HSBC Legal Team forcing options to remove unilateral notice

Phteven_2

My mum has a mortgage offer from HSBC to remortgage her house. They are using a legal services called Involegal. Mum is aware that for years she has a charge registered on her property from an old debt with NatWest. It’s so old it isn’t on her credit file anymore, but as it’s showing as a unilateral notice on the land registry, it has to be dealt with and in fact the mortgage was designed to include the funds to pay that debt off.

The issue is, she’s been sent these forms to sign and send back to Involegal where they are giving her 2 options only to choose from;

1) give the name and address of her own solicitor that will be dealing with the removal of the unilateral notice 

OR

2) become a client of Involegal where they will charge £150 + VAT to have it removed.

Crucially the wording says that to proceed with the remortgage the unilateral notice has to be removed.

How can it be removed before the funds are allocated to the debt thus stopping NatWest from challenging a removal? I’m finding this confusing and from what I’m reading about unilateral notices mum shouldn’t need to pay anyone in theory to deal with it, she could do it herself, but then it looks like she won’t be able to do that because Involegal make it sound like the remortgage can’t be processed unless they know another solicitor is handling it or she pays them to do it.

If anyone had any advice here it would be appreciated!

MWT

I would ask them to explain the process in terms of what gets paid and when, but I would suspect that they are insisting on a solicitor being involved because that way they can be 100% sure that if they release the funds, the charge will be satisfied.

I highly doubt they would ever agree to release funds to your mother on a promise that she would then deal with the charge.

So one way or another she is going to have to pay a solicitor to handle that part...

Thrugelmir

A solicitors time needs to be paid for in order to remove the legal charge placed on the property.  That's the bottom line. The only decision to be made is who handles this aspect of the remortgage. As it lies outside services normally provided. HSBC aren't going to release the monies until they are satisfied that the condition will be met. 

[Deleted User]

Natwest will allow the charge to be removed on the basis that a solicitor is handling it and they will 100% be getting their money. 

All involegal have to confirm to hsbc is that they will be sorting it and hsbc will have the only charge.  What happens behind the scenes is down to solicitors communicating with each other and its possible the actual title wont be cleaned up for a few weeks after completion. 

newdriver101

If a charge has been discharged or is no longer applicable then this is normally a straight-forward matter and something you can do yourself - Land Registry can tell you what form to complete and they will contact NatWest and update the register.

however, in this case - your situation is slightly more complicated because you need the new HSBC remortgage to pay off the NatWest charge and NatWest won’t remove the charge unless they are paid.

Involegal has said they can do the legal/background work for you but it is not part of the normal remortgage transaction so there is an extra cost involved.  You can pay Involegal to act on your behalf or hire your own solicitors (or do it yourself) - you just need to let Involegal know what you decide.

It may be best use a solicitor and not try to do it yourself as other posters have said NatWest will only agree to remove the charge if they get an undertaking that they will be repaid the amount they are due - and NatWest is more likely to accept the undertaking/guarantee of a solicitor rather than your mum...  I suspect it will be quicker to get Involegal to do it rather than find your own solicitors - bear in mind this process can take weeks to sort out so will delay completion of your mum’s remortgage...

davidmcn

newdriver101 said:

It may be best use a solicitor and not try to do it yourself as other posters have said NatWest will only agree to remove the charge if they get an undertaking that they will be repaid the amount they are due - and NatWest is more likely to accept the undertaking/guarantee of a solicitor rather than your mum... 

There is absolutely no way on earth they would accept the word of a borrower that they're going to redeem and discharge the existing loan.