We will need to establish if there are any complications which could potentially have an impact on the transaction and any costs estimate.
Factors that could make a re-mortgage more complex include:
- Title discrepancies which need to be rectified at the Land Registry
- Dealing with the redemption of a number of existing charges on a property
- Dealing with complex and unorthodox conditions which may be attached to the new mortgage offer
- If any adverse entries are revealed in the local search result, such as enforcement notices in the local search
- If the new lender does not require a local search result, we will need to source and approve and appropriate indemnity policy to cover the lender’s requirements
Key stages
The stages set out below are an indication of some of stages which may be addressed in a re-mortgage transaction. The stages assume that the other parties will be cooperative and that those requested to undertake certain tasks will do so within the time scales asked.
- Taking your initial instructions regarding the circumstances of the transaction and providing a quotation.
- Opening a file and issuing our engagement pack to you.
- Receiving the engagement pack from you together with a payment on account of costs.
- Once the payment on account of costs has been received, we would contact the Land Registry to obtain an up to date copy of the title for the property, together with any other appropriate documents.
- We would check the title documents to see if there are any existing mortgages or other charges registered against the property. If so, we would then contact the existing mortgage company to obtain an up to date redemption figure.
- Once the new mortgage offer has been received, we would check the contents of the same to ensure that it is accurate. If there are discrepancies in the offer, we would write to the mortgage provider to ask that they change their records.
- We would then review the mortgage offer to ensure that we are aware of any conditions that might be attached to the offer that need to be dealt with prior to completion.
- If the lender requires that we obtain a Local Authority search for the transaction, we would then request this from the search provider. If the lender does not require a Local Search, we would then look to obtain an indemnity policy from an indemnity provider to account for the fact that no searches will be carried out for the re-mortgage.
- Once the title documents have been approved, all search results (where applicable) are returned and the mortgage offer is with us, we would then prepare our mortgage report and send this out to you. This report will usually contain the mortgage deed for signature.
- It would also be necessary to provide your proposed buildings insurance policy prior to completion.
- Once the signed mortgage deed and buildings insurance have been received, we would then proceed to set a date for completion.
- Once the completion date has been set, we would request all necessary funds from the mortgage provider (if applicable) and up to date redemption figures from all existing lenders.
- On the day of completion, we redeem any existing charges against the property. Once all charges and costs of sale have been paid, we would then send any balance funds back to you.
- After completion, we would then deal with the registration of the new mortgage at the Land Registry.
How much will conveyancing for my re-mortgage cost?
Our fixed fees for a typical re-mortgage range from £1,195.00 (excluding VAT) for a simple transaction to around £1,395.00 (excluding VAT) for a complex transaction. These figures may vary in cases with special complications. That’s why we will always give you an individual cost estimate at the start of the transaction, taking into account the actual features of your re-mortgage. We will always advise you immediately about any complication and discuss any possible impact on price at that stage. We have several regulatory requirements to verify the identity of our clients and perform due diligence checks which are designed to help prevent fraud and money laundering. We have put in place significant anti-fraud checks to protect our clients and these are charged at £24 (inclusive of VAT) per person. These checks may need to be undertaken more than once during the legal work.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as:
- Search fees to the search provider. The costs of the Local search will vary depending on the location of the property as all Local Authorities charge different amounts to provide the results. We would estimate that search results would vary from £100.00 to £250.00 (inclusive of VAT) depending on locality.
- Land Registry Search Fees to establish ownership of property and any mortgages that may be registered. The cost of the Land Registry searches will depend on how many registered titles there are for the property. The cost for obtaining title documents from the Land Registry could vary from between £4.00 to in excess of £20.00 (inclusive of VAT) depending on the circumstances.
- Land Registration Fees to register the new mortgage over the property after completion. The cost for registering the charge at the Land Registry depends on a couple of factors; namely whether the property is currently registered or unregistered and the valuation of the property. The current fee scale for Land registration purposes is as follows:
| Value of Property | Fee when completing application by Post | Fee when completing application online (for transfers of whole, charges of whole, transfers of charges and other applications of whole registered titles) | Fee when completing application online (for registration of part and all other applications that do not affect the whole of a registered title) |
| 0 to £100,000 | £45 | £20 | £45 |
| £100,001 to £200,000 | £70 | £30 | £70 |
| £200,001 to £500,000 | £100 | £45 | £100 |
| £500,001 to £1,000,000 | £145 | £65 | £145 |
| £1,000,001 and over | £305 | £140 | £305 |
The amount payable will depend on the circumstances of the transaction.
We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
If your transaction proceeds smoothly then the average timescale to move to completion would be around 4-6 weeks. However, this can be significantly longer if we encounter delays or complications during the process.
As explained above, this is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses.
Next steps
Our Residential Conveyancing team are experts in their field and we are proud that our hard work has been recognised and rewarded by successfully winning the ‘Regional Conveyancing Firm of the Year’ award at the Law Firm Services Awards 2018.
Brethertons are on all major mortgage lender panels and were appointed onto the ‘Help to Buy Midlands’ Solicitors Panel and the ‘Orbit, West Midlands Help to Buy’ panel.
If you would like to instruct us, or to learn more about our Residential Conveyancing services, please visit our key contact details. Alternatively, you can email your enquiry to us or visit our Conveyancing pages for further information.
Should you wish to meet our team of experienced and talented staff who would be responsible for progressing your matter then please click here.
