Ex partner buying my half of house - do I need a solicitor?

jezza270

Hi,

My Ex partner is buying my half of the house. She paid cash and I took out a mortgage for my half. She will be using cash plus a new mortgage to buy my half.

Everything is totally amicable between my ex partner and myself. Do I need a solicitor to deal with everything such as the deeds and paying off my mortgage,etc? Or can I do everything myself and save money?

My Ex's bank want to know if her name is on the mortgage which I believe they want to know to find out if she is a first time buyer and qualifies for free conveyancing etc. Her name is on the next to mine as "Mortgagor" but my name only appears next to "Borrower". Does this mean she will qualify as a 1st time buyer as it was only me who was paying for the mortgage?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jerry

G_M

Yes.

With mortgage lenders involved you'll need solicitors.

Thrugelmir

If you can use the same solicitor to act for both of you. It should be more cost efficient.

goodwithsaving

Nothing of value to add but credit to you both for being so amicable. Nice to hear, makes a change from the stories of animosity and difficulty.

jezza270

Many thanks for all your replys.

Just one more question. My ex-partner has just received a letter from her solicitor showing costs for various services that will be provided. Does she have to pay again for the same services which were provided by our solicitor about 18 months ago when we purchased the new build house.? I am refering to such things as a Local Authority search, Drainage & Water search, Environment search, etc., etc.

I have copies of the Drainage & Water search and I remember that our original solicitor said he held the documents that we would need if the house was resold.

Thanks in advance.

Jerry

G_M

If she does not wat the searches etc repeated, she can tell her solicitor not to bother.

But as she's getting a mortgage, her lender will probobly insist that their solicitor undertake the searches......

davidmcn

Searches generally need to be up to date to be much use - purchasers (and/or lenders) want to know whether or not there are proposals now for bad things to happen to the house, not whether or not there were two years ago. Some things arguably don't need updated (e.g. if the road or sewer were public in the past, they're still going to be today).

Anyway, obviously your ex is familiar with the house, so she only needs to get the bare minimum that her lender requires.

TBagpuss

jezza270 wrote: »

Many thanks for all your replys.

Just one more question. My ex-partner has just received a letter from her solicitor showing costs for various services that will be provided. Does she have to pay again for the same services which were provided by our solicitor about 18 months ago when we purchased the new build house.? I am refering to such things as a Local Authority search, Drainage & Water search, Environment search, etc., etc.

I have copies of the Drainage & Water search and I remember that our original solicitor said he held the documents that we would need if the house was resold.

Thanks in advance.

Jerry

it depends - if she is remortgaging with the same lender your current mortgage is with, she may not need all of the searches to be redone. If it is a different compnay, she will need new searches.

If it is the same lender then she can ask her solicitors to check whether she needs eveything, but probably they will want more up to date versions of at least some of them.

jezza270

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you can use the same solicitor to act for both of you. It should be more cost efficient.

I have been advised that I can use the same firm as my ex-partner but not sure if it is the same solicitor.

My question is how much approxiamately should I be paying for a solicitors service if I only need a change to the title deeds to my ex-partners name and for my mortgage to be repaid. I have been quoted £445. Is this reasonable?

Is there anything I can do myself such as getting a redemption letter from the mortgage providers, etc., to save money?

Thanks for any advice.

G_M

As always, the advice is to shop around. Get 3 - 4 quotes.

No, the lender's solicitor will sort out the redemption.

jezza270

G_M wrote: »

As always, the advice is to shop around. Get 3 - 4 quotes.

No, the lender's solicitor will sort out the redemption.

Thanks for your reply. I am the only one with a mortgage as my ex-partner bought her half of the house with cash so I presume it is my job to sort out the redemption.