advice on legal issue to do with mortgage

practicalgal

hi, i remortgaged my house 1 1/2 years ago with different lender. i used their lawyers for conveyancing and they were rubbish took ages to complete everything. so i was surprised to get letter from same solicitor this week saying that they didn't have a Standard Security for my mortgage and would i kindly sign and return the enclosed one. Now it's a legal document requiring to be witnessed. The Standard Security is the mortgage deed in scotland i think. anyone know what this means? how serious is it that they don't have this. to be honest i don't even remember signing anything at the time which i did think was odd

practicalgal

anyone got any idea???

WildHaggis

I'm not a lawyer.
What I think it means is that the solicitor messed up, and that the mortgage lender does not have any hold on the property. So it is possible that if you are in arrears, they cannot reposess your house, or legally collect the entire debt.
Consult a solicitor. today.

Dan_Collins_2

Although being solicitors they have no come back as they own the law society and do what they like!

I would sign it and return it. May be worth checking with a solicitor but I guess he will say the same. I would also report this to the lender, as a broker I get fed up with free legals ending in poor service!

practicalgal

it wasn't free legal. It was the one the mortgage company recommended, they used it too. but I paid.

silvercar

Although it may be fun to say that you have been advised not to sign it as you are better off without it, the lenders response will probably be to say they will demand repayment of the mortgage. Although they have no charge on the property, a court would side with them as it was clearly an error/ omission. To continue to borrow the money without a charge, you should be paying an unsecured rate.

Only way you will benefit is if you want to remortgage to a different lender at the moment. Then you could repay the loan and walk away with no ERC I imagine.

You could tell them that you will need to take legal advice before signing and ask them to pay for the cost of this.

Spudwud

This is something thats more common that you think. Basically you have them over a barrel, I've known people to run up 5+yrs of arrears while these issues get resolved due to the solicitors failing to do their job properly and the lending going ahead without the lenders charge actually being registered on the property.

dunstonh

... in the meantime, that 5 years of arrears is recorded on your credit file and blows any chance of getting any further credit or future mortgages.

Whilst they may not be able to resposses using conventional means, they could call in the ballifs and create all sorts of difficulties for you.

The Courts would side with the lender as it would be obvious that it was a clerical error and that you were trying to get something you were not entitled to.

practicalgal

I was never proposing doing something like that, I was just puzzled as to what it means.