Legal costs are generally divided up into two things costs and fees. Simply put costs are the labour involved in the transaction and fees are the parts if you like a car mechanic analogy. So when people are referring to legal costs they are referring to the time spent reviewing documents, preparing documents, creating correspondence and responding to it, making telephone calls and the like.
Conveyancing fees, on the other hand are the fees payable, often to third parties for items. This could include legal searches, survey reports, building reports, pest reports, engineers certificates, certificates from the local councils and other authorities, certificates from government departments, fees payable to register documents, fees payable for duties and taxes, telephone call costs, costs of sending a fax, costs involved in storing your file information, bank fees related to your transaction, costs of using paper to create correspondence and documents, stamps, photocopying fees and the like. These items are all required for the conveyancing process but they are not part of the labour component. They are additional items. Often these are referred to as disbursements being money that has been disbursed on behalf of the client for the conveyancing transaction.
You will be surprised sometimes at how the cost of disbursements can add up. Even small things like photocopying can quickly become expensive if contracts need to be photocopied, especially if they need to be photocopied more than once! Before you get started with the conveyancing transaction you should ask for a written conveyancing quote. This will help you budget for the conveyancing fees that you will need to pay.
Often conveyancing fees are payable on account at the commencement of a conveyancing transaction. This is usually to ensure that the conveyancer has the funds to pay the relevant parties on your behalf. It is not unusual to be asked to pay a sum of money on account so the conveyancer can pay for these disbursements as and when they fall due on your behalf.
