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The Key Stages of Remortgaging a Property
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Stage One: Instructions
Once you have confirmed your instructions with us, we will write to you confirming our instructions, an estimate of fees and disbursements and our terms and conditions of business. We will also send our Client Information Form to you to complete. This will tell us details such as any finance you are obtaining either by way of mortgage or gift, details of any adult occupiers who will reside at the property, and any deadlines imposed on the transaction.
If this is a joint mortgage we will send a Joint Ownership Form for you to consider. At this stage we will tell you the name and status of the person who will carry out the work, together with details of their regulated supervisor.
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Stage Two: Identity Checks
In order to confirm your identity and comply with the law on money laundering, we will need 1 form of photographic ID (driving licence or passport) and 2 utility bills/bank statements no more than 3 months old for proof of address (these must be originals and not printed from the Internet).
We will discuss with you the best way to provide these at the time.
We ask for £300 on account at the outset to cover searches on your purchase and then everything else is payable at completion.
Solicitors are obliged by the Law Society to verify the source of all funds received into their Client Account. We will ask you to provide documentation evidencing the source of your deposit funds and purchase monies.
If any financial contribution is to be made by a third party they will also need to provide us with evidence as to how the funds have been accumulated and over what period of time. We will also require their identification documents in the same way we requested yours at the outset. The position regarding the gift will need to be reported to any lender you may have for their authority to proceed.
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Stage Three: Pre Completion
Once you have returned the signed Terms and Conditions and Client Information Form formalising your instructions we will obtain title documents from the Land Registry and review them to ensure a marketable title. We will also review the costs estimate and revise if necessary providing you with updated information regarding any fees or disbursements in line with any changes. We will check the extent of the property to be searched by sending you a copy of the plan obtained from the Land Registry and subject to your authority approving the plan, we will apply for the standard (and any recommended) conveyancing searches. We will check the property has the benefit of any planning permission(s) and building regulation approvals in accordance with our instructions from your lender. Once your mortgage offer is received we will check any special conditions and advise you on the basic terms.
You will be sent the Mortgage Deed for signature which will be sent to the Land Registry after completion to secure the mortgage against the property. This will need to be signed, witnessed and returned to us before we can request the mortgage funds from your lender. Upon completion of our due diligence and once we consider the property is good and marketable and suitable security for your lender we will discuss completion dates with you.
You will need to put in place your own buildings insurance if you have not already got this or intend on changing this at the time of your remortgage, to take effect from the date of completion date. The sum insured should be a sum equal to the full rebuild cost of the property plus the usual fees (architects etc.) i.e. not necessarily the market value. We will require a copy of the building insurance schedule before we are able to request mortgage funds from your lender.
Once a completion date has been set, mortgage monies will be requested from your lender and we will also prepare final statements showing any balance due to you or from you.
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Stage Four: Completion
On the day of completion, funds will be transferred to redeem your existing mortgage and any other secured or unsecured debts which must be repaid as a condition of your mortgage.
Once completion has taken place we will make an application to the Land Registry for the registration of your new mortgage by electronically submitting your signed mortgage deed to them. Once they have received notification from your existing lender that their charge has been repaid, they will notify us that registration formalities have been completed and let us have a copy of the up to date title which we will send on to you. A copy will also have to be sent to your lender for their information.
Your file will then be closed which will be held for 15 years. if you want we can arrange for any deeds to be held in storage. This service is free of charge.
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