Cost of Conveyancing?

Could anyone who's sold a property in, say, the last 12 months or so advise how much they paid for conveyancing please? I'm in NSW, but information from any state would give a guideline. Maybe WA is a bit different?

We've been quoted just over $3000 by the local (country town - no fancy CBD overheads) solicitor (plus disbursements, that's just his fee only), but online searches suggest a range of $1000 (for a conveyancer?) to $2000 (for a lawyer?) might be reasonable.

Nothing unusual or complicated about our situation AFAIK. It's Torrens title (is there any old system title left?); husband and wife as joint tenants (no family trusts or companies to complicate matters); property is unencumbered (no mortgages to handle or bank to deal with); standard REI/Law Society contract (we haven't asked for any special conditions or clauses); no land tax applicable (exempt primary residence); I've obtained and supplied the we-are-Australian ATO certificates; payment on settlement to one account only (no multiple cheques/transfers to handle); council and water rates are up to date (so nothing to chase there).

So am I living in the past - easy to do when you're retired - or is this a bit over the top?

Thanks,

Mark

Definitely too expensive Mark. Should be around $1000-1500 I think, using a conveyancer - it's all they do. Doesn't matter where the conveyancer is - they can always express post documents to you for signing.

My wife works in RE in the Blue Mountains NSW and she says between $700-1000 is typical for a house sale conveyancing.

So you might want to get another quote!

We paid around $1000 last time we sold a house. That was 3-4 years ago.

We are in the process of buying and selling in Vic. Using a solicitor it's costing us about $1300 each way. Conveyancers are usually a bit cheaper.
TM

We sold and bought just over 12 months ago. It was about $800 for each transaction plus disbursements through a solicitor. Both transactions were straight forward as we owned the one sold and therefore paid cash for the new place.
Hope that helps

It was a painless process as we had to go to the office only once - to sign the papers which took all of 10 minutes.

Not that recent - 2003 - but i handled the conveyancing for my mother's house in South Grafton, which was old title, myself from Queensland. All the documents are available online and i filled in the blanks and submitted them to the appropriate court in Sydney. I have no legal experience but have experience of lots of Government forms. OH

We did a sale and purchase last February and used the same conveyancer for both transactions.
The fees were as follows:
Sale: $930
Purchase: $1050

Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by markkr

Could anyone who's sold a property in, say, the last 12 months or so advise how much they paid for conveyancing please? I'm in NSW, but information from any state would give a guideline. Maybe WA is a bit different?

We've been quoted just over $3000 by the local (country town - no fancy CBD overheads) solicitor (plus disbursements, that's just his fee only),

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that seems a tad on the very high side . Our cost to use a solicitor with "fancy CBD overheads" was about 80% of that

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Nothing unusual or complicated about our situation AFAIK. It's Torrens title (is there any old system title left?); husband and wife as joint tenants (no family trusts or companies to complicate matters); property is unencumbered (no mortgages to handle or bank to deal with); standard REI/Law Society contract (we haven't asked for any special conditions or clauses); no land tax applicable (exempt primary residence); I've obtained and supplied the we-are-Australian ATO certificates; payment on settlement to one account only (no multiple cheques/transfers to handle); council and water rates are up to date (so nothing to chase there).

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you'll still need a Land tax clearance certificate to show the purchaser that there is no land tax owing.
also, although council and water rates may be up to date there is still a proportionate process for the period before / after the transfer of title.

If you are not happy with the cost you can do it yourself.

I have done the conveyancing for 6 sales/purchases myself.

I usually purchase the conveyancing kit from the Law Consumers Association. It includes back up advice from a solicitor if you feel you need it. On average, I have made one phone call for advice per transaction.

There is one proviso: The last one I did was November 2017. There has been a massive change since then to fully online settlements. Maybe that has made it more difficult, but it’s equally likely it has made it easier to DIY.

FWIW: the first one I did was back in 87, and it was a lot of footwork around town to all the agencies, and to the actual settlement. Quite a lot of legwork. By the latest one all the preparatory work was done online so very quick, but we still chose to attend settlement, register the transfer and pay stamp duty in person - not really necessary but I just wanted to see it all done and dusted in person before we left Sydney.

I guess in terms of time involved : preparatory work typically 4 hours. Maybe 3 for a professional.
Settlement and later : 2 hours. Usually done by a settlement agent.
So whatever that is worth to you.

Plus you still have to pay for the searches. I think it was average $14 per search.

Plus the kit cost about $120.

