In order to be considered a first time buyer in the UK, you need to have never owned a residential property, either in the UK abroad. If you have previously owned a home, even if you no longer do, you won't be considered a first time buyer. If you've previously owned only a commercial property, you can still be a first time buyer of residential property.

The conveyancing process when changing the legal ownership of a property can be complex, and the consequences of getting any small detail wrong can be catastrophic, so it's important for first time buyers to use a professional conveyancing service to handle all of the essential requirements.

Most mortgage lenders will only allow homebuyers to borrow from them if they use professional conveyancing services to purchase their home. This is because it's easy to make mistakes with conveyancing if you don't have specialist knowledge and experience, and this can cause many problems or even totally derail the property purchase.

As a first time buyer, you can choose to either use a conveyancing firm or a conveyancing solicitor to handle the legal aspects of your home purchase. With an experienced first time buyer solicitor, you get the benefit of not only their conveyancing experience, but also their wider legal knowledge as you navigate buying your first property.

When choosing the right solicitor for conveyancing services when you buy your first home, you can look at their reputation for helping first time buyers and online reviews from previous clients. While cost is likely to be a feature in your decision, choosing the cheapest service might not be the best decision.

Conveyancers offering a very cheap service in comparison with others could indicate that they will be putting in the minimum possible work during your house-buying process, which isn't what you want or need as a first time buyer. This is why it's important to take more than just fees into account when finding the right first time buyer solicitor for you.

The cost of conveyancing can vary somewhat, depending on the specific factors involved in your property purchase and the level of legal work involved. Most first time buyers pay between £800 - £1200 for conveyancing fees and it's important to get a first time buyer conveyancing quote from different providers to help compare services.

There can be a number of different fees that first time buyers will pay as part of the home buying process, depending on how they are buying, the cost of the property and whether they are using any specific schemes to help them with the purchase.

There will be first time buyer conveyancing fees for the legal work involved in transferring ownership of the property, there may be stamp duty to pay and there may be mortgage arrangement fees or scheme-specific costs to add too. If you're buying a leasehold property, you may find that there is an additional fee with your conveyancers for this.

There will be the costs of legal searches and registering the change of ownership with the Land Registry (generally rolled into your conveyancing fees) and once the property transaction is complete, you may need to pay fees for a moving company to help you move your belongings into your new home.

Our expert conveyancing team can help give you a quote on our fixed fee conveyancing services to ensure that there are no unexpected surprises when it comes to these fees. Get in touch to find out more.