Conveyancing fees in Queensland: fees, outlays and your rights

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A conveyancing quote looks like one number. The bill that follows it is two lists. One is what the law practice charges for its own work. The other is money the practice has paid to somebody else on the client's behalf: the titles registry, search providers, the settlement platform. The two lists follow different rules, and the Legal Profession Act 2007 treats them differently when it decides whether a client must be given written information about costs.

Because conveyancing in Queensland is done by law practices, every conveyancing client has the rights the Act gives to any client of a lawyer. This guide explains the two parts of the bill, how fixed fees and itemised billing work, what Titles Queensland charges from 1 July 2026, when costs disclosure is required and what it contains, what a costs agreement is, and how an itemised bill and a costs assessment can be requested, with the time limit for each. It quotes no firm's prices and recommends none.

Source: Legal Services Commission, legal costs fact sheet and regulatory guides dated 1 March 2024. Both thresholds exclude GST and disbursements.

Two kinds of money on one bill

The Legal Services Commission, the regulator that handles complaints about Queensland lawyers, separates the two in its regulatory guide on legal costs, outlays, disbursements and billing, dated 1 March 2024.

Legal costs are the amounts a practice charges for its legal services. The guide says they are recoverable under a valid costs agreement, under an applicable scale of costs, or according to the fair and reasonable value of the services.

Outlays and disbursements are described as amounts that have been paid out on a client's behalf to some other person or entity. On a conveyance these are the search fees, the registration fees and the charge made by the electronic settlement platform.

Transfer duty is a third thing again. The Queensland Law Society's brochure on buying or selling a residential property lists arranging the stamping of the contract among the tasks a buyer's solicitor carries out. The duty itself is a State tax and is not a charge for anyone's services.

The distinction matters for more than tidiness. The disclosure thresholds in the Act are measured on legal costs alone, leaving out GST and disbursements. A client comparing quotes is comparing two different things if one quote includes outlays and another does not.

Professional fees: a set price or an itemised account

There are two common ways of pricing the professional part of a conveyance.

The first is a fixed fee. The Queensland Government's page on appointing a solicitor, last updated on 22 March 2023, tells home buyers that some conveyancing solicitors may charge a set price, and advises asking for a detailed quote for the work before appointing anyone. The Commission's regulatory guide on costs disclosure and costs agreements describes fixed fee costs agreements as agreements in which the practice and the client settle a fixed price for the legal services before those services are supplied.

The second is charging by the work done, recorded item by item. A bill prepared this way lists each task and the amount charged for it.

The two are not sealed off from each other. The Commission's guide says fixed fee agreements are not mutually exclusive with other types of costs agreement. An agreement may fix a price for a defined scope of work and provide another basis of charging for work outside that scope. What falls inside the fixed price, and what would be charged separately, is therefore the first thing to read in any fixed-fee offer.

Outlays: what the firm pays out for the client

On a purchase the outlays are mostly searches and registration. The Queensland Law Society's brochure says a buyer's solicitor checks the title, the plan, easements, caveats and encumbrances, and conducts the recommended searches. Each search is bought from a registry, a council or another authority, and each has a price set by that body. On a sale the list is shorter.

The settlement platform is another outlay. Where a settlement is completed electronically, the operator of the settlement network charges for the transaction, and that charge passes through the practice's bill to the client. How electronic settlement works is a separate subject; for this guide it is enough to know the fee belongs in the outlays list.

The Commission's guide sets a simple test for this part of the bill. Actual disbursements may be charged, provided proper costs disclosure has been given. The amount on the bill should be the amount paid out.

What Titles Queensland charges from 1 July 2026

The largest outlay on most purchases is the fee to register the transfer, and it is public. Titles Queensland notified its revised fees in Titles Alert 238 on 19 May 2026, effective 1 July 2026, and published a schedule for the 2026-27 financial year.

The transfer fee rises with the price. A worked example, using illustrative figures: a single lot sold for $750,000. The price exceeds $180,000 by $570,000, which is 57 steps of $10,000. Fifty-seven steps at $46.56 come to $2,653.92. Added to the base fee of $248.04, the lodgement fee on that reading of the schedule is $2,901.96. Titles Queensland publishes a fee calculator for actual transactions, and the schedule contains items and conditions this example does not cover.

A figure of that size on a bill is not the practice's fee. It is paid to the registry and would be the same whichever practice lodged the transfer.

Mark-ups, sundries and what must be disclosed

The Commission's guide addresses two habits of billing directly.

The first is charging more for an outlay than it cost. According to the guide, a practice cannot do so unless it obtains the client's informed consent. That requires disclosing the amount of the mark-up or surcharge, in dollars or as a percentage, in writing and in plain English, before or at the time the client retains the practice, and in a way that is clearly visible.

The second is the line for general office expenses. The guide treats items such as "postage and petties" and "sundries" as standard business overheads. It says they should be billed only if they are attributable to the matter and are capable of being, and have been, accurately costed.

Read together, the two points give a client a way to read the outlays list. Each line should correspond to something paid to a third party for that file, at the amount paid, unless a surcharge was disclosed in writing at the start.

Costs disclosure: the $1,500 and $3,000 thresholds

Part 3.4 of the Legal Profession Act deals with legal costs, and its disclosure rules are summarised by the Commission on its public pages and in its fact sheet on legal costs.

Disclosure is required when legal costs are likely to exceed $1,500, not counting GST and disbursements. Below that figure no disclosure is required. If a matter that started below the threshold later looks likely to exceed it, the practice must then disclose.

