WHAT'S THE COST?
Nothing. And that's not a sales pitch — it's the law.
If you're facing compulsory purchase, the authority buying your property pays for you to be properly advised. Not us. Not you.
Homeowners · landlords · business owners | No up-front fees · No hidden charges · No small print
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OUR CLIENTS PAY NOTHING
The reasonable cost of valuing and negotiating your claim is met by the acquiring authority.
THE SHORT ANSWER
You keep your compensation. They cover the fees.
When a council, housing association or other public body compulsorily acquires your home or property, the law doesn't just entitle you to compensation — it also recognises that you'll need professional help to work out what you're owed and to negotiate it properly.
So the acquiring authority is responsible for your reasonable professional fees: the cost of a chartered surveyor valuing your property, preparing your claim and negotiating on your behalf. Those fees are paid on top of your compensation, not taken out of it. You are not asked for money up front, and in the ordinary course of a claim you are not asked for money at the end either.
That's the whole model. It's why, across thousands of claims, our answer to "what's the cost?" has stayed the same: nothing.
WHY IT COSTS YOU NOTHING — THE LAW
The principle of equivalence
Compulsory purchase compensation is built on one long-established idea: that a person who loses their property compulsorily should be left "neither better nor worse off financially" than if it had never been taken.
Think that through. If you had to pay a surveyor and a solicitor out of your own pocket simply to recover what you're legally owed, you would be left worse off — you'd get your compensation, then hand a chunk of it straight back out in fees. That would defeat the entire principle.
So the law treats your reasonable professional costs as part of the loss the authority has caused. Government guidance puts it plainly: reasonable professional fees incurred in preparing and negotiating your claim can generally be reclaimed from the acquiring authority. In practice these fees are recognised under Rule (6) of section 5 of the Land Compensation Act 1961 — the same footing as the other unavoidable costs the acquisition forces on you.
In plain English
You didn't ask to lose your property. So you shouldn't have to pay to be treated fairly when it happens. The authority chose to acquire. The law makes the authority meet the reasonable cost of you being properly represented in return.
WHO IS "THE ACQUIRING AUTHORITY"?
The body buying your property is the one who pays
"Acquiring authority" is just the legal name for whoever has the power to compulsorily purchase. It's almost always a public or publicly-backed body — the same body that pays your compensation also meets your reasonable fees.
Local councils
Regeneration schemes, estate renewal, highways and town-centre redevelopment.
Housing associations
Estate rebuilds and large-scale housing regeneration, often alongside a council.
National bodies
National Highways, Network Rail, HS2 and other infrastructure promoters.
Development partners
Private developers delivering a scheme under a council's compulsory purchase powers.
THE QUESTION EVERYONE ASKS
"Hang on — if they're paying you, aren't you working for them?"
We understand the worry completely. We get it. When you hear that the council pays our fees, it's natural to wonder whose side we're really on. So let's answer it head-on.
No. We work for you, and only for you. Who settles the invoice has nothing to do with whose interests we protect — and you already know that instinctively from everyday life.
The comparison that makes it click
In all sorts of legal situations, the other side ends up paying your solicitor's costs. Win a dispute and your opponent is ordered to cover your legal bill. Nobody in that position thinks, "my solicitor must secretly be working for the person I'm up against." Of course they don't — the solicitor fought for them. The person who pays the bill isn't the person the professional answers to. Compulsory purchase works exactly the same way. The authority pays the fee because the law requires it to. We answer to you because that's our job, our duty and our reputation.
And there's a further safeguard that goes beyond any single case. We are chartered surveyors regulated by RICS. Our professional duty of care runs to our client — you — and RICS rules require us to act in your best interests, free from conflict. If we softened our negotiating to keep an authority happy, we'd be breaching the standards our qualification depends on. Our entire business is built on getting homeowners more, not less.
There's one more reason our interests and yours are locked together. Quite often our fee is calculated as a percentage of the compensation we actually recover for you — and it's paid on top by the authority, never deducted from your money. So the bigger the settlement we win, the better off you are, and the better off we are too. We are, quite literally, paid to fight for the highest figure possible.
Put simply: the more we recover for you, the better we've done our job. Our interests and yours point in precisely the same direction — and away from the authority's.
