs and freeholder liaison work are added. Understanding these variables before you instruct a solicitor means you won't be caught out by a quote that looks cheap upfront but grows once disbursements and add-ons are included.

Here's how average fees break down by the type of sale you're completing. These are the headline figures solicitors quote before VAT, with disbursements added separately. For a full breakdown of typical conveyancing fees across buying and selling, see our complete guide.

Freehold sales are the simplest and cheapest to conduct because there's no lease to review, no management company to contact and no service charge accounts to check. Leasehold sales cost more because your solicitor has to request and review a management pack, confirm ground rent and service charge positions, and often liaise directly with a freeholder or managing agent who can take weeks to respond. Remortgage-linked sales, where you're selling one property while your mortgage is being redeemed and a new one set up elsewhere, sit in between because your solicitor handles an extra redemption statement and Land Registry discharge, but without the full complexity of a lease. Always ask whether the quote you've been given already reflects your property type. A generic "from £750" advert rarely applies to a leasehold flat.

Legal fees

The core legal fee covers the actual conveyancing work: drafting and reviewing the contract pack, obtaining copies of the title deeds from the Land Registry, answering enquiries raised by the buyer's solicitor, preparing a completion statement, and handling the exchange and completion process itself. If you still have a mortgage, your solicitor also arranges to redeem it from the sale proceeds and confirms the discharge with the Land Registry. Where stamp duty land tax forms are relevant to a linked purchase, your solicitor typically prepares and submits these too, though this is billed as part of a combined sale-and-purchase instruction rather than the sale alone.

Disbursements

Disbursements are the fixed, third-party costs your solicitor pays on your behalf and passes on to you at cost, without markup if you've chosen a reputable firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). These are separate from the legal fee and appear as a distinct line on your final bill.

• Land Registry official copies: £6 to £12 to obtain your current title register and title plan, priced according to the Land Registry's published fee scale.
• Bank transfer fee: £30 to £45 to send sale proceeds securely, covering the CHAPS transfer used to move large sums same-day.
• ID verification and anti-money laundering checks: £15 to £30 per seller to meet regulatory requirements.
• Management information pack (leasehold only): £150 to £400 charged by the freeholder or managing agent to confirm service charge, ground rent and building insurance details.
• Mortgage redemption statement: £50 to £100 requested from your existing lender to confirm the exact payoff figure.

Always ask for a full conveyancing disbursements breakdown alongside any quote. Firms that advertise a very low legal fee sometimes recover the difference through inflated disbursement handling charges.

Selling a leasehold property typically costs £300 to £600 more in solicitor fees than selling a freehold home of similar value, and it's one of the most common surprises for first-time sellers. The extra cost isn't padding, it reflects genuinely more work. Your solicitor must obtain and review the management pack, check the remaining lease term for any issues that could affect the buyer's mortgage, confirm ground rent review clauses, and often chase a freeholder or managing agent who has no direct deadline pressure to respond quickly. Some management companies take three to six weeks to issue a pack, which can hold up your entire sale timeline.

If your leasehold conveyancing involves a share of freehold, additional company searches and director confirmations, or a lease with fewer than 80 years remaining, expect fees at the higher end of the range and factor in extra time. Freehold sellers avoid all of this, which is why a straightforward freehold transaction remains the cheapest and fastest type of sale to conduct from a legal perspective.

Solicitor fees for selling a house vary significantly by region, largely driven by local overheads, property values and market competition rather than the amount of legal work involved. A conveyancer in central London faces higher office costs and often higher professional indemnity insurance premiums than one working from a regional high street, and those costs get reflected in client quotes. Property value itself also plays a role: fees are sometimes tiered so that higher-value sales in London and the South East attract a slightly higher legal fee to reflect increased liability.

The table below shows typical ranges by region, including VAT, for a standard freehold sale. Leasehold sales should add £300 to £600 on top of these figures in every region.

Don't assume a London-based solicitor is your only option if you're selling a London property. Many online and regional conveyancers now handle sales anywhere in England and Wales remotely, often at rates closer to Midlands or Northern pricing, without any disadvantage to service quality.

Most of what you pay your solicitor is settled on completion day, deducted directly from your sale proceeds before the remaining balance reaches your bank account. This is one of the most useful things to understand early, because it means you rarely need to find large sums of cash upfront while your sale is progressing.

