In our experience, the disbursement line is where buyers most often feel blindsided — not because the amounts are large, but because a headline "fixed fee" quietly left them out. There's nothing hidden about disbursements once they're itemised: they're just the third-party costs we pay on your behalf, passed on at cost.
Disbursements are the third-party costs your conveyancer pays on your behalf during the transaction and passes on to you at cost — they should be itemised, not marked up. They sit on top of the professional fee and typically add a few hundred dollars, though strata properties and extra searches push that higher.
The common disbursements, and what each one is for
- Title search. Pulls the certificate of title from the state land registry to confirm the seller is the registered owner, and to reveal anything registered against the property — mortgages, easements, covenants or caveats — that you'd inherit or need cleared at settlement.
- Council and water certificates. Certificates from the council and water authority showing what's owed in rates and water/sewerage charges (these get apportioned between you and the seller at settlement), plus any orders, notices or unapproved works the council has on record.
- Planning and statutory searches. A zoning/planning certificate and checks for government interests that affect the land — proposed road or rail acquisitions, contamination, flood or heritage overlays — the things that change what you can do with the property, or whether you'd want it at all.
- Body corporate or owners corporation search. For units, townhouses and apartments: a record search and certificate showing the levies, the state of the administrative and sinking funds, any special levies on the horizon, the by-laws, and any current disputes or building defects. This is the main reason strata purchases carry higher disbursements.
- PEXA settlement fee. The per-transaction fee for the electronic settlement platform most purchases now settle through, collected at settlement.
- Land registration fees. The government fees paid to the state land registry to register the transfer of title into your name (and to register your mortgage), so your ownership is legally recorded.
Why they vary
Disbursements differ by state — each land registry and authority sets its own fees — and by property type. Strata and owners-corporation properties cost more because the body-corporate record searches add work and expense. Because they're passed on at cost, the total isn't something your conveyancer controls, but they should be able to estimate it upfront and itemise it in your quote rather than fold it into a vague "from $X" figure — see the difference between the fee and disbursements.
