Remortgage Guide

Starting things off

After your initial contact with us we will give you a detailed written quotation showing our legal fees and the fees that we will need to pay out on your behalf during the course of the transaction. We will also send you a questionnaire asking you for further details of your property and your existing mortgage and this questionnaire will need to be completed by you and returned to us as soon as possible. Your solicitor or conveyancer should also telephone you at this stage to introduce themselves.

How can you help us? – please return the questionnaire as soon as possible.

Possible problems – any delay in returning the questionnaire documentation and acceptance of the quotation could cause a delay in our starting work on your case.

ID/Client Care

After you have confirmed your instructions to us and returned the questionnaires we will send out to you a request for ID information and our Client Care Letter which sets out further details of our service to you. Both of these documents are compulsory under our professional rules.

How can you help us? – it is necessary for us to have appropriate ID documentation and the signed Client Care Letter on our files and it would therefore be of great help if you could return these documents to us as soon as possible.
As stated previously it is a professional rule that solicitors must have ID and Client Care information on their file and therefore the earlier you send these documents back to us the quicker we can proceed with your purchase.

Possible problems – any delay in returning documentation could delay the transaction. Also in a small number of cases there may be a discrepancy between the ID information and the names on the Land Registry record of the property which may require further investigation. If there is any such problem we will contact you immediately and in nearly all cases any such problems can be resolved easily.

Title Check

Once we have received your questionnaires etc. we will download from the electronic Land Registry Portal the Land Registry title to your property. This is essential because we must check your title on behalf of your new lender to ensure the property is a good security for their loan.

Possible problems – in the very unlikely event that we identify a difficulty on your title we may need to contact you for further clarification or additional documents such as death certificates/marriage certificates etc. to clear up any discrepancy. We will not be able to complete the remortgage until the title is in order.

Local Authority Search

These days it is not generally necessary in a remortgage to carry out a local authority search. However, it is necessary to obtain a legal indemnity insurance against any matters that would otherwise be shown in the local authority search. This policy is arranged online and is available immediately and will cause no delay to the transaction.

Mortgage Offer

We will receive a formal written mortgage offer direct from your lender. You usually receive an identical document at the same time as us. We will need to read carefully through the mortgage offer and we will give you a detailed report on its contents and any special conditions relating to the mortgage offer.

How can you help us? – in some cases we may ask you to speak to your mortgage advisor if you have one or direct to the lender if you do not, to chase the issue of the mortgage offer.

Possible problems – if there are any discrepancies on the mortgage offer or conditions such as requirement for further investigations for damp etc. then these may need further investigation or inspection of the property.

Sign Mortgage Deed

We will send you the Mortgage Deed that we receive from your lender as soon as we receive the Mortgage Offer. This is a formal document from your mortgage lender and must be signed and returned to us before the transaction can be completed.

How can you help us? – please return this important document to us as soon as possible.

Setting a Completion Date

Once we have received the Mortgage Offer and reported to you on its contents we can proceed to completion of the transaction. You can, within reason, choose whichever date you wish to complete the transaction although please note that most lenders require at least 5 working days notice.

Obtaining a Redemption Statement

If you are moving from one lender to another we will, of course, have to repay your existing mortgage from the proceeds of your new mortgage. We will apply for a Redemption Statement from your existing mortgagee which is a written statement made up to the date of completion stating the precise amount due by you to repay the existing mortgage. We will send you a copy of this document.

How can you help us? – it is our experience, unfortunately, that a number of lenders are very slow and unco-operative in providing redemption statements. Whilst we will, of course, chase the existing lender for a statement if there is a delay, it may be that we will ask you to assist us in chasing them as it is our experience over the years that lenders are usually more responsive to chase up calls from their customers than from their customers’ solicitors!

Possible problems – sometimes there can be a discrepancy in what you expect to be the redemption figure and what is actually charged by your existing lender. This may be because of an early redemption penalty, for example. Any delays in producing the redemption figure will mean that we cannot complete the remortgage as it is essential for us to have a written redemption statement from your existing mortgagee before being able to prepare you a financial statement and completing the transaction.

Report on Title

Once you have chosen your completion date we will send to your new mortgagee a document called a Report on Title which is a report by us guaranteeing that the title to your property is satisfactory and confirming to your new lender that they can proceed to complete the transaction. We will request that the money is sent to us on the date of the proposed completion of your remortgage.

How can you help us? – again, sometimes there are delays in the mortgage monies being provided by the new lender and we may request that you assist us in chasing the new lender if there is a difficulty.

Financial

Once we have received the redemption statement from your existing lender we will provide you with a detailed Financial Statement setting out the money we will receive from your new lender, the amount to repay your existing loan plus charges, Land Registry fees etc. as originally quoted to you.

Completion

Once the mortgage money from your new lender is completed we will redeem your existing mortgage and remove it from the Land Registry and register your new mortgage with the Land Registry. We will also send to you any additional money which may be due to you from the proceeds of the remortgage. It may also be necessary for us if the property is a leasehold property, to serve notice of the transaction on the freeholder/management company as this is usually a requirement of most leases.