About to finish paying Alliance and Leicester mortgage - what happens

littlerock

I have an A+ L repayment mortgage which I have had forever. I have always paid for it on a SO and some years back I increased this to repay more quickly. I recently had my annual mortgage statement from Santander and see the happy day is very soon approaching when it will be fully paid off. There was a leaflet with the statement but it was a generic one and did not mention what happens when you have finished paying for the loan.

I believe A + L older mortgages are on different terms to Santander ones. I am not clear what happens next? From what I can work out, the SO means there will be an overpayment the month it ends. I do not wish to cancel the SO before that or I will be underpaying that month.

I have had no notification from Santander that my mortgage will be completely paid off shortly. Will I get a final statement and repayment of any balancing amounts plus the fees, sent to me automatically?@

worried_jim

Give them a call and ask, you may cancel the SO and go into a branch the day it is due and pay over the counter ( my parents did this, wanted to make a day of it) well done on becoming mortgage free!

littlerock

My SO is not with Santander but my own Bank (Barckays). I am not quite sure where it leaves my house insurance which was linked to the mortgage and taken out with A + L as part of the original deal. I think it was uncoupled some years back but need to find out.

More concerning is that all this is imminent and not a sqeak so far out of Santander. Will they send me the deeds? I believe there is also a form to be completed (firrm 53/ds1?), to remove the charge from the property in the Land Registry? Will Santander initiate this?

Land_Registry

If the property is registered then Santander will apply themselves to have the charge removed. It's done electronically so no paper forms exist

A form 53 is a very old form used to remove a charge whilst the DS1 is more recent.

If it is unregistered they should return the original deeds/documents to you so I would suggest asking them to confirm what happens next re the registered title/unregistered deeds and then can confirm/advise.

For wider guidance on deeds etc have a read of our blog article

littlerock

Thanks for that. I have spoken to Santander and they confirmed they will notify the LR electronically that the mortgage is paid up. I asked about the actual deeds (it is an old house and has changed hands quite a few times in the past.) They said these have been "dematerialised" which they said means the originals were sent to the Land Registry, to whom I should apply if I want copies.

Land_Registry

littlerock - dematerialisation relates to the Land/Charge Certificate which we used to issue and which was effectively a copy of the registered title. It does not relate to the original deeds/documents for the property

These are returned to the applicant at the time of first registration and may then be passed on to each new owner. However that tends not to always happen so tracing the original deeds/documents is often a fruitless task.