UK legal fees index
Legal Fee Index is the UK’s transparent legal-fees comparison index, built around the SRA Price Transparency Rules in force since December 2018. We capture every regulated UK solicitor firm’s published price-transparency disclosure and surface it like-for-like by service area, location and firm.
Coverage growing — firms are being indexed continuously.
UK conveyancing fees typically run £900–£2,500 for a freehold purchase, fixed-fee probate from £750, and most UK solicitors publish their prices on their websites under the SRA Transparency Rules in force since December 2018. Legal Fee Index captures each disclosure and lets you compare firms like-for-like.
The SRA Price Transparency requirement covers eight specific consumer and business services. Legal Fee Index publishes the disclosed price for each, captured directly from each firm’s website.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority Transparency Rules came into force on 6 December 2018, after the Competition and Markets Authority’s 2016 legal services market study found that consumers struggled to compare prices and quality across firms. The SRA Rules require every regulated firm to publish prices, service descriptions, indicative timelines, and team experience for the specific consumer-facing services listed above.
Compliance is monitored by the SRA and firms found in breach are subject to disciplinary action. Legal Fee Index treats each firm’s own published disclosure as the source of truth, with the source URL preserved alongside every captured row.
UK residential conveyancing fees typically run between £900 and £2,500 for a freehold purchase, with leasehold properties at the upper end and London transactions higher again. The figure quoted by the firm is the legal fee only — the total cost includes mandatory disbursements (Land Registry fee, search fees, electronic ID checks, and Stamp Duty Land Tax which is set by HMRC), so a like-for-like comparison should isolate the firm's own fee from the disbursements. Legal Fee Index captures each firm's SRA Price Transparency disclosure and surfaces the firm fee, the disclosed disbursements, and VAT inclusion separately.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority Transparency Rules came into force on 6 December 2018 and require every regulated UK law firm to publish prices and service descriptions on its website for eight specific consumer and business services: residential conveyancing (purchase and sale), uncontested probate where all assets are in the UK, motoring offences (summary offences), immigration applications excluding asylum, employment tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal (separately for employee and employer representation), debt recovery for businesses up to £100,000, and licensing applications for business premises. The disclosed information must include the firm's costs, disbursements, an estimate of the timeline, the experience of the team handling the matter, and whether the figures include VAT.
UK probate fees vary materially by firm and complexity. For an uncontested estate where all assets are in the UK and no inheritance tax is due, fixed-fee 'grant only' applications start from around £750 to £1,500, while full estate administration typically runs as a percentage of the estate (commonly 1.5%–4% plus VAT) or a fee range disclosed by the firm. Disbursements separate from the firm's fee include the Probate Registry fee and any required statutory advertisements. Legal Fee Index captures each firm's published probate disclosure and the pricing model used (fixed, range, percentage, or hourly).
Yes — under the Solicitors Regulation Authority Transparency Rules, in force since December 2018, every UK solicitor firm regulated by the SRA must publish prices and service descriptions on its website for eight defined consumer and business services. Compliance is monitored by the SRA and firms found in breach are subject to disciplinary action. Firms outside the eight regulated areas may publish prices voluntarily but are not under the same obligation.
Because the SRA Transparency Rules mandate the same disclosure structure across every regulated firm, like-for-like comparison is reliable for the eight services in scope. Legal Fee Index aggregates each firm's published disclosure into a single index and surfaces the pricing model (fixed fee, fee range, hourly rate, or mixed), the firm's own fee, the typical disbursements, VAT inclusion, and any caveats the firm publishes — by service, by location, and by firm.
A short email each month with median legal fees, regional movements, and what changed across the published price-transparency disclosures.
Read the full data documentation: /about/data.
Legal Fee Index is independent. We have no commercial relationships with law firms or referral platforms. Every published price is sourced directly from each firm’s own SRA-mandated price- transparency disclosure with the source URL recorded for audit.