Conveyancing and property in London

What conveyancing and property work covers

Buying or selling a home means moving legal ownership from one person to another. We call that legal work conveyancing. GOV.UK’s selling a home overview says to choose a solicitor or conveyancer to do it. The records matter too, because HM Land Registry registers the ownership of land and property in England and Wales.

You have a choice of who acts for you. Citizens Advice says you can use a solicitor or, in England and Wales only, a licensed conveyancer. The Council of Licensed Conveyancers regulates licensed conveyancers, not the solicitors’ regulator. A third route is doing the conveyancing yourself, although Citizens Advice notes that this can be complicated.

Do you need a solicitor to buy or sell?

It depends on how the purchase is paid for. HomeOwners Alliance says you do not have to use a solicitor or licensed conveyancer if there is no mortgage. With a mortgage, however, doing it yourself is usually not an option.

A mortgage also affects which firm you can pick. HomeOwners Alliance says lenders generally work only with certain panel firms. If you choose a firm off the panel, you may have to pay the lender’s representation fees, typically around 200 GBP. As a result, a firm that looks cheaper on paper may not be, so ask your lender about its panel early.

The firm does not have to be local. HomeOwners Alliance says there is no need to use a local conveyancing solicitor these days. The one condition is that the solicitor must be able to work in the country where the property is, since Scotland has a different process. A conveyancing solicitor in London can therefore act for you wherever in England or Wales the property sits, as long as they are able to work there.

How conveyancing fees work

Published UK cost guides put the legal fee for buying a home at roughly £800 to £1,500. That excludes disbursements such as searches. The guides also differ on whether VAT is included, so ask whether a quote includes it.

For a typical freehold sale, the same kind of guide puts the legal fee at roughly £700 to £950 including VAT. Sales at higher values cost more. Because these are guide figures and not quotes, treat them as a rough frame and not as a price.

The SRA Transparency Rules require firms that publish that they offer residential conveyancing to individuals to publish cost information on their website. Under Rule 1, a firm must publish the total cost or, where that is not practicable, the average cost or a range. It must also set out the basis of its charges, including hourly rates or fixed fees. Likely disbursements, whether VAT applies and what the price includes must be stated too, with key stages and likely timescales. Rule 1 does not apply to publicly funded work.

A firm must make this information clear, accessible and prominent on its website. Stamp Duty and searches are separate costs and are not the solicitor’s fee. For more detail, see our guide to conveyancing costs in London. Two further guides cover the cost of buying a house with a solicitor and the cost of selling a house with a solicitor.

Stamp Duty and other costs that are not the solicitor’s fee

You pay Stamp Duty Land Tax to the government, not to your solicitor. GOV.UK says it starts to apply at £125,000 for residential properties. For first-time buyers it starts at £300,000, if the residential property is worth £500,000 or less. For non-residential land and property, it starts at £150,000. GOV.UK stated these figures on 12 November 2026.

This page gives no rates, because the thresholds alone do not tell you what you will owe. Read the Stamp Duty rates page on GOV.UK before you budget.

GOV.UK says you must send an SDLT return to HMRC and pay the tax within 14 days of completion. A solicitor, agent or conveyancer will usually file the return and pay on the buyer’s behalf, so ask your firm whether it will do so.

You can also look at the property yourself. GOV.UK says you can get information about registered property or land in England and Wales even if you do not own it. That includes the title register, the title number and the title plan, which shows location and boundaries.

Leasehold and lease extensions

With a leasehold property, you only own it for a fixed period set by a lease with the landlord, who is also called the freeholder. GOV.UK says ownership returns to the landlord when the lease ends. Most flats are leasehold, although houses can be too.

You can ask the landlord to extend your lease at any time. GOV.UK says you might be able to extend a flat lease by 90 years, or a house lease by 50 years, if you qualify. However, the cost increases significantly when 80 years or less remain on the lease, so check the length early.

The rules have changed. Regulations brought section 27 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 into force on 31 January 2025. It removed the two-year qualifying period for leasehold enfranchisement and lease extension claims. If you are searching for lease extension solicitors in London, that is useful background.

Buying a leasehold home adds work. A leasehold purchase usually adds roughly £300 to £500 to the legal fee, for the extra checks on the lease. The freeholder or managing agent charges separately for a management pack, so ask what that costs. The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) offers free, government-funded advice on leasehold problems, plus a lease extension calculator.

Quality marks to look for

The Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) is a recognised quality standard for SRA-regulated firms in residential conveyancing. It sets standards of competence, risk management and client service.

The Law Society says to check for accreditation by looking for its quality mark logos on websites, printed material or offices. You can also use Find a Solicitor and tick the “accredited specialists only” box. For the full check of a firm, use our check a solicitor guide.

Questions to ask a conveyancing solicitor

A short list of questions can save you surprises later. Ask what the quote covers and what it leaves out. Ask whether VAT is in the price, and whether the firm lists searches and other disbursements separately.

Ask how the firm will keep you updated on progress, and who will do the day-to-day work. If something goes wrong, the Legal Ombudsman resolves service-related complaints about regulated legal service providers. Costs, delay and poor information are among the most common complaint types, so settle those topics at the start.

Finding a conveyancer in your borough

Our borough pages are a place to begin, although you do not need a local conveyancing solicitor. For example, you can read the pages on this site for Greenwich, Redbridge and Havering.

If your home is further north or west, try Enfield or Hounslow. You can also browse the full list of London boroughs, or look across the other practice areas if your problem is wider than a move.