Changing solicitors for my first remortgage?

tadaska

Howdy,

I am mid second year of my mortgage (2 year fixed) and looking into remortgaging for a 10 year fixed. My bank does not offer 10 year (NatWest 5 year max) so would have to change banks. But I also would like to change solicitors. My mortgage broker was London and Country so I went with their recommended solicitors (Grindeys) and they were very very bad. I'm not sure how much involvement solicitors have in remortgaging process but I'd rather not have to deal with Grindeys again. Is it a good idea to change to a local solicitor? Also what solicitor fee should I be expecting to pay to remortgage?

All advice/recommendations/input will be appreciated.

Thank you!

Thrugelmir

You'll need to a solicitor that's on you new lenders panel. Otherwise you would incur additional costs.

Mr.Generous

I never realised you needed a solicitor to remortgage, I only ever did it once and stayed with the same lender. You live and learn.

kingstreet

Mr.Generous wrote: »

I never realised you needed a solicitor to remortgage, I only ever did it once and stayed with the same lender. You live and learn.

That's not a remortgage.

That's a customer retention product, or product transfer.

A remortgage is a new mortgage from a new lender to repay the old mortgage on the same property. Because the mortgage deed is replaced, this is a remortgage.

To the OP, many lenders offer free legals on remortgages so you'll pay nothing, but you have to accept whichever firm the lender appoints. If you wish to use a firm of your choice, look for a remortgage deal with a cashback on completion to help defray the legal costs.

tadaska

Does my original solicitor have anything that belongs to me but is kept by a solicitor? Like for example I often see "look in your Deeds" when people ask something about their property on forums. But I don't think I even have any Deeds. I assumed they were kept by the solicitors in my file or something. Are they? And will everything my original solicitor has on me go to the one dealing with the remortgage?

kingstreet

tadaska wrote: »

Does my original solicitor have anything that belongs to me but is kept by a solicitor? Like for example I often see "look in your Deeds" when people ask something about their property on forums. But I don't think I even have any Deeds. I assumed they were kept by the solicitors in my file or something. Are they? And will everything my original solicitor has on me go to the one dealing with the remortgage?

No. Your property is registered at the Land Registry.

The solicitor which handled your purchase should have nothing which belongs to you and they have no hold on your future business.