Transfer of equity

BigBird2013

Hi there,

I don't know if anyone can advise but I am currently in the process of buying out my ex (I am borrowing money from family) on our leasehold flat as we have been unable to sell. His name will be removed from the mortage and the deeds. I have a consent to lease approval from our current lender and have now rented out the flat to cover the mortgage (fixed rate until sept 2014). I have been advised of the legal costs after my mortgage advisor (from my lender) advised me that I was entitled to free legal plus the cost of transfer of equity and disbursements.

I've been advised by the solicitor (instructed through my lender) of the following and that I am not entitled to free legal:

Transfer of Equity - £265.00 + VAT
Consent to Mortgage - £150.00 + VAT
Disbursements
Land Registry Fees to register the transfer and Deed to vary the terms of the existing mortgage - £60.00
Land Registry Search - £3.00
Bankruptcy Search - £4.00
Official Copy Entries of your title - £6.00
Lenders Insolvency Indemnity Insurance - £111.05
plus Transfer and Charge to your freeholder of about £50-100


I don't understand what consent to mortage is. I will be the sole person on the mortgage and I will have a tenant paying rent and residing in the flat?

Are all of these legal fee and procedures standard with situations such as mine?

Help!

zzzLazyDaisy

Are you sure it is 'consent to mortgage' and not 'consent to let' ?

Consent to let is needed if you have a residential mortgage on a flat that is, or has been, your home, and you wish to let out to tenants.

The other fees are standard disbursements (expenses payable to third parties by the solicitor on your behalf).

There is no figure for solicitor's fees there, so I am presuming the lender is paying your solicitor's costs?

BigBird2013

Hey Lazydaisy,

I've had consent to let from the lender a while back, I've done it all above board. This is now what the solicitor needs to do to process my case. The actual words used are 'consent to mortage'.....I'm assuming this is something to with the existing mortage being put in my sole name. The solicitors fees are the two combined, consent to mortgage and transfer of equity.

TheFactory

Hi basically I have just been in your exact predicament myself but I instructed my own solicitor. That consent to mortgage will be the banks credit check and paperwork to accept you as the sole lender, mine was £160 at Halifax.

zzzLazyDaisy

Well, you may be right, but the 'transfer of equity' and 'consent to mortgage' sound like lender's fees to me.

The only thing you can do is phone the solicitor and ask them to explain what the various charges are for.

Unfortunately, it is Friday afternoon on a sunny bank holiday weekend, so I doubt you'll get much joy today. So you might as well forget it and enjoy the weekend (unless someone with conveyancing expertise comes along in the meantime).

BigBird2013

Thanks lovely x

I've also paid an 'transfer of mortgaged property fee' upon application ( to C and G) of £160 which is their admin costs on top of all the solicitors bits.
Have a lovely bank holiday...mine's a stiff G and T!

Goldiegirl

Re consent to mortgage.

When a person takes out a mortgage on a property to live in, any other adults living on the property (apart from the grown up children of the borrowers) have to sign a deed to confirm they are aware of the mortgage. Or in other words give consent to mortgage.

This is because, if the lender took possession of the property, the person not on the mortgage couldn't refuse to be evicted, because they have signed a document to confirm they were aware of a mortgage on the property.

Just wondering if your solicitor has got it into his head that your tenant needs to give consent to the mortgage. I'm not sure it's appropriate for a tenant, so you may wish to ask him about this

kingstreet

You need a consent to mortgage if there is anyone living in the property on the day the remortgage or TofE is completed if they are not party to the mortgage application/TofE.

Standard. Tenant, or child over 17, they are all the same...

... it's needed to avoid the creation of an implied tenancy if the borrower defaults and the lender needs to exercise power of sale prerogative.