So I think $1000 by a conveyancer is probably better then doing it yourself.

Cheers
Arron

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Originally Posted by ian

that seems a tad on the very high side . Our cost to use a solicitor with "fancy CBD overheads" was about 80% of that

you'll still need a Land tax clearance certificate to show the purchaser that there is no land tax owing.
also, although council and water rates may be up to date there is still a proportionate process for the period before / after the transfer of title.

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Actually, Ian, it’s the purchaser who should get the land tax clearance certificate, and if it’s not clear asks the vendor to clear it and provide the proof therein. The purchaser should never, ever trust the vendor, that’s asking to be ripped off. Mindset.

We have bought and sold several times over the last 20 years and have used a conveyancer and also done it ourselves. The last sale was 5 years ago. From memory the highest amount we have paid would be circa $800.

Hi, I am a retired Solicitor in NSW and the going rates around the traps is around the $1,000.00 mark (plus disbursements) for a Torrens Title sale and/or purchase. The quote at $3,000.00 seems to be on the high side of the equation. Shop around and get some other quotes. In fact the electronic process has made it faster and easier.

Regards

Router

DIY is a good cost saving but I had an issue where the solicitor for the buyers did everything he could to make settlement fail. Ended ok after I contacted the buyers and pointed out the paperwork their solicitor stuffed up (he was telling the buyers it was me who stuffed up) that would have prevented settlement going ahead. But still too stressful.
When we bought again I just paid to have someone do it.

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Originally Posted by Arron

Actually, Ian, it’s the purchaser who should get the land tax clearance certificate, and if it’s not clear asks the vendor to clear it and provide the proof therein. The purchaser should never, ever trust the vendor, that’s asking to be ripped off.

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even with vendor disclosure?
I don't get your last point re trusting the vendor in respect to the land tax clearance certificate. The certificate is issued by State Revenue, not the vendor. I would have thought that privacy issues would mean that only the vendor could ask for a clearance certificate. Is your experience different?

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Originally Posted by ian

even with vendor disclosure?
I don't get your last point re trusting the vendor in respect to the land tax clearance certificate. The certificate is issued by State Revenue, not the vendor. I would have thought that privacy issues would mean that only the vendor could ask for a clearance certificate. Is your experience different?

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From the Purchaser Manual, as part of the Law Consumers Society Conveyancing Kit as purchased in 2017:

The enquiries which must be ordered by a purchaser are: Section 603 certificate from the local council for outstanding rates on the land Section 66 from the water authority for outstanding water rates Section 47 from the OSR for outstanding land tax, go to 4.07 for more detail

Section 4.07 is rather wordy so I wont quote it here, but says same thing.

I just looked at the Vendor disclosure section and there is nothing on land tax there. Its too bulky to copy here, however.

Its a valid point about privacy, but when you think about it I can (and in a conveyancing situation, must) do a title search on the vendors property, which reveals information no less private. Therefore, if I have the address on any property I can do a title search and find out owners, finance details, caveats etc.

Of course theres nothing stopping a vendor getting a land tax cert, and handing it to the purchaser, but a prudent purchaser would still do the search anyway. What I meant by mindset. Rely on your own enquiries, and end up with no regrets.

Thank you everyone who responded; it confirmed my first impression and I queried the lawyer.

I would have thought the work is the work, but no, there is a scale based on property value:

Attachment 438768Attachment 438769

Anyway, the solicitor has reduced his fee to $2000 + GST, which makes it comparable I think to what Ian paid (and possibly for the same reason?).

We were planning to get him to update our wills (last done many years ago when the kids were still minors) and do the conveyancing for our downsizing purchase, but will now look elsewhere.

Take home message? Always enquire about professional fees upfront.

Cheers, and thanks again to all who made the effort to respond.

Mark

Not too sure where the scale comes from but in NSW the use of a scale to determine costs has not been in use for well over 10 years and most likely getting up towards 20 years. That maybe an internal practice scale but still seems to be high.

Regards

Router

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Originally Posted by markkr

Thank you everyone who responded; it confirmed my first impression and I queried the lawyer.

I would have thought the work is the work, but no, there is a scale based on property value:

Attachment 438768Attachment 438769

Anyway, the solicitor has reduced his fee to $2000 + GST, which makes it comparable I think to what Ian paid (and possibly for the same reason?).

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as I mentioned, our sale used a solicitor with "CBD style overheads". Even then that scale is above what we paid.

I think your solicitor is having a lend.