Conveyancing costs

The costs of conveyancing can differ greatly depending on the services you require, where you live, whether you are buying or selling, and the length and time it takes for the process to be finalised.
There is a general guide you can follow to ensure that you are not 'ripped off' by your conveyancer, but it is still recommended that those who are unsure of their conveyancer's credentials should research the licensing details of the conveyancer and check with Fair Trading authorities about legitimacy.

Conveyancing costs to expect

You can expect to pay these standard fees during conveyancing:

• Conveyancing fees - Get a quote for these upfront.
• Costs to search for property titles - These can be quite cheap, depending on where the property is located.
• Settlement Fees - These also extend to the real estate agency.
• Mortgage advisory fees - There are several fees that you may be hit with in order to get your mortgage set up and approved. These also depend on your bank or financial institution.
• Lands Department registration fees - These can be quite expensive depending on the length of time it takes to do the searching.
• Costs of proof of identity documents - If you don't have a birth certificate, you will have to go down to the Births, Deaths and Marriages office in your capital city and sort it out. These can cost up to $100 depending on the searches required and can take up to five working weeks to be cleared in some cases.
• Rates and utilities adjustments - This depends on when the rates have most recently been paid on the property you are purchasing.
• Building insurance costs.
• Pre-purchase building and pest inspection costs.
• Other costs.

Also remember to take into account the non-transactional costs such as hiring removalists to transport furniture to your new home.
The costs you incur will depend not only on who you end up choosing as a conveyancer, but the length of the settlement process, productivity of government departments and your real estate agent.
If you can, ask your conveyancer to help you work out the overall value of fees and costs before you begin the property transaction.