WHAT THE AUTHORITY'S PAYMENT COVERS
Everything you need — start to finish
The reasonable fees met by the acquiring authority cover the professional work of putting your claim together and fighting for it. In practice that means:
- Reviewing your notice and explaining exactly where you stand
- A Compulsory Purchase valuation report for your property
- Identifying every head of compensation you're entitled to
- Preparing and submitting your formal claim
- Negotiating hard with the authority's surveyors
- Advising on offers, timing and whether to sell early
- Home-loss and disturbance payments where they apply
- Support right through to completion — and after
HOW THE "NO COST" WORKS IN PRACTICE
Three steps, none of them involving your wallet
We act for you
You appoint us. We value your property and build your claim — with no charge to you at any stage.
We negotiate & agree
We negotiate your compensation and agree our fees — often a percentage of what you receive — directly with the authority, on top of your money.
They settle the fees
The authority pays your compensation to you and our fees to us. You receive your money in full.
BEING STRAIGHT WITH YOU
Could I ever be left out of pocket?
We'd rather you heard the full picture from us than wondered about the exceptions. For the overwhelming majority of homeowners and property owners we act for, the honest answer is: no.
The law provides for reasonable professional fees, assessed by reference to the work genuinely needed to prepare and negotiate the claim. That's a well-trodden path, and settling those fees with the authority is part of the job we do for you — not something we hand back to you to worry about.
There are narrow, specific situations that sit outside the ordinary run of a claim — for example, the separate question of the costs of formally objecting to a compulsory purchase order at a public inquiry, which is treated differently in law. If anything like that could ever apply to your circumstances, we'll tell you clearly and in advance, in plain language, before any cost could arise. No surprises — that's a promise, not a disclaimer.
YOUR QUESTIONS, ANSWERED
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free? What's the catch?
There's no catch. You pay us nothing — no up-front fee, no deposit, no percentage taken out of your compensation. The reasonable cost of our work is met by the acquiring authority because the law requires it to cover your professional fees. It feels too good to be true precisely because most services aren't built this way. This one is.
If the council pays your fees, aren't you really working for them?
No. We work solely for you. Who pays the invoice doesn't decide whose interests we protect — exactly as a solicitor whose costs are paid by the losing side still fought for their own client. On top of that, we're chartered surveyors regulated by RICS, and our professional duty is to act in your best interests. Often our fee is calculated as a percentage of what we recover for you, paid on top by the authority — so the more we win for you, the more we earn too. Our goals and yours are one and the same.
Do I have to pay anything up front?
No. There is nothing to pay to get started and nothing to pay as your claim progresses. You can pick up the phone, get friendly advice and appoint us without reaching for your bank details.
What exactly does the authority pay for?
The reasonable professional fees of preparing and negotiating your claim: valuing your property, identifying everything you're entitled to, submitting the claim and negotiating it through to settlement. These fees are dealt with as part of the compensation process and are separate from — and additional to — the compensation you receive.
Does this apply to landlords, investment properties and businesses too — or only homeowners?
It applies well beyond owner-occupiers. Landlords, investors and business owners affected by compulsory purchase are equally entitled to reasonable professional fees for valuing and negotiating their claims. Whether you're losing the home you live in or an investment you've worked hard to build, you shouldn't be paying to recover fair value for it.
Why would I pay for a surveyor when the authority already has one?
Because the authority's surveyor works for the authority — their job is to keep the payout in check. Yours is the only professional in the room whose sole aim is to maximise your compensation. And since the authority covers your reasonable fees, there's simply no financial reason to face their experienced surveyors without your own.
What if I don't agree to sell, or my claim isn't straightforward?
Compulsory purchase claims are rarely tidy, and that's exactly why proper representation matters. We guide you through your options, advise on offers and timing, and only ever recommend what's right for you. Complex or contested claims are our everyday work — and the reasonable cost of that work remains the authority's responsibility.
Is there a limit to what the authority will pay in fees?
Our fees — whether based on the work genuinely required or, as is often the case, calculated as a percentage of the compensation we recover for you — are agreed with the authority and paid on top of your money. Sorting that out with the authority is part of what we handle for you. In the ordinary course of a claim it isn't something that lands back on you, and if there were ever any prospect of that in your specific circumstances, we'd flag it clearly and in advance.
What about legal or solicitor's fees?
Reasonable legal costs of the conveyancing and claim are treated on the same principle and are generally recoverable from the acquiring authority as well. We work alongside trusted panel solicitors and can point you in the right direction, so the legal side is handled just as smoothly as the surveying.
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Sawyer Fielding gives back
Alongside our work for homeowners, we support housing-related charities and organisations local to the estates where we work — giving what we can, when we can. To date we've donated over £30,000.
Read about our charitable work →Losing your property is hard enough.
Paying to be treated fairly shouldn't be part of it. Speak to a chartered surveyor today, find out where you stand, and let the authority pick up the fees — because the law says it should.