When it comes to working with conveyancing quotes, there are a couple of different things you should understand. First of all, you will be charged legal fees. These are not costs incurred as part of the purchasing property process. They are not related to stamp duty, land, registration, or other disbursements. They are the costs that you will be expected to pay to the conveyancer for their time and assistance.
It’s important to recognise that there are two different types of legal fees, the estimates and fixed fees. Recognising that the two are different things and that conveyancer quotes will have one or the other is very important, so let’s take a look at the big differences between the two.
Estimates
Naturally, the first type of legal fees that you may be charged are estimates. It’s important to understand how estimates work in order to get the best results. As you can probably guess, estimates on conveyancer quotes are just estimates of how much the costs will be based on a number of different factors.
This can include things like the expected complexity of the sale, the time it will take, the location, the amount of legal work that we required, and other criteria. Estimates are not as practical a pricing for clients as fixed fees, because theoretically they can be lower, but they can also be much higher depending on the situation. For some people, rolling the dice in this fashion is too risky.
Fixed Fees
The other type of costs that you might run into on conveyancer quotes are the fixed fees. Essentially, this means that the prices are locked to a certain amount based on a property relevant to what group or category that fits into. So, internally, properties within a certain postcode might be all grouped as one category, and thus would all be charged the same amount.
Obviously, what decides fixed fees will vary from one conveyancer to the next, but fixed fees are generally more transparent. We operate on the fixed fee model, which means we might appear a little more expensive, but at the same time, there are no hidden costs.
Generally speaking, this is why people like fixed fees. It’s very easy to know exactly what you have to pay because it’s clearly displayed from the outset, so there are no hidden costs to ambush you with later on.
Final Thoughts
It’s often the case that some people prefer conveyancer quotes that have fixed fees over those that are estimates. Some people prefer estimates because there’s a chance the costs will be lower, but that’s not always the best strategy for everybody. There are clear pros and cons for both, so it’s important to take a look and find out what would be most preferable for you, as there will be plenty of companies that do each type of legal fees. You can still get a pretty good set of quotes with either method.