Moving House Fees Checklist (UK 2026)
Moving costs far more than the removal van. A typical UK house move comes to £1,500-£5,000 all in, and for a 3-bed semi with a sale and a purchase it is usually higher. The removal company is rarely more than 10% of it.
This checklist covers every fee you are likely to meet, when it falls due, and roughly what to budget. Tick them off as you go.
The short version
| Stage | What you pay | Typical total |
|---|---|---|
| Getting ready to sell | EPC, estate agent, Home Report (Scotland) | £300 - £6,000+ |
| Offer accepted | Survey, mortgage fees, searches | £600 - £3,000 |
| Completion | Conveyancing, stamp duty, transfer fees | £1,000 - £15,000+ |
| Moving week | Removals, packing, cleaning, parking | £500 - £2,500 |
| After you move | Redirection, connections, council tax | £100 - £400 |
Stamp duty is the wildcard: nothing below £125,000, but £15,000+ on an expensive purchase. Everything else is reasonably predictable.
1. Before you list or start looking
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) - £60-£120. Legally required before a property is marketed. Valid 10 years, so check whether you already have one.
- Estate agent fees - 1-3% of the sale price plus VAT, or £900-£1,500 fixed with an online agent. On a £300,000 sale that is £3,000-£9,000 with a high street agent. Only sellers pay this.
- Home Report - £350-£800, Scotland only. Sellers must provide one before listing. It includes the survey, so Scottish buyers rarely pay for their own.
- Mortgage broker fee - £0-£500. Many brokers are free to you and paid by the lender; ask which yours is.
2. Once your offer is accepted
- Property survey - £350-£700 for a Level 2 homebuyer report, £600-£1,500 for a Level 3 building survey on an older or unusual property. Skipping it saves money now and is the most common expensive regret.
- Mortgage valuation - £0-£300. Separate from your survey and for the lender's benefit, not yours. Many lenders now waive it.
- Mortgage arrangement or product fee - £0-£2,000. Can usually be added to the loan, but you then pay interest on it for the full term.
- Conveyancing searches - £250-£450. Local authority, environmental, water and drainage. Ordered by your solicitor early because councils can be slow.
3. At exchange and completion
- Conveyancing - £1,000-£2,500 including VAT and disbursements for a straightforward sale and purchase. Leasehold, shared ownership or unregistered land push this higher.
- Stamp Duty Land Tax - £0-£15,000+. Nothing below £125,000 in England and Northern Ireland, with first-time buyer relief up to £300,000. Scotland pays LBTT instead (nothing below £145,000, £175,000 for first-time buyers) and Wales pays LTT. Work out yours with the stamp duty calculator.
- Land Registry fee - £20-£910 depending on price, usually collected by your solicitor as a disbursement.
- Bank transfer fee - £20-£50 per transfer, charged by your solicitor for sending completion funds.
- Mortgage exit or early repayment charge - £0-£10,000. If you are leaving a fixed deal before it ends, check the redemption figure now rather than on completion day. This is the single largest avoidable fee on this list.
4. Moving week
- Removal company - £400-£1,500 for a typical 2-3 bed move. Long distance runs higher. See average moving costs by property size or price your own with our moving cost calculator.
- Professional packing - £150-£575 depending on house size, or £50-£150 if you buy materials and pack yourself.
- Furniture dismantling and reassembly - £50-£200 as an add-on to the removal quote.
- Goods-in-transit insurance upgrade - £20-£100. Standard cover is often limited per item, which matters if you own anything genuinely valuable.
- Parking suspension for the van - £30-£65, and councils typically want about 5 working days notice. Miss it in a controlled parking zone and the crew carry everything further, which costs you time on an hourly job.
- End-of-tenancy or move-out cleaning - £100-£350. Time-critical if a rental deposit depends on it.
- Storage - £100-£300 a month if your dates do not line up, usually with a minimum term.
5. After you move
- Royal Mail redirection - from £35 for 3 months, £50-£80 for 6-12 months.
- Utility and broadband connection - £0-£100. Broadband installation at a property with no existing line is the one that catches people out, and lead times can run to several weeks.
- Council tax - pro-rata from your date of entry, then monthly. Budget for an overlap month if your dates cross.
- Overlapping rent or mortgage - £0-£2,000. When completion slips you can pay for two homes for a few weeks.
The fees people forget
These are small individually and add up to £300-£800 on a typical move:
- Deposit on a rental - 4-5 weeks rent, held before you move in
- Removal booking deposit, often 25% on booking
- Locksmith or new locks at the new address, £80-£200
- New white goods where the seller takes theirs, £300-£1,200
- Curtains, blinds and light fittings that were not included in the sale
- Pet or child care on moving day
- Takeaways and the first shop, because the kitchen is in boxes
Worked example: 3-bed semi, £350,000, moving 40 miles
| Fee | Cost |
|---|---|
| Estate agent at 1.5% on a £320,000 sale | £4,800 |
| Conveyancing, both transactions | £1,800 |
| Level 2 survey | £500 |
| Searches | £350 |
| Stamp duty on £350,000 (mover, England) | £5,000 |
| Land Registry and transfer fees | £330 |
| Removals, 3-bed, 40 miles | £950 |
| Packing materials, self-packed | £120 |
| Parking suspension, both ends | £90 |
| Move-out cleaning | £200 |
| Redirection and connections | £120 |
| Total | £14,260 |
The removal company is £950 of a £14,260 move - under 7%. That is worth knowing before you spend three weeks chasing a cheaper van and no time at all on the mortgage exit fee.
How to cut the bill without cutting corners
- Check your mortgage redemption figure first. An early repayment charge dwarfs everything else on this list and is often avoidable by timing the move to the end of a fixed term.
- Negotiate the estate agent fee. It is the largest single controllable cost for a seller, and the advertised rate is rarely the floor.
- Get three removal quotes and move midweek. Friday and end-of-month slots run 15-30% higher than a Tuesday.
- Pack yourself, but not the fragile things. Self-packing saves £150-£400; professional packing keeps breakables inside the company insurance.
- Apply for the parking suspension early. It costs £30-£65 and saves an hour of carrying on an hourly-rated job.
- Declutter before you get quoted, not after. Removal prices are driven by volume, so a genuinely emptier house is a cheaper quote.
Before you book anything
Get a benchmark figure so you can tell a fair quote from a padded one. Our moving cost calculator prices your move from property size, access and distance in about a minute, and the moving budget calculator adds the conveyancing, stamp duty and survey fees on top for a full picture.