Leasehold remortgage with free legals

smsh

I'm in the process of remortgaging my leasehold flat, I've already got a mortgage offer and was contacted by lender's solicitors which were offered as free legals with the mortgage.

Right off the bat I've got an email saying that they received copies of the register for my property and that "These reveal a restriction held in favour of <LANDLORD>, for which I will require consent to the remortgage application prior to completion. My fees in respect of this consent will be £75.00 plus VAT payable by you on completion of the transaction."

To be honest, I am puzzled why free legals for leasehold remortgage doesn't include obtaining consent which is required for any leasehold remortgage.

Is this normal? Can I obtain this consent myself? Should I expect more surprises from these solicitors?

Any tips are appreciated!

IAMIAM

Had the same problem.....remortgage with free legals is default freehold only.....leasehold...expect to be pay a couple of hundred extra in fees....I actually rang some of the main conveyors that lenders use.....there is a very select few lenders who pay for leasehold....they wouldn't tell me who

user1977

smsh said:

To be honest, I am puzzled why free legals for leasehold remortgage doesn't include obtaining consent which is required for any leasehold remortgage.

Consents aren't required for all leaseholds, it depends on the terms of the lease.

I doubt doing it yourself will help, the solicitors will probably have to spend just as much time checking you've done it properly.

steampowered

Consents are not required for all leasehold properties.

If you feel this should be covered by the "free legals" offer, you should take that up with the lender - as it is the lender's decision not to cover this cost. 

It isn't the solicitor's fault. It's perfectly reasonable for the solicitor to charge an additional fee where additional work is required. No doubt the lender is only covering the absolute minimum base cost.

csgohan4

When I remortgaged with free legals I had to pay a few hundred due to a leasehold garage sadly with no issues with the title