Completion statement not right - please advise

**woody123**

Hi,

I visited my solicitors today and signed the mortgage paperwork and other documents.

The solicitor went through the completion statement with me and i thought it seemed a bit odd that what i pay for deposit and their fees is cheaper than i expected.

When i got home i looked more closely at the statement and the "Net mortgage advance" is £65215 when my mortgage is for £65000.

The £215 is what i see that i expected to pay anyway as the solicitor's quote BUT i think my monthly payment maybe more now and the £215 will go on my mortgage.

Does anyone know what has happened here. I'm going to call my mortgage advisor first thing the morning and then solicitor and hope that it's nothing that can't be fixed.

Thanks
P.S not exchanged yet

domcastro

It might be a "check out" fee added to the mortgage?

**woody123**

Thanks for the reply.

I've looked on the mortgage paperwork and the checkout fee is £225.. and i can pay it and the end..

I'm with the abbey by the way.

It does say on my mortgage paperwork that my conveyancer can apply for extra funds up to £750 but they must tell me.

I haven't been informed of this by my solicitor.

sonastin

While you are waiting to find out from your broker or solicitor about what is happening...

Can you make overpayments on your mortgage? If so, you can pay the £215 off immediately if it is too late to undo it now and your monthly repayments will be back to what you expected them to be.

G_M

Maybe the solicitor has added his fee for handling the mortgage to the mortgage advance rather than charging you for it.

Either ask him to bill you for it (and knock it off the mortgage) or.... make a one-off payment of £225 to your mortgag account once the purchase has gone through.

kingstreet

The extra £750 is emergency borrowing the conveyancer can request if there's insufficient funds to complete. This might happen if the settlement figure for the previous mortgage ends up higher than expected.

If there's £215 too much it may be a cashback you weren't expecting. Do you see the words "Help With Costs" or "Homebuyer Solution" on your offer?

Homebuyer solutions
Available to: all customers moving home and first-time buyers
Free valuation
All customers will receive a free valuation for mortgage purposes (up to a property value of £2.5 million) - provided by Abbey’s Group Survey Office. If a customer requires a Homeview survey, they will have to arrange and pay for this separately. Abbey will not refund the Valuation for Mortgage Purposes fee.
£250 cashback
All customers will receive £250 cashback at completion, as a contribution towards legal costs.

As timmy said, a £250 cashback, less a £35 TT fee leaves a net £215 left over. This is not additional borrowing, but it is sent to the solicitor with the completion monies, so it's understandable he's included it in the mortgage column.

If you look on page 5 of your mortgage offer, there should be details of the Homebuyer's Solution in the additional features section.

Richard_Webster

Before I read TimmyT's comment I guessed it was a Santander cashback from which their £35 TT fee had been deducted.

OP needs to look at the mortgage offer because they will probably be a mention of the £250 cashback and then in the "fees" section they will say that they deduct £35 to send the money to the buyer's solicitor.

**woody123**

Thanks for the replies.

I'm a first time buyer by the way so please excuse for me for not knowing stuff.

I spoke to my solicitor this morning.

Timmy t, kingstreet and others were absolutely right. The £215 extra on the net mortgage advance is cashback on completion with £35 transfer fee deducted.

I knew all a about the casback but didn't realise it was paid to my solcitor on completion. I thought they just sent me a cheque!!!

Panic over.. it sounds simple now

Thanks again..