Remortgage and Transfer of equity

TheBlacklist2013

Hi

My sister and I own the property I am living in. We had a 2-year mortgage from Halifax, which is coming to an end at the end of June. We would like to remove my sisters name from the property and add my wife's name to it. This would be treated as a gift transfer, so no finances will be involved. 

My wife and I have already received a new mortgage offer from Santander. The property is a freehold, but the freehold and leasehold titles are registered separately in Land Registry. Both are currently owned by my sister and I. 

My questions: 

1. How much the transfer of equity usually costs, if a new mortgage offer is already in place
2. Any websites where we can compare quotes from solicitors/conveyancers 
3. What is involved in the transfer of equity process? My understanding is a transfer deed needs to be prepared and Land Registry to be informed for updating titles, is that it or are there any other processes invovled? 

Thank you for taking time to reply to this. 

stripling

This is from memory so it's a bit vague and obviously you need to check but roughly: 
You and your sister will have to have separate solicitors.
The fees I paid for a TOE were about £350 (just over a year ago) but the cost may have been reduced because there were other things done at the same time. Thus my overall bill was a lot higher.
You will have to ring around and get a few quotes. 
The main thing I remember is the other party has to provide identity documents very specifically. It's not just a matter of handing over a passport briefly.
I think the details are in a document on the Land Registry website. 
Your sister has to be questioned that she's of sound mind - ie knows what she's doing/ isn't being coerced to gift or sell her share of the property. 
The entire process doesn't take more than a few weeks - but the land registry takes approx a year to update the title because there's huge backlogs due to the cuts. The latter had no impact on my mortgage which went ahead on completion of the lawyer's/mortgage company paperwork. 

TheBlacklist2013

stripling said:

This is from memory so it's a bit vague and obviously you need to check but roughly: 
You and your sister will have to have separate solicitors.
The fees I paid for a TOE were about £350 (just over a year ago) but the cost may have been reduced because there were other things done at the same time. Thus my overall bill was a lot higher.
You will have to ring around and get a few quotes. 
The main thing I remember is the other party has to provide identity documents very specifically. It's not just a matter of handing over a passport briefly.
I think the details are in a document on the Land Registry website. 
Your sister has to be questioned that she's of sound mind - ie knows what she's doing/ isn't being coerced to gift or sell her share of the property. 
The entire process doesn't take more than a few weeks - but the land registry takes approx a year to update the title because there's huge backlogs due to the cuts. The latter had no impact on my mortgage which went ahead on completion of the lawyer's/mortgage company paperwork. 

Thank you for your response. I spoke to a few solicitors, and while TOE cost is around £300, they have quoted me around £1000 because they have to liaise with current lender and the new lender as well. Does that sound reasonable?