How much are conveyancing costs in Canberra

Buying real estate is always pretty thrilling, whether you’re moving out of home for the first time or snapping up that dream home. But there is a long list of upfront costs that can be easy to overlook when buying or selling property. To avoid surprises at settlement, it’s essential to understand all the fees involved, including conveyancing fees. If you’re selling your house in the ACT or NSW, you will use a solicitor. This blog takes you through conveyancing fees in Canberra. 

Common Property Purchase Costs (Excluding the Property Price)

Aside from the cost of the home itself, buyers and sellers need to budget for:

• Stamp duty: This is the tax on property transfers. There are changes to the ACT stamp duty every financial year. 
• Conveyancing fees: These are the professional fees for the legal work involved in transferring property ownership. 
• Disbursement costs: This includes council rates and title searches. 
• Various administration fees, including mortgage establishment fees
• Removalist or moving costs
• Any fees associated with your rental, i.e., lease break fees

Faced with this list, it can be tempting to try and cut costs by DIYing where you can.

Some things, however, are better left to the professionals, like conveyancing. 

What is Conveyancing?

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property ownership from one party to another. It involves preparing, reviewing, and lodging legal documents, as well as conducting property and title searches to ensure everything is in order. The rate of transfer duty depends on the date of your transaction. The ACT government has a conveyance duty calculator that you can use to get started. 

While it’s legal to do your own conveyancing, the process is complex and mistakes can be costly. Getting professional support means you’re less likely to face delays, disputes, or unexpected issues that could derail the settlement. 

Keep in mind that a conveyancing solicitor is different from a real estate agent. An agent helps you with the entire property transaction, while conveyancing is related to the legal side of transferring property ownership. 

How Much are Conveyancing Fees?

In Canberra, the average cost for conveyancing sits between $1,000 and $2,200, depending on the transaction. Some professionals charge a flat fee, while others work on a sliding scale based on the property value.

The total conveyancing fees generally include:

1. Solicitor Fees: The fixed or variable cost for the solicitor’s time and legal services.
2. Disbursements: Costs paid to third parties on your behalf, which are then passed on to you. These typically include:
• A title search, which checks that the property belongs to the person who is selling it, and that there are no restrictions that would impede the sale
• Compliance certificate and search fees charged by government authorities
• Registration of mortgage fee
• Registration of transfer fee
• Compliance or zoning checks
• Miscellaneous items like photocopying or postage
  

Always ask for an itemised quote upfront to avoid surprises. Some conveyancers roll all their services into a single conveyancing fee, while others charge a smaller flat fee and additional costs for anything that falls outside the narrow definition of a ‘standard conveyance’. Compare your options because the cut-price fee may not end up cheaper in the long run.

There are a few reasons for the variance in conveyancing fees. The conveyancing cost covers both the professional service fee and any searches that need to be done.  The amount and types of searches solicitors need to do can vary for a number of reasons, such as:

• Variations in legislation and processes between different states
• Whether your property is a house, land or apartment/unit
• If your property is strata or community title

All of these factors decide the cost of conveyancing fees for buying a house.

What Does a Conveyancer Do?

A conveyance solicitor will assist with many steps of the property transfer process. This includes pre-and post-settlement tasks. 

Pre-settlement tasks

• Helping draft the contract for sale, if you’re the seller, or advising on its terms and conditions if you’re the buyer
• Including the building and pest inspection reports in the contract
• If you are buying into a strata scheme, examining the strata inspection report, minutes and financial information
• Checking for caveats or liens on the title that may impede settlement
• Conducting government searches to identify easements or other restrictions
• Conducting due diligence to discover any undisclosed adverse information. This could include building work compliance, checks on the heritage status of a property, etc.
• Exchanging the contract of sale
• Checking for outstanding rates, water arrears, including land tax
• Liaising with the relevant stakeholders and attending to the settlement.
• Facilitating the stamp duty payments
• Obtaining readings for the property for the seller, for example, a water meter reading, so amounts can be adjusted between the seller and the buyer
• Calculating adjustments for council and water rates between the parties

We often see instances where the parties have an older report, and the information has expired. Conveyancing solicitors have the latest reports so that they know the information is up to date, and nothing has happened to the title in the meantime.

At settlement and post-settlement

• Overseeing the change of title
• Liaising with banks to schedule settlement and ensure all loan documentation has been provided
• Attending the settlement either virtually or in person
• Completing any final checks before settlement
  

Every transaction is unique. The more complex the property, the more important it is to have an experienced professional by your side.

What Could Go Wrong?

Lots of things. You might miss a compliance certificate, which needs to be issued before settlement, and the bank won’t provide funds. There might be an error in a report, or it may have expired. Or maybe there is something hidden in the report that you might not notice, but trained professionals will pick up.

You also need to make sure that the seller is actually the seller. Obtaining a title from a fraudulent sale can open up all sorts of problems. Despite everyone’s best intentions, sometimes conveyances become complicated. It’s not always obvious from the outset which ones they’ll be.

Where the property settlement is attached to a dispute, like a complicated divorce, it can get protracted. Perhaps the husband and wife don’t agree on selling the house. Another case would be where there is a string of settlements that have to be timed to settle in a particular order, and then one of them gets held up.

For these reasons, we recommend talking to a conveyancing solicitor before the contract is signed. You want advice on your contract terms ahead of time so that it reflects what you’re selling, or you understand what you’re buying. You don't want to settle and then discover that there’s an unapproved structure on site, like a deck or a shed, or an easement that stops you from building your dream home.

How to Choose a Conveyancer

Need a conveyancing solicitor? Here’s how to choose the right one for you.

• Ask friends or family for recommendations. Nothing beats real-life experience for an accurate picture of how well someone performs.
• Ask your mortgage broker and/or real estate agent for recommendations. They deal with conveyancers every day and will know which ones are easy to deal with and will be suitable for your needs. This is one of the key questions to ask a real estate agent.
• Check the public licensing register in your state to make sure they're licensed and registered.
• Ask them in detail about their costs. Make sure you know what their fee covers and what it does not, how they deal with search fees and what they estimate the bottom line to be.
• Check that they have experience with the type of property you want to buy or sell. An off-plan development requires different expertise than a commercial transaction or established residential, for example.

Conveyancing costs are a small price to pay for peace of mind in one of the biggest financial decisions you will make. Contact Independent Property Group for recommendations.