Unilateral Notice from old lender, can’t remortgage!

finchy_2020

Hi all,

Was due to remortgage on the 1st Feb 2025 with Barclays, they've advised they can't proceed until a unilateral notice in favour on Santander UK plc (dated November 2021) is removed from Land Registry. They were our mortgage provided back in 2020 when we moved in and have since remortgaged with Natwest in 2023 (who didn't advise us or mention the notice).

Santander say mortgage was paid off in 2023 and nothing they can do their end apart from raise a dispute which then goes to a different department blah blah blah and advised that it's been sent to Land Registry to be removed, Land Registry wont touch it until they hear from Santander which apparently they haven't received anything from Santander advising them of this issue, so not sure who or what to believe.

Our conyenencer wont get involved until it's removed then advised a 3-4 week completion timeframe - all while we're now on a SVR mortgage paying £700 more just in interest alone.

Anyone ever had this issue before and any advice to actually speed this process up? I'm not sure who's to blame here but it's so unfair we're now being penalised with a several hundred pound increase in interest.

penners324

So the mortgage charge wasn't removed when you previously remortgaged?

What does your Conveyancer for that remortgage state? It is their problem. The Conveyancer you used for the NatWest remortgage.

user1977

Have you raised a complaint with Santander, as they seem to have suggested? That is what I would do if you want it to reach the desk of somebody who understands the issue (frontline staff typically can't do anything with long-closed accounts).

amnblog

Seen this a couple of years ago with a Client and unfortunately it took several weeks to sort out with the Client going back to the Solicitor who had handled the previous mortgage.

finchy_2020

amnblog said:

Seen this a couple of years ago with a Client and unfortunately it took several weeks to sort out with the Client going back to the Solicitor who had handled the previous mortgage.

Thanks for the heads up! You're suggesting I contact the solicitor who handled the remortgage with Natwest instead of going via Santander? I thought only Santander could remove the notice. Still trying to figure out whos to blame here haha

silvercar

The conveyancer that handled moving your mortgage to NatWest should have ensured the previous charge was removed. Contact them and tell them they haven't finished their work.

Is there also a note of the NatWest mortgage on your deeds? There should be, if not then your conveyancer didn't do much work at all! Did you employ a conveyancer or solicitor yourself or did NatWest offer a deal where you re-mortgaged to them and they sorted the legals. If the latter then you need to complain to them. They should be eager to get it sorted as technically your current mortgage is not secured.

finchy_2020

silvercar said:

The conveyancer that handled moving your mortgage to NatWest should have ensured the previous charge was removed. Contact them and tell them they haven't finished their work.

Is there also a note of the NatWest mortgage on your deeds? There should be, if not then your conveyancer didn't do much work at all! Did you employ a conveyancer or solicitor yourself or did NatWest offer a deal where you re-mortgaged to them and they sorted the legals. If the latter then you need to complain to them. They should be eager to get it sorted as technically your current mortgage is not secured.

Okay thats good to know - looks like Optima Legal handled it.

There is a NatWest mortgage on our deeds, all the conveyancing was done by the lender.

silvercar

finchy_2020 said:

silvercar said:

The conveyancer that handled moving your mortgage to NatWest should have ensured the previous charge was removed. Contact them and tell them they haven't finished their work.

Is there also a note of the NatWest mortgage on your deeds? There should be, if not then your conveyancer didn't do much work at all! Did you employ a conveyancer or solicitor yourself or did NatWest offer a deal where you re-mortgaged to them and they sorted the legals. If the latter then you need to complain to them. They should be eager to get it sorted as technically your current mortgage is not secured.

Okay thats good to know - looks like Optima Legal handled it.

There is a NatWest mortgage on our deeds, all the conveyancing was done by the lender.

They should have made sure the previous charge was removed.