A second threshold applies at $3,000, again excluding GST and disbursements. Between the two figures, the practice may give either an abbreviated or a detailed disclosure. Once the practice becomes aware that costs are likely to exceed $3,000, a detailed disclosure is mandatory, even if an abbreviated one was given earlier.

Disclosure must be made as soon as practicable after the practice is retained. An abbreviated disclosure may be given orally, but must then be confirmed in writing. A detailed disclosure must be in writing and, in the words of the Commission's guide, expressed in plain language.

Because the thresholds leave out disbursements, the registration fee in the example above does not count towards them. Whether a particular conveyance requires disclosure depends on the professional fee alone, and this guide gives no typical figure for that.

The guide lists limited circumstances in which disclosure is not required: costs below the $1,500 threshold; a client who received disclosure within the previous 12 months, has waived the right in writing, and whose principal at the practice has decided further disclosure is not needed; certain sophisticated clients; and a client who will not be required to pay the legal costs.

What a disclosure contains

The two forms of disclosure carry different amounts of information.

A detailed disclosure also names who in the practice the client can speak to about costs and states that the law of Queensland applies to the legal costs. Where the practice will engage another law practice, such as a barrister, the disclosure covers that practice's costs as well, though this is rare on a conveyance.

The obligation continues after the first letter. The Commission describes an ongoing costs disclosure obligation throughout the matter: the practice must disclose in writing any substantial change to anything already disclosed, as soon as reasonably practicable. Its guide adds that regularly issuing invoices that add up to more than the estimate may not be enough, and that practices should not rely on clients working out the change from invoices.

The costs agreement

A costs agreement is, in the Commission's words, a contract for the payment of legal costs. It is not always required, and it may also deal with other rights and responsibilities between the client and the practice.

The Commission's guide sets out the formal requirements. A costs agreement must be written or evidenced in writing. It must state that it is an offer to enter into a costs agreement, that it may be accepted in writing or by conduct, and the type of conduct that will amount to acceptance. The guide says agreements that do not meet these requirements are void.

Acceptance by conduct deserves a moment's attention on a conveyance, where everything moves quickly. If the document says that continuing to give instructions will count as acceptance, a client who sends the contract and asks the practice to proceed has accepted the agreement without signing anything.

An agreement can be challenged. If a costs agreement is not fair or reasonable, the guide says a client may apply to a court or to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to have it set aside. Among the matters considered are whether the practice gave proper costs disclosure and the circumstances and conduct of the parties when and after the agreement was made.

The bill: lump sum, itemised, and the 28 days

The Commission's fact sheet describes two kinds of bill. A lump sum bill describes the work done in general terms and specifies the legal costs. An itemised bill states in detail the work the lawyer did and the amount charged for each unit of it.

A client who receives a lump sum bill may ask for an itemised one. The practice must comply within 28 days of the request, and must not charge for preparing it. As the callout above notes, this applies to fixed fee matters too.

The guide adds two formal points. A bill must be signed on behalf of the law practice, and it must include, or be accompanied by, a written statement telling the client about the rights to a costs assessment and to have a costs agreement set aside.

Two periods of 30 days follow from the bill. A practice cannot start proceedings to recover unpaid costs until at least 30 days after delivering a lump sum bill or, where an itemised bill was requested, until 30 days after giving it. And interest may be charged on unpaid costs where the costs agreement provides for it, or from 30 days after the practice gives the bill. The bill must state that interest is payable and the rate, and the guide says the rate may not exceed the rate prescribed under the Civil Proceedings Act 2011.

A conveyancing bill is often paid at or around settlement. Payment does not end the rights described here: the Commission's fact sheet counts the 12 months for an assessment from the bill, from a demand for payment or from the date of payment.

Costs assessment and its 12-month limit

A costs assessment is an independent review of a bill. A client who disputes a bill may apply for one, and the Commission's fact sheet gives the time limit: 12 months from receiving the bill, from the lawyer's request for payment, or from the date the costs were paid.

The guide describes what an assessor looks at. The assessor considers whether it was reasonable to carry out the work, and the fairness and reasonableness of the legal costs. Where there is a valid costs agreement, the assessor ordinarily has regard to its terms.

Who pays for the assessment depends on its result. According to the guide, the law practice must pay the costs of the assessment if the legal costs are reduced by more than 15 per cent, or if the practice failed to comply with its costs disclosure obligations.

The fact sheet adds a point about effect: costs assessments are binding on lawyers only if they are ordered by a court. The Commission's public pages on costs assessments explain how an application is made.

When disclosure was missed, and the Commission's role

A failure to disclose changes the position in the client's favour. The Commission's public page puts it this way: if a lawyer fails to meet the costs disclosure obligations, the client is not obliged to pay the costs until a costs assessment has been conducted, and the practice cannot start proceedings to recover them.

The regulatory guide lists further consequences. Any costs agreement may be set aside. The ordinary rule that an assessor has regard to the costs agreement may be displaced. The assessor may reduce the legal costs in proportion to the seriousness of the failure. And a failure to comply may amount to unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct.

The Commission itself is not the first stop for an argument about the size of a bill; the costs assessment is. The fact sheet explains where the two meet. A costs assessor or a court must refer a matter to the Commission where the costs are found to be grossly excessive, or where the assessment points to possible unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct, and may refer one where a bill is reduced by 15 per cent or more. After an assessment with one of those results, the Commission may consider a complaint.

For most conveyancing clients none of this machinery is ever needed. Its value is at the start: a client who knows that the quote has two parts, that the registry's fees are public, and that written disclosure is due above $1,500 can read an offer of services line by line before accepting it.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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