£40 charge for sending title documents/deeds

nimulas

Dear All,

I am preparing to sell my house an my mortgage provider (Cumberland building society) are charging £40 just for sending the deeds to our solicitor!

I might be really naive but this jut seems a ridiculous amount of money for a small amount of work - especially given the cost of changing the mortgage from one house to another will be £700.

Is there anything I can do to question this charge?
Do all building societies do this?

I am really disgusted at the number of hidden charges they seem to have?

Any advice/comments welcome,

Thank you for your time,

Suzanne

Scaredy_Cat_3

Sorry, this is common practice! They all charge, and some charge a lot more than £40.

If you check your original mortgage offer it will probably advise you of this charge in the small print. Or if you have a tariff of charges, it will be listed there.

koexelek

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

Sorry, this is common practice! They all charge, and some charge a lot more than £40.

.

£40 is a bargain.

Alliance & Leicester used to charge £295 :eek:

dunstonh

might be really naive but this jut seems a ridiculous amount of money for a small amount of work

Tell us what work you belief happens then and what charge you think they should make and the what the profit no it should be.

I am really disgusted at the number of hidden charges they seem to have?

Apart from the fact they are all published and have been for many many years.

Charis

dunstonh wrote: »

Tell us what work you belief happens then

and what charge you think they should make and the what the profit no it should be.

Take deeds from strongroom/safe and post to solicitor?

Think of a number and multiply it by ten.

The deeds for this house were given to me by my solicitor when I bought it in 2002. I have been given to understand by others on MSE that the land registry holds all titles digitally now and the paper records are being destroyed. Building societies will now have to think of another minimal exercise they can overcharge for.

dunstonh

Take deeds from strongroom/safe and post to solicitor?

Nope. More to it than that and also wrong location.

opinions4u

nimulas wrote: »

I am preparing to sell my house an my mortgage provider (Cumberland building society) are charging £40 just for sending the deeds to our solicitor!

They publish their charges up front, so you shouldn't be too surprised. The amount is actually quite competitive.

I might be really naive but this jut seems a ridiculous amount of money for a small amount of work

The Halifax deeds storage area took up a large area of office space underneath their old head office building. Had this space been let commerically it would have given them a decent income. It required a high level of security, fire proofing and retrieval mechanisms that cost large amounts of money. Not to mention staff wages for maintaining the area and recording movements of deeds.

They tend to be chunky documents as well, so I'd estimate a fiver for the postage. But most of the costs involved are listed above.

especially given the cost of changing the mortgage from one house to another will be £700.

That is irrelevant though.

Is there anything I can do to question this charge?

Question away, but I think with a house move going through you have better things to spend your time on.

Do all building societies do this?

And banks, yes.

I am really disgusted at the number of hidden charges they seem to have?

In what way are they hidden? Were they not published?

Any advice/comments welcome

Don't lose sleep over it.

_Andy_

Boo hoo - companies daring to charge for services - whatever next. So unfair blahblah

Jockthearab

opinions4u wrote: »

The Halifax deeds storage area took up a large area of office space underneath their old head office building. Had this space been let commerically it would have given them a decent income. It required a high level of security, fire proofing and retrieval mechanisms that cost large amounts of money. Not to mention staff wages for maintaining the area and recording movements of deeds.

They tend to be chunky documents as well, so I'd estimate a fiver for the postage. But most of the costs involved are listed above.

I've learnt something new today thanks to you! When anyone can explain things like this in laymans terms, especially referencing the fire proofing/security costs & the commercial cost of this space, I understand why these charges are probably quite fair!

JtA

supersunshine

I must say there seems to be a lot of mean remarks on here. Suzanne is entitled to have a moan if she wishes, all of us moan sometimes, this is sometimes due to the fact that we don't understand something.

Opinion4u has given a great explanation as to why the charges are high but I think a lot of people would have thought it was just a case of posting the items or couriering them to the solicitor so be a little more gentle with Suzanne :-(

dunstonh

Suzanne is entitled to have a moan if she wishes, all of us moan sometimes, this is sometimes due to the fact that we don't understand something.

Of course she is. However, the tone of posting in the responses are very similar to the tone made by the OP.

Using words like "ridiculous" and "disgusted" and phrasing it as if she knows what work is undertaken means the responses are going to follow in the way the post was made (which I dont think are too bad at all).