Girlfriend Remortgaging - with me coming onto it - advice

andyuk2005

Hi all,

Thanks very much for your replies, some of them are very helpful.

I think I may have confused things a bit, by not making it very clear what we have been told by our Mortgage Advisor and our suggested Solicitor.

We are changing lenders, during this remortgaging. We will be charged a £999 arrangement fee by the lender. We will also be charged £250 by the advisor for our services.

The lender has agreed that I will come onto the mortgage. We haven't been advised of any other fees on that side.

The new solicitor who was going to assist with the other legal stuff was charging the below:


- Legal Fees: £995.00 plus VAT



- Plus lender/mortgage admin fee: £350.00 plus VAT



- Transfer of Equity fee: £500.00 plus VAT



Plus standard disbursements:-


- H.M. Land Registry fee: Circa £80.00



- Stamp Duty Land Tax (Based on 50% of the loan amount of £125,000.00): £0.00


- (“Regulated Search Pack”) - Local, chancel, drainage, planning and environment search fees: Total: £327.09 plus VAT. This is if the new lender requires searches. We will ascertain if they will accept no search indemnity insurance (usually much cheaper and quicker to arrange).



- If leasehold, landlord or managing agents administration fees to register the new charge and to supply information: To be confirmed in due course.


- Bank Telegraphic transfer fee: £25.00 plus VAT per transfer

- Bankruptcy search fee: £2.00 per name

- Land Registry search fee: £3.00



- AML (anti-money laundering electronic ID check): £13.50 plus VAT (per name). This involves downloading an “app” and following instructions and procedures through the app. However, if instead you would prefer to come into our office with your original ID, the electronic search cost is reduced to £3.70 plus VAT (per name).


There are no additional charges for archive fees, photocopying, faxing, postages, stamps, scanning, telephone calls, letters or emails etc. Our above fee is “all inclusive”. Please look out for hidden extras/very small print, when obtaining quotes from other firms.



From the sounds of it, these guys may be a bit expensive?! I'd comfortably do the TR1 form for the change in property title. Deed of trust would be a little more difficult, but I'm sure we could find a more competitive solicitor.

davidmcn

andyuk2005 wrote: »

- Legal Fees: £995.00 plus VAT

- Plus lender/mortgage admin fee: £350.00 plus VAT

- Transfer of Equity fee: £500.00 plus VAT

Those are absurdly high.

If "lender/mortgage admin" is "dealing with the new lender's requirements", that leaves the transfer of equity as the only other thing they're doing - so what's the £995 for?!

trex227

Is the new lender one of the more unusual ones ie not high street? Is the value of the property very high (though I’d assume not given the quoted Land Reg fee)?

The firm I worked at the £800ish total included Land Reg fee and search indemnity!

andyuk2005

I thought there was something fishy about those fees! Thanks for telling me they are high!

The property value is 340k, and the lender we're going with is Nationwide! The solicitor fees are all separate, and I'm wondering if they're required at all to sort out the mortgage?

remembermee

In a very similar position. Our remortgage is the end of September. We’ve done all the paperwork but not much said about the transfer of equity. When I rang the solicitor they said they do this after the remortgage. That seems odd to me.

Incidentally we’re paying £300 plus vat.

[Deleted User]

andyuk2005 wrote: »

I thought there was something fishy about those fees! Thanks for telling me they are high!

The property value is 340k, and the lender we're going with is Nationwide! The solicitor fees are all separate, and I'm wondering if they're required at all to sort out the mortgage?

Nationwide don't offer free legals anymore due to constant complaints about the service. You should be getting £500 cashback instead?
Really you shouldn't be spending more than £700 for a remo with transfer of equity

steampowered

You cannot do the TR1 yourself in a mortgage situation. It will all have to be done at the same time and handled by the solicitor (who is also acting for the lender).