Our team has many years of collective experience in providing high quality remortgaging* services. In this section, we set out details of the services that we provide, and the costs involved, relating to those services.

(Where any word(s) or term(s) have an * next to them they are defined in a glossary at the end of this page.)

Overview

This section includes the following:

(i) the key stages that are, or might be, involved in a remortgage* and which we can assist you with;
(ii) an indication of who will undertake the work and our legal fees;
(iii) an indication of the cost of any disbursements*; and
(iv) an indication of the likely timescale to complete the remortgage*.

Key stages

Our fees cover all of the work required to complete your remortgage*, including:

Taking your instructions and making contact with the current lender*
Receiving, reviewing and advising on title* documents
Obtaining, reviewing and reporting on searches*, if required by your new lender (the searches* we obtain will depend on your new lender* and the location of your property)
Checking title* to the property, and raising and dealing with queries to satisfy your new lender*
Reviewing the conditions of any mortgage* offer with you
Sending a mortgage deed* to you for signature
Preparing the file for completion
Obtaining a redemption figure from your current lender(s)*
Agreeing a completion date*
Arranging for all monies needed to be received from the lender*
Completing the remortgage* and paying off your current mortgage*
Dealing with post completion requirements, e.g. arranging a search indemnity policy*, if required, and making payment in respect of the registration of your ownership at Her Majesty’s Land Registry* (HMLR)

Who will undertake the work?

Most remortgages* will be carried out by one of our conveyancing executives. Whoever carries out the work, they will always be supervised by one of our managers. Further details about our team can be found here. We also employ a number of conveyancing administrators who support our conveyancing executives by opening files and helping with initial enquiries etc. Again, they will always be supervised by one of our managers.

Our fees

We will charge a fixed fee for a remortgage which, depending on the tenure and lender, will be between £500 and £750 (plus VAT).

Disbursements*

There will always be costs payable to third parties as part of your remortgage*. The following disbursements* are difficult to confirm until we know more about your transaction:

HMLR* fees: these are the fees charged by the Government for registering your new mortgage. The fees charged by HMLR* to do that are based on the amount being borrowed from your new lender. You can assess the fee using the following link and checking fee scale 2: http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/fees-calculator.html
Search Fees: the fees will depend on which searches* are required by the lender*. Typically, an insurance policy can be arranged to meet any such requirement. If the lender* is happy for an insurance policy to be put in place, we can help you obtain that. The cost of a policy is normally in the region of £20 (inclusive of IPT) . If the lender insists on searches* being carried out, the cost of carrying them out is approximately £200 (inclusive of VAT).

How long will my remortgage* take?

In our experience, a typical remortgage* takes four to six weeks to complete. This is dependent on how long it takes to receive a mortgage* offer from the new lender*.

Glossary

Chancel repair policy	an insurance policy which protects the owner of a property against a potential claim liability to pay for chancel repairs to a church
Completion	moving day or the day upon which your transaction completes with the balance of purchase/sale monies being paid and title to property transferred; if there is a chain involved, everybody completes and moves on the same day
Contract	the form of legal agreement prepared in duplicate for signature by the seller and buyer setting out all the legal rights and obligations agreed between them; this is the legally binding document between a seller and a buyer that contains all the terms of the agreement for the sale of a property
Conveyancing	the legal work needed to buy and sell properties
Disbursements	out of pocket expenses paid by us on the client’s behalf to third parties, such as SDLT, HMLR charges and search fees, among others
Exchanging contracts	the point that both parties are committed to the transaction; from the minute that contracts are exchanged, the sale becomes binding; until contracts are exchanged, either party can walk away from the transaction with no legal or financial penalties; at the same time as contracts are exchanged, a deposit is handed over from the buyer’s solicitors to the seller’s solicitors; the balance of the money will be handed over on the completion date, which is agreed at this time as well
Freehold	one of the two current tenures of land recognised by English law; freehold means that you own the property outright, as opposed to leasehold, where you own the property for a specified period of time; freehold property can still, however, be subject to restrictions and covenants, for example to maintain fences, not to be a nuisance etc.
Freehold management company	management company formed to look after the building and communal areas
Help to buy ISA	government scheme designed to help you save for a mortgage deposit to buy a home; to qualify you must be classified as a first-time buyer and not own a property anywhere in the world; savings are tax free as with any ISA product; however, a help to buy ISA provides additional government contributions, boosting your savings by 25%; so, for every £200 you save, you receive a government bonus of £50 (to a maximum of £3,000)
Help to buy mortgage	an equity loan where the government lends you up to 20% of the cost of your newly built property, so you’ll only need a 5% cash deposit and a 75% mortgage to make up the rest
HMLR	the official body responsible for recording the ownership of land. It is now compulsory to register all transactions to do with land at HMLR; although created in 1925, HMLR still does not have records of all the land in the UK, which is why some land is still unregistered
Property Report	having investigated title and reviewed searches we will report to you on those investigations and the terms of the contract; we will also provide documents to sign and return if you are happy to proceed
Remortgaging	changing a mortgage from one mortgagee to another
Registration of ownership	following registration we will apply to HMLR to remove the seller’s charges and register your ownership and your lender’s charge (if any)
Searches	the usual searches we obtain include: Local Search Drainage & Water Search Environmental Search Other searches which may be required include Coal Mining Search, Tin Mining Search and Underground Railways Search
Stamp Duty Land Tax	a tax imposed by the government on property purchases over a certain value
Statutory declarations	a declaration made before a justice of the peace, notary public or other person authorised to administer an oath
Title	the owner’s right to a property
Transfer	a document which transfers ownership of a property from one person to another

Fees for remortgaging