The confusing thing about selling fees is not how many there are, it is that they fall due at different moments and behave differently when a sale collapses. Some are paid before the property is even marketed, some come out of the completion money, and one or two can be charged twice if the contract you signed allows it. This page sets them out by who charges them and when.
Fees when selling a house UK: charged before you market
The EPC is the clearest example: you must order one for potential buyers before you market the property to sell, so it is money spent whether or not anyone ever offers. It lasts ten years, so check the register before you buy another. Any preparation work you decide to do sits here too. These are the fees that are gone regardless of outcome, which is a good argument for keeping them small and for checking what you already have before you commission anything new.
What fees are there when selling a house on completion day?
The agent's fee and the conveyancer's fee are normally settled from the completion funds rather than out of your pocket, which is why they feel less painful than they are. The agent's is the larger and carries VAT at the standard rate of 20 percent. The conveyancer's covers their own charge plus the disbursements they have paid out on your behalf during the transaction. Because both come out of the proceeds, the figure that matters to you is the net one, not the sale price.
What fees do you pay when selling a house through two agents? The fee that can arrive twice
If you instruct more than one agent you may owe a fee to more than one of them when the house sells, which the guidance calls dual fees, and whether it happens depends on the type of contract you signed and whether an agent has sole selling rights. This is the single most expensive thing to get wrong, because it can double the largest line on the sheet. If you are changing agent or adding a second, read the termination and sole selling rights clauses of the first contract before you sign the second.
Selling house fees, listed in the order they are charged
Selling house fees are easier to hold in your head as a timeline than as a list. First the energy certificate, ordered before the property is marketed and spent whether or not anyone offers. Then anything the agent itemises separately at instruction, such as photography or a floor plan, which one quote may include and another may not. Then, on completion, the agent's commission with VAT added to it at the standard rate of 20 percent, and the conveyancer's bill with the disbursements the firm has paid on your behalf. Last, out of the same completion money, the mortgage redemption and any early repayment charge the lender applies. None of it is a surprise if you write the order down before you instruct anyone, and most of it is a surprise if you do not.
The fees of selling a house that the property decides, not you
Some of the fees of selling a house are set by what you are selling rather than by who you hire. A leasehold flat costs more to convey than a freehold house, because there is a landlord, a managing agent and a pack of information to obtain. A mortgage still outstanding adds work to the conveyance and a redemption figure to the completion statement. A property with no valid certificate needs one before it can be marketed, and one still inside its ten years needs nothing at all. Not one of those lines moves when you negotiate the agent's rate, which is how two sellers on the same street, using the same agent at the same percentage, end up several hundred pounds apart.
Questions people ask about fees when selling a house
Do I pay anything if I take the house off the market?
Usually the fees already spent, such as the EPC, and whatever the agency contract says about withdrawal. The contract is the answer, and it had to be given to you before you signed.
Is VAT on top of the agent's quote or included?
It depends on the quote, and you have to ask. The standard rate is 20 percent, so the difference between inclusive and exclusive is a fifth of your largest fee.
Can the agent charge me for a buyer they did not find?
Under sole selling rights a fee can be due however the buyer was found. That is exactly what the clause means and why it is worth reading.
Are the fees selling house owners pay ever charged twice?
One of them can be. If you instruct more than one agent, the contract may leave you owing a fee to more than one of them when the property sells, which the guidance calls dual fees, and whether it happens turns on the kind of agreement you signed and on whether an agent can show that it introduced the buyer. Read the liability wording before you add a second agent rather than after.