Scottish law - end of mortgage - removal of bank's legal charge on property

ailuro2

Hi folks - I was wondering if anyone can share how much it cost to get rid of the bank's legal charge on your property after you've finished paying your mortgage off?

I've tried searching on the rest of MSE and also on Google, but nothing comes up for me...

Apparently it's only in Scotland this needs to be done.

Can anyone give me a ball park figure, please?

TIA.:D

dc_scotland

I can't give you a figure as it's a few years now since I looked into this. But I do recall that some of the quotes were horrendous as in addition to any standard fees, solicitors add their own fees for handling the process. Those could vary depending on the value of the property or mortgage, and the amount of time estimated to complete the process. One company which came highly recommended at the time was Conveyancing Direct, based in Glasgow. Their costs were a fraction of others because, if I recall correctly, they charge a flat fee irrespective of the value of the property or mortgage. It may be worth asking them for a quote, and perhaps looking for some recent independent reviews of the company. Those I know who used them were delighted with efficiency and costs but as I say, it was a few years ago. Just checked and they are still in business, now operating out of offices in Morrison Street on the south side of Glasgow:
http://www.conveyancingdirect.co.uk

ailuro2

Thank You.Will have a look.

kayl

I don't think that any solicitors will charge based on the value of the property for this, unlike for a purchase or sale. I am a solicitor, and would generally charge £100 plus VAT for preparing and registering a discharge (get it done before the VAT increase!). The only outlay would be the registration dues, which would cost £30

ailuro2

Thanks KayL, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for - do I just phone up the solicitors we used when we bought the house - it was a very small practice, but he got the job done no problems, and was always available when we needed him? Is this think just ordinary bread and butter run of the mill for solicitors then?

kayl

If you were happy with the previous service, you should just give them a call. They'll let you know at the outset how much they are going to charge and if it's much more than I mentioned, you should query it - if they don't reduce it, you can just go elsewhere. If they acted in the purchase, they'll already have details of your mortagae account on their file