Re-mortgaging your Home

Disbursements are expenses related to your transaction which are payable to third parties, such as Land Registry fees. These will be the same regardless of which legal firm handles your matter. We arrange payment of these expenses on your behalf.

We recommend carrying out a number of searches with organisations such as the Local Authority, the Water Company, Land Registry and other similar agencies to make sure there are no issues affecting the property for example, with planning, water supply and drainage or environmental contamination. The price of searches varies according to location and type of property but the typical cost for the recommended searches lies between £250 and £400 including VAT.

Once the purchase is complete, the property must be registered at HM Land Registry. The fee payable varies according to the value of the property. A list of the fees is available on the Land Registry website. We submit our registrations via the Land Registry Portal which incurs the lowest possible fee. The fees are not vatable.

The precise stages involved in the re-mortgage of a residential property vary according to the circumstances however the following is a guide to the key stages involved.

1. We will take your instructions and give you initial advice
2. We will obtain a copy of the new mortgage offer and details of the amount outstanding on any existing mortgage
3. We will carry out the necessary searches if required by the Lender and make further enquiries about the property if required
4. We will report to you and the Lender on the result of the searches and enquires. You then consider this report and raise questions on anything that is unclear
5. When you happy to proceed, arrangements are made for you to sign the mortgage deed
6. You agree on a completion date
7. We prepare a completion statement, carry out pre-completion searches and apply to your mortgage lender for the mortgage loan. We also obtain a settlement figure to repay the outstanding amount on any existing mortgage, if applicable
8. On completion we receive the mortgage loan from the new lender and repay the amount owing to the existing mortgage lender, if applicable
9. We transfer any remaining money to you, usually by bank transfer on the day of completion
10. We deal with the registration of the property at HM Land Registry

The length of time from receiving your mortgage offer until monies are released will depend on a number of factors. The average timescale is between 6 and 8 weeks however it can take more or less time. In some situations additional charges may apply, examples of which include (but are not limited to):

• Transactions involving shared ownership
• Transactions which involve obtaining freeholder consent
• Where a potential defect in title is identified
• Where the re-mortgage is completing simultaneously with the purchase of a property
• Expedited transactions

We will always inform you if any unforeseen additional work becomes necessary and detail its estimated cost in writing before any extra charges or expenses are incurred.