What Are Disbursements in Conveyancing?

Prices checked October 2026. Disbursement totals are typical ranges for a standard residential matter and vary by property and council. Individual search and certificate fees are the published 2026-27 government or authority fees.

What does disbursement mean in conveyancing fees?

A disbursement is money paid out on your behalf. In conveyancing it means any amount your conveyancer pays to a third party for your matter, such as a land registry, council, water authority, owners corporation or PEXA, and then recovers from you. The conveyancer does not set these prices; the organisation supplying the search or certificate does.

Disbursements are one of three parts of a conveyancing quote, alongside the professional fee and government registration fees. For how they fit into the total, see how much conveyancing costs in Australia, and for every line on a quote, our explanation of what conveyancing fees are.

What are the common conveyancing disbursements?

Most matters involve the same handful of searches and certificates. Which ones you need depends on the state, the property and which side of the deal you are on.

• Title and plan searches: confirm the owner and show mortgages, caveats, easements and covenants. See title searches explained.
• Council certificates: rates owing, zoning and planning controls, and any notices or orders on the land.
• Water certificates: water and sewerage charges owing and, in some states, the sewer diagram.
• Strata, owners corporation or body corporate certificates: levies, special levies and records for a unit or townhouse.
• Land tax certificates: confirm no land tax is owing on the property, such as Victoria's property clearance certificate.
• PEXA fees: the electronic settlement workspace and lodgement, charged to each side.
• Other searches: contaminated land, roads, heritage or flooding where the property calls for them.
• Office charges: some firms add postage, copying or courier costs; others include them in the professional fee.

The ATO clearance certificate that Australian resident sellers need is free, so it should not appear as a cost.

How much are conveyancing disbursements in each state?

Disbursements usually total between $200 and $900 for a standard home. The table shows typical totals and some of the main items at 2026-27 prices. Units sit at the top of each range.

PEXA adds about $146 to $151 per party for a single-title transfer in every state, though NT transfers are generally lodged on paper. The ACT selling total excludes the building and pest reports and energy efficiency rating statement a seller must have. The state guides go further, for example conveyancing costs in Victoria and conveyancer costs in South Australia.

How are disbursements different from the professional fee?

The professional fee pays for the conveyancer's own work and is set by the firm; disbursements pay other organisations and are set by them. That difference matters when you compare quotes.

A low professional fee with a long list of disbursements can end up costing more than a higher all-inclusive quote. In Western Australia, a settlement agent's disclosed service amount must include office disbursements, searches and e-conveyancing fees, which makes WA quotes easier to compare. Our guide to fixed-fee conveyancing covers what a fixed price should include.

Are government registration fees disbursements?

Many quotes list them as disbursements, but they are a separate kind of charge: the state land registry's fee to record the transfer, a new mortgage or the discharge of an old one. They are the same whichever firm you use. The buyer pays the transfer and new mortgage fees; the seller pays the discharge.

Some states charge a flat fee and others scale it to the price, so in some states this single line is bigger than every other disbursement combined. At an $800,000 price, registering the transfer costs $182.73 in NSW, $375.10 in WA, $1,977 in Victoria, $3,134.76 in Queensland and $8,228 in South Australia. Mortgage and discharge registrations are flat fees, for example $129.20 each in Victoria and $248.04 each in Queensland.

Which disbursements do buyers and sellers pay?

Each side pays for the searches it needs. Sellers pay for the documents the law requires before a property is sold, and buyers pay for the checks that protect them before settlement.

• NSW: the seller pays for the contract attachments, including the title search, plan, planning certificate and sewer diagram. The buyer usually orders the section 603 rates certificate and other enquiries.
• Victoria: the seller pays for the searches in the Section 32 vendor statement. A buyer should order their own SRO property clearance certificate, because only a certificate the buyer obtains protects them. See the Section 32 explained.
• Queensland: the seller obtains the certificates for the Form 2 disclosure statement, including the body corporate certificate for a lot.
• South Australia: the Form 1 searches make up most of a seller's disbursements, roughly $450 to $600 before PEXA and preparation.
• ACT: the seller pays for the building and pest reports and energy efficiency rating statement before marketing, and the buyer reimburses the building and pest reports at completion.

How to check the disbursements on your quote

A clear quote lists each expected disbursement, so you can see what you are paying for. Before you accept one:

• Ask for an itemised list of the searches and certificates the firm expects to order, with estimated costs. The NSW Government suggests asking for an itemised statement of likely costs before work starts.
• Ask whether the figures are estimates or fixed, and what happens if a certificate needs an urgent fee or a repeat request.
• Check for office charges such as postage, copying or admin fees, and whether they are already in the professional fee.
• Check whether government registration fees and PEXA are inside the disbursement total or listed separately.
• Compare the total of each quote, not only the professional fee. Our guide to comparing conveyancer quotes sets out a side-by-side method.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rules, fees and timeframes change and differ between states, so confirm your own situation with a licensed conveyancer, settlement agent or solicitor.