What are conveyancing disbursements in Australia?

Costs the conveyancer or solicitor pays on your behalf and recovers from you. NSW Fair Trading lists a title search, certificate fees from water, electricity, roads and school authorities, photocopying, registering the mortgage and registering the transfer.

Is stamp duty part of the conveyancing fee?

No. Stamp duty is a state tax on the transaction, not a charge by your conveyancer, and NSW Fair Trading lists it under other costs alongside inspections, insurance and rates. It is usually far larger than the professional fee and disbursements combined.

Should I ask for a fixed fee conveyancing quote?

It is worth asking, and the Queensland Government notes that some conveyancing solicitors charge a set price. A fixed fee only helps if you also know what falls outside it, so ask for the exclusions in writing alongside the number.

Guide

Inside an Australian conveyancing bill: fees, disbursements, other costs

Updated 2026-08-15

Comparing quotes goes wrong when one firm bundles searches and another does not. The regulator's own three way split is the cleanest way to line them up.

The disclosure you are entitled to

NSW Fair Trading states that "legal practitioners and conveyancers must disclose certain information to clients, generally before or when they are retained. This includes information about their costs for doing the conveyancing." Its practical advice follows: "Before the conveyancer or solicitor starts the work, ask for an itemised statement of the likely costs to give you a better idea of the total" (NSW Fair Trading). Queensland's guidance is the same in substance: "Before you appoint a solicitor, ask for a detailed quote for the work you want done."

One: the professional fee

Set by the firm. Fair Trading says only that "fees will vary between solicitors and conveyancers", and no Australian jurisdiction publishes a conveyancing scale, so we publish no range here either. What you can do is ask each firm for a fixed fee and for the list of circumstances that would take you outside it.

Two: disbursements

Costs the firm incurs on your behalf and passes through. Fair Trading's list is:

A title search
Certificate fees charged by authorities with responsibility for water, electricity, roads, schools and so on
Photocopying
Registering the mortgage
Registering the transfer

The certificate fees are the variable part, because the search pack a firm orders depends on the state, the council and the property. A strata unit needs records inspection that a freehold house does not.

Three: other costs

Not the firm's charges at all, but part of your settlement budget. Fair Trading lists building and pest inspections, a survey report, establishment of the mortgage, home building insurance, valuation fees, mortgage insurance, stamp duty and mortgage duty, strata or community scheme levies, council and water rates, and any outstanding land tax.

Stamp duty sits in this third bucket and dominates it. See transfer duty by state for the current NSW, Victorian and Queensland schedules, and note that Queensland abolished mortgage duty on 1 July 2008 while keeping a $5 duty on a transfer of a mortgage over Queensland land.

Five questions that make quotes comparable

Is this a fixed fee, and what specifically takes me outside it?
Which searches are included, and what is the estimate for the ones that are not?
Does the figure include GST?
Are registration fees for the transfer and the mortgage inside the quote or additional?
What is your estimate for total disbursements on a property like this, in this council area?

Costs disclosure duties, and the conduct rules behind them, are set by each state. Ask the regulator in your state if a firm will not put its costs in writing before starting work.