What it costs to check a house before you buy it

You want one number. What does a lawyer charge to buy a house.

There isn’t one, and that is not anybody being cagey. No official body sets or publishes a price for this work. Firms quote for themselves, so the figures you find online are one firm’s rate, or a guess dressed up as a survey.

You can still find out what everything else costs, and which parts of it you never get back.

What you are owed on the fee question

Two things are worth knowing before you ring anyone.

A fee has to be fair and reasonable, and you have to be told in advance how it will be charged.¹

You are allowed to shop around. Some firms offer a free first meeting and some charge for it, and asking a few of them about fees before you pick one is normal.²

There is more you are entitled to, including an estimate if you ask for one and a warning if it is going to be exceeded. What your lawyer must put in writing covers the rest.

You can look this up for $8

You do not need a lawyer to look at the title, the official record of who owns a property and what rights and restrictions come with it.

A copy costs $8. You pay by card, and it arrives by email, usually within a few minutes.³

That is the cheapest thing you will do in this whole process, and it is the document everything else refers back to.

The council report has no fixed price

A LIM is a report you can buy from the council about a property. It sets out what the council knows: flooding and other hazards, the drains, rates owing, and its records of work done there.

There is no national price, and the reason is in the law. Each council sets its own charge, and your application has to arrive with that charge paid.⁴

Two real examples, both current in August 2026. Auckland charges $387, or $522 if you want it in a hurry.⁵ Christchurch charges $320, or $420 fast tracked, and says those include GST.⁶

Do not read those two as a range. Christchurch says its price includes GST and Auckland does not say either way, so they are not quite the same measurement. Look up your own council.

Three more things the law fixes, all from the same section, and none of them widely mentioned.⁴

Ten working days is the legal limit, not a service promise. The hurry-up options beat it: Auckland says three working days, Christchurch five.

Anyone can order one. You do not have to own the house, and you do not have to have offered on it.

It tells you what the council knows. That is narrower than what is true of the house, and it is why a council report is no substitute for someone looking at the building.

You pay per house, not per purchase

Here is the part that catches people, and it follows from how the charging works rather than from anything anyone chooses.

Every one of these costs attaches to a property. You pay when you apply. If somebody else buys the house, you have still bought the report.

Auckland puts a number on it. Cancel a standard order and there is a cancellation fee of $193.50.⁵ The council may refund you if you cancel within a day of ordering, or if the report turns up later than promised. Being outbid is not on the list.

So a buyer who looks seriously at three houses and misses two has paid three times and owns nothing. That is not bad luck. It is how the fees work, and almost nothing written for buyers says it out loud.

A builder’s report is a written report on the state of a house, from someone you hire and pay yourself. It is a private deal between you and them, so what it covers is what you agree. It behaves the same way. It is yours, it is per house, and nobody refunds it when you lose.

What this page cannot tell you

What your lawyer will actually charge. Ask them, get it in writing, and ask what else gets added.

What a building inspection costs. That is a private arrangement and no official body publishes a price.

One more limit worth being straight about. Everything above about fees and what you are owed comes from the rules for lawyers. Conveyancers are a separate profession with their own rules, and this page has not checked those.

What to ask your lawyer

1. What will you charge me, and is that a fixed fee or an estimate that can move?
2. What else will I be billed for on top of your fee?
3. If this purchase falls over, what do I still owe you?
4. Which of the council and inspection reports do you want me to get before I make an offer, and which can wait?

Say these as they are written. They are normal questions to ask.

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