Consent to Mortgage - Witness fee!

vo-vo

We visited our solicitor today to sign the mortgage deed, but we have another form 'Consent to Mortgage' which I need to sign, as my name is not on the mortgage. The solicitor mentioned that he could not witness this signature as there will be conflict of interest if anything goes wrong. I was told to bring it to another solicitor as witness for the signature, and he told me that will cost about £100-£400, and obviously he recommended someone to me. I thought this is a lot of money just to witness a signature

Do I really need to sign with a solicitor as a witness? Or can I get anyone else? Accountant? Professor? Mortgage advisor? or anyone?

Please advise - anyone done this before? Mortgage is with Halifax.

mancitychick

I would of expected to pay a fixed charge of approx £10 - £15 for a solictor to witness this. We paid £10.00 approx 18 months ago for a local solictor to witness a signing for us - Then again ours was not for a mortgage.

silvercar

Sounds like a joke for a signiture witnessing; unless he is saying you need to take independent legal advice and that is what a solicitor would charge to explain to you that you have are sigining over all your rights and that the mortgage company have the right to repossess over your head if need be.

Now you know all that, you can get any professional person to witness your signiture and sign something that you have been advised to take independent legal advice.

vo-vo

I'm really not sure now... I'll call and check with some local solicitor today.
Has anyone else done this recently? How much did you have to pay?

JoeK_3

peiw wrote: »

I'm really not sure now... I'll call and check with some local solicitor today.
Has anyone else done this recently? How much did you have to pay?

Big rif off! Cost should be around £10. Report the solicitor to the Law Society!

Ring round and get quotes.

JoeK

toonfish

the others are right - £10 in the charity box is the standard way round here

Lennylegs

Hi

We paid £15 to our solicitor for witnessing our signatures about 2 years ago and he put it in their 'cakes and biscuits' fund as we gave it to him !
Sounds like he's trying to rip you off.
Good luck
x

Bossyboots

No, it is not an attempted rip off as such although £400 is rather high. When this document is witnessed the solicitor has to sign to say they have advised you of your rights and what you are risking by signing. Therefore, you have to pay for the advice which is likely to be charged at the full hourly rate of the solicitor signing the document. Added to that, because you have been advised there is the potential for a future claim so the fee will be increased to incorporate an element of indemnity insurance. Doing it legally, the money then has to go through the books so there are the overheads of processing it. Then there is the fee for actually witnessing the signature.

These documents have become such a minefield that there is not a single legal firm in our high street that will offer this service now, even for £400 as they are simply not worth the hassle. I am not surprised some firms will take "biscuit money" although they are foolish to do so because there will be no record of the advice or transaction if it should come back to haunt them.

JoeK_3

Bossyboots wrote: »

No, it is not an attempted rip off as such although £400 is rather high. When this document is witnessed the solicitor has to sign to say they have advised you of your rights and what you are risking by signing. Therefore, you have to pay for the advice which is likely to be charged at the full hourly rate of the solicitor signing the document. Added to that, because you have been advised there is the potential for a future claim so the fee will be increased to incorporate an element of indemnity insurance. Doing it legally, the money then has to go through the books so there are the overheads of processing it. Then there is the fee for actually witnessing the signature.

These documents have become such a minefield that there is not a single legal firm in our high street that will offer this service now, even for £400 as they are simply not worth the hassle. I am not surprised some firms will take "biscuit money" although they are foolish to do so because there will be no record of the advice or transaction if it should come back to haunt them.

Absolute rubbish. This is not about giving advice, it's about witnessing a consent to mortgage form.

This is a standard form that is signed by a person that is over the age of 17 living in the house.

JoeK

Bossyboots

JoeK wrote: »

Absolute rubbish. This is not about giving advice, it's about witnessing a consent to mortgage form.

This is a standard form that is signed by a person that is over the age of 17 living in the house.

JoeK

I beg your pardon. Do you deal with these forms every day then? Are you qualified to sign them and rich enough not to worry about being indemnified in the event of missing something out?

The form clearly states that the solicitor signing is also certifying that they have explained to the person their rights and what will happen if the mortgage is defaulted on. It may not be country wide, but in my area most are refusing to sign them without being paid a proper advice fee for the reasons I have stated. It never used to be the case that advice was necessary and some companies were slow to catch on but the mortgage lenders now cover themselves by batting responsibility back to the witness to advise on the pitfalls of signing the mortgage consent.

JoeK_3

I beg your pardon. Do you deal with these forms every day then? Are you qualified to sign them and rich enough not to worry about being indemnified in the event of missing something out?

Bossyboots wrote: »

The form clearly states that the solicitor signing is also certifying that they have explained to the person their rights and what will happen if the mortgage is defaulted on. It may not be country wide, but in my area most are refusing to sign them without being paid a proper advice fee for the reasons I have stated. It never used to be the case that advice was necessary and some companies were slow to catch on but the mortgage lenders now cover themselves by batting responsibility back to the witness to advise on the pitfalls of signing the mortgage consent.

We in the industry understand the reason for a consent to mortgage form and the need to have the documents signed for the lender but how long will it take to explain this to a client, 4 hours @ £100 per hour? Come on now let's be sensible!

This could be the next endowment complaint of the future!

I think the Law Society should be made aware of which way this is going!

JoeK