Mortage question and Hidden costs of solicitors

ghulam35

I intially applied for a mortgage in May and got a decision in principle on the 24th May. I paid the arrangement (£400) and booking fee (£99) on a 4 year fixed mortgage at a rate of 3.99% and then reverting back to SVR.

Since then the rate on the same product has gone down to 3.74% fixed for 4 years. The bank has offered me to go on that rate at a further cost of £99. is this worth it? In the 4 year terms it saves £480 over the 4 year period (in reality it'll save £282 when taking account the £99 fee I've already paid and the further £99 fee i will have to pay again to come on the lower rate)

I will be putting 15% deposit down on house costing 89,000. I would have initially gone for first direct which is fixed at 3.79% for 5 years and fee free but I was told that they were very strict with they terms.

The only problem with changing the rate is that the bank lady is saying that there is a technical problem and can't change it at the moment, she logged this as a fault because it isn't showing on her system 3 weeks ago. She rang on Friday to give an update that they still trying to resolve it. The problem with this is that it will be 3 months on 18th August, if its not resolved by then and I have to change the fee then I will have to pay the £400 arrangement fee again to get on the lower rate. Is it possible that the bank is purposely delaying it so I don't change to lower rate? As the offer on the 4 fixed rate at 3.99% has already been issued.

Another thing the solicitor sent a breakdown of the costs today with demand for £200 to start searches, he initially told me its gonna cost around £600 but the total for his fees are £1038.

The house I’m buying is freehold at £89,000 and I am first time buyer.
Legal fees £450
SDLT £50 = Stamp Duty Land Tax not applicable on this property with it only costing £89000
Land Registry Search £7.00 – Land registry search only costs £3.00 and has already been done by conveyancer. Could I give him a copy of this?
Land Registry fee £120
Telegraphic transfer £24
Local search £90
Drainage & Water search £46
Coal mining search £39 – Property is not located in a previous mining area or within the cachement are for mining in the past, so is there any point of doing this search?
Bankruptcy search £2
Ground landlord registration fee £160
Preparation of notice to the ground landlord £50

Are these fees reasonable?

Thrugelmir

Only £450 is actual fees. The remainder you would pay who ever the conveyancer was, as they are disbursements.

ghulam35

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Only £450 is actual fees. The remainder you would pay who ever the conveyancer was, as they are disbursements.

Conveyancer who did homebuyer survey or a different conveyancer?

I just used the SDLT calculator on the government website, and it said £0.00 fees are applicable on my purchase.

What are theses 2 fees that I am confused about

Ground landlord registration fee £160
Preparation of notice to the ground landlord £50

kingstreet

Conveyancer = solicitor, not surveyor, so nothing to do with your homebuyer's survey.

You are below the threshold for stamp duty, but a SDLT return always has to be filed. You appear to have picked a solicitor who charges separately for this. Many include it in their headline rate.

Are you sure this is a freehold purchase? The costs mentioned suggest it's leasehold.

You need to talk to Nationwide about the mortgage product.

ghulam35

kingstreet wrote: »

Conveyancer = solicitor, not surveyor, so nothing to do with your homebuyer's survey.

You are below the threshold for stamp duty, but a SDLT return always has to be filed. You appear to have picked a solicitor who charges separately for this. Many include it in their headline rate.

Are you sure this is a freehold purchase? The costs mentioned suggest it's leasehold.

You need to talk to Nationwide about the mortgage product.

Yes the property is definitely a free hold. I've heard it is common practice for some conveyancing solicitors to add extra. The coal and mining fee for example is not required by nationwide but solicitor is still charging me for this.

Nationwide have refused to let me move to the lower rate now that they offering. So what I want to know if I was to apply for another mortgage with first direct or Lloyds tsb, will I have to pay again for survey or will I be able to use same survey that got done by nationwide and carried out by a company in Leeds that is a sub contractor of countywide surveying.

kingstreet

You need to ask the lenders. FD doesn't accept business from brokers, so only someone in the same situation can answer. Lloyds uses only the LBG member Colleys, so I suspect they will want another report.

The solicitor may have quoted costs in case they apply, but won't actually charge them if the lender doe not require the report in question.