Remortgage to First Direct -- Conveyancing question

guymo

We are attempting to remortgage to First Direct from Nationwide and have received the mortgage offer today.

The offer includes a £450 Conveyancing fee with the associated note "This figure is an estimate as it only covers work undertaken on our behalf. You should ask your Conveyancer for the cost of any conveyancing work carried out on your behalf". 

Just below the list of fees there is the additional note "You will need to pay a fee to register the legal charge you give first direct over the property. This fee is non-refundable and payable upon request to the Conveyancer acting on first direct's behalf to reflect Land Registry charges. You should ask your Conveyancer for more information."

The references to "your Conveyancer" have surprised me as I imagined first direct would handle the legal aspects. We've owned the house for 16 years and have remortgaged a few times in that period (Santander to First Direct to Nationwide and now back to First Direct) and never instructed a solicitor directly so I am caught off guard here. 

Do I need to find and instruct an additional conveyancer to act on our behalf? We are not changing anything about the ownership of the house etc. 

Thanks for any insight! 

K_S

guymo said:

We are attempting to remortgage to First Direct from Nationwide and have received the mortgage offer today.

The offer includes a £450 Conveyancing fee with the associated note "This figure is an estimate as it only covers work undertaken on our behalf. You should ask your Conveyancer for the cost of any conveyancing work carried out on your behalf". 

Just below the list of fees there is the additional note "You will need to pay a fee to register the legal charge you give first direct over the property. This fee is non-refundable and payable upon request to the Conveyancer acting on first direct's behalf to reflect Land Registry charges. You should ask your Conveyancer for more information."

The references to "your Conveyancer" have surprised me as I imagined first direct would handle the legal aspects. We've owned the house for 16 years and have remortgaged a few times in that period (Santander to First Direct to Nationwide and now back to First Direct) and never instructed a solicitor directly so I am caught off guard here. 

Do I need to find and instruct an additional conveyancer to act on our behalf? We are not changing anything about the ownership of the house etc. 

Thanks for any insight! 

@guymo Is this the mortgage offer or the illustration/KFI prior to making an application?

If it's an offer, then during the application process you would have been asked to either select lender free legals (if FD offers it) or enter your conveyancer details. If you didn't enter any conveyancer details, then it's almost certainly lender free legals and you should have received some communication from the free legals provider.

guymo

Thanks for the reply.

The document is entitled "Your Mortgage Offer" and the accompanying email says "As promised we’ve attached your mortgage Offer along with the  Mortgage Loan Terms and Conditions."

In the application process we were not asked to name a solicitor. I have just double checked the copy of the online application details which I was sent and there is no mention of either that or anything similar to "lender free legals", and we have not yet been contacted by lender's representatives.

 The terms of the application included the following which I found innocuous at the time:

Solicitors
'If you are buying a property or changing its ownership', you will need 
to be represented by a solicitor or licenced conveyancer.first direct 
will also need to be represented. If you are remortgaging, you may not 
need to be represented, but first direct need to be. Please note that 
first direct can only instruct solicitors who are registered with the 
Law Society.

The people I spoke to at FD when going over our details were keen to confirm that there was no change of ownership involved, so I suppose they were making sure there would be no need for further legal representation. However the offer refers to "your conveyancer" as mentioned above so I am left puzzled. 

I guess I should phone them? 

K_S

guymo said:

Thanks for the reply.

The document is entitled "Your Mortgage Offer" and the accompanying email says "As promised we’ve attached your mortgage Offer along with the  Mortgage Loan Terms and Conditions."

In the application process we were not asked to name a solicitor. I have just double checked the copy of the online application details which I was sent and there is no mention of either that or anything similar to "lender free legals", and we have not yet been contacted by lender's representatives.

 The terms of the application included the following which I found innocuous at the time:

Solicitors
'If you are buying a property or changing its ownership', you will need 
to be represented by a solicitor or licenced conveyancer.first direct 
will also need to be represented. If you are remortgaging, you may not 
need to be represented, but first direct need to be. Please note that 
first direct can only instruct solicitors who are registered with the 
Law Society.

The people I spoke to at FD when going over our details were keen to confirm that there was no change of ownership involved, so I suppose they were making sure there would be no need for further legal representation. However the offer refers to "your conveyancer" as mentioned above so I am left puzzled. 

I guess I should phone them? 

@guymo I can't speaking for FD specifically as they're a direct-only lender, but I've never come across a remortgage (changing lenders) myself where a conveyancer was not involved.

Best give them a call. If I had to guess, I'd say the product you've applied for includes free legals, but even that means a conveyancer being involved.

Hopefully someone with direct experience of the FD remo process will jump in.

guymo

Thanks again.

I just got off the phone with FD and they said there are no further fees to pay -- despite the fee stated in the Offer document which I pointed out a couple of times -- and that they will instruct Enact to handle the conveyancing unless we specifically request separate representation. 

K_S said:

Hopefully someone with direct experience of the FD remo process will jump in.

That would be very helpful because, despite the clear statement on the telephone that we don't need to do anything further, I do still feel a bit confused. 

K_S

guymo said:

Thanks again.

I just got off the phone with FD and they said there are no further fees to pay -- despite the fee stated in the Offer document which I pointed out a couple of times -- and that they will instruct Enact to handle the conveyancing unless we specifically request separate representation. 

K_S said:

Hopefully someone with direct experience of the FD remo process will jump in.

That would be very helpful because, despite the clear statement on the telephone that we don't need to do anything further, I do still feel a bit confused. 

@guyno Enact is a lender free legals conveyancing provider, so there's your answer They should be in touch shortly to get you signed up etc.

guymo

Perfect, thank you! 

kingstreet

Before you applied, you should have received an illustration. This is taken from an HSBC remortgage illustration produced yesterday;-

"If you choose to use HSBC's appointed Conveyancer on your remortgage, HSBC will cover the fee for the standard legal work undertaken on HSBC's behalf, with any fees for non-standard legal work being payable by you."  

This is on page three, in box 4. I'd expect an FD illustration to be broadly the same.

This is also visible on an HSBC Offer Illustration in section 9 on page seven.

guymo

kingstreet said:

Before you applied, you should have received an illustration. 

That's useful and perhaps a bit worrying: I did not receive a Key Facts illustration.

I also noticed that the mortgage offer lists only my name next to "Borrowers" which could be an issue because the mortgage is supposed to be joint with my wife. The previous electronic communications went to us both but the offer came only to me. It seems something may have gone awry. Most likely it will get ironed out but I think another phone call may be in order. 

guymo

I also found this on FD's web site. It does not appear in any of the documents I have received but does at least agree with what I was told on the telephone this morning:

"Where the mortgage and property will both continue to be in the same names and the property will be your main residence, we will prepare the legal documentation. This means that there will be no basic solicitors costs for you to pay. However you will not have any legal representation unless you arrange and pay for it yourself."

guymo

First Direct confirmed that the offer document I was sent was incorrect. Not a great start. With any luck they will fix it in the coming days.