The payment timeline generally follows four stages:

• Instruction: Some solicitors ask for a small payment on account, typically £100 to £300, to cover ID checks and the initial file opening before searches or drafting begin.
• During the sale: No further payment is usually required while contracts are being drafted and enquiries answered, though some firms invoice disbursements as they're incurred.
• Exchange of contracts: The sale becomes legally binding and a completion date is fixed, but fees are still not usually due at this point for a sale.
• Completion: Your solicitor deducts the full legal fee, VAT and all disbursements from the sale proceeds, then transfers the net balance to you, usually the same day.

If you're also buying, the same solicitor typically nets off your sale proceeds against what you owe on the purchase, so only the difference moves. For a detailed walkthrough of this final stage, see our guide to exchange and completion.

Almost all residential conveyancing solicitors now quote a fixed fee for selling a house, and this has become the industry standard for good reason. A fixed fee tells you exactly what you'll pay from the outset, regardless of how many enquiries the buyer's solicitor raises or how long the process takes. This predictability matters because conveyancing timelines can stretch from eight weeks to six months depending on the chain, and an hourly rate arrangement leaves you exposed to that uncertainty.

Hourly rate billing still exists, mostly among traditional high street firms and for unusually complex sales, such as those involving disputed boundaries, missing title documents or contentious probate. Rates typically range from £150 to £350 per hour depending on the solicitor's seniority. For a standard residential sale, this model rarely benefits the seller and can result in a final bill considerably higher than a fixed-fee quote for the same work.

• Check what's excluded: Some fixed fees exclude leasehold work, indemnity policies or additional enquiries beyond a set number, effectively becoming hourly rate top-ups.
• Get it in writing: A genuine fixed fee should be confirmed in your solicitor's terms of engagement letter before you proceed.

Solicitor fees for selling a house are one of the few costs in the moving process you can meaningfully shop around for, and the difference between the cheapest and most expensive quote for the same job is often £300 to £500. A little comparison work before you instruct anyone can make a real dent in your total selling costs.

• Get at least three quotes: Compare like-for-like fixed-fee quotes that include VAT and disbursements, not just the headline legal fee.
• Check exactly what's included: Ask whether bank transfer fees, ID checks and management pack handling are covered in the quoted price or charged as extras later.
• Ask about no-sale-no-fee: If you're at all worried about your buyer pulling out, ask whether the firm offers a no-sale-no-fee arrangement at no extra cost.
• Consider an online conveyancer: Online and hybrid firms often charge less than traditional high street solicitors for straightforward sales, with the same regulatory protections.
• Bundle your sale and purchase: If you're buying and selling at the same time, many firms offer a combined discount for instructing them on both transactions.

Use our guide to choose the best conveyancing solicitor for your sale, and see our guide to cheap conveyancing for a fuller look at where genuine savings are available without risking service quality.

No sale no fee conveyancing means you only pay your solicitor's legal fee if your sale completes. If your buyer pulls out, or the chain collapses for any reason outside your control, you won't be charged for the legal work already carried out on the sale itself. This arrangement has become widespread precisely because a meaningful proportion of house sales fall through before completion, often for reasons entirely unconnected to the seller.

It's important to understand what's still payable even under a no-sale-no-fee arrangement. Disbursements already incurred, such as Land Registry copy fees or a management pack ordered on your behalf, are usually non-refundable because your solicitor has already paid a third party for them. No sale no fee makes the most sense if you're selling in a longer chain, buying a new build with a flexible completion date, or simply want cost certainty while your sale is still uncertain. Read our full guide to no sale no fee conveyancing for how it compares with fixed-fee arrangements.

Solicitor fees are only one part of the total bill you'll face when selling a house, and it's worth seeing the whole picture before you set a moving budget. On a typical £300,000 sale, legal fees and disbursements usually account for well under half of your total selling costs, with estate agent commission taking the largest share.

Estate agent fees remain the biggest single cost for most sellers, typically 1% to 1.5% + VAT of the sale price under a sole agency agreement, though this can be negotiated, especially with online agents charging a flat fee instead. An Energy Performance Certificate is a legal requirement if you don't already have a valid one, and removals costs scale with how much you're moving and the distance involved. If you still have a mortgage, check your lender's exit or discharge fee, sometimes called a "mortgage exit administration fee," which is separate from your solicitor's redemption work and payable directly to the lender. For a complete breakdown of every cost involved, see our full guide to the cost of selling a house.