Re-Mortgages
Our costs for a mortgage or re-mortgage
This page gives you information about our fees for dealing with the mortgage or re-mortgage of a freehold house or leasehold flat, and the expenses you will incur in connection with our work. Not all properties are the same, and there may be more fees or expenses involved, for example, in re-mortgaging an historic cottage than a brand new home.
If you call us and give us a few details of the property you are mortgaging, and your mortgage arrangements, we can give you a personalised quotation which will detail our fees and the expenses likely to be payable in your particular transaction.
For your free, “no obligation” quotation, please call one of our experienced conveyancing team on 01223 578070 (Cambridge) or 01223 518317 (Histon).
Our conveyancing team
Mortgage transactions are dealt with by Alison Blackman, Laura Hales, Kelly Hall and Emma Hunt in our Cambridge office where Alison supervises the team, and by David Parker, Rachael Partridge, and Emma Stanley in our Histon office.
You can find details of their qualifications and experience by following the link to Our People here
What fees and expenses will I incur on a mortgage?
The total costs to you of our work in connection with your mortgage will be made up of:
- our fees for the transaction
- expenses we incur, of which there are more details below, and
- Land Registry fees for registering the mortgage on your home.
Our fees and most expenses are subject to VAT, currently 20%. In the information below, figures in brackets include VAT.
We will look at each of these elements in turn.
Our fees
Our fees will normally be in the range £750 (£900) to £1,250 (£1,500) and include all the work normally involved in a mortgage or re-mortgage transaction.
Our expenses
In the typical mortgage or re-mortgage transaction, we will incur expenses for:
- obtaining a report on information about the property held by the local council (a “local search”)
- obtaining information from the relevant water and drainage supplier
- obtaining a desktop report designed to identify any obvious contamination risks
- a check if the house is in an area where there is a risk of chancel repair liability
- a check at the Land Registry shortly before completion that the registered property details have not changed, and
- bank charges we pay for money transfers.
The expenses we incur will be affected by the location of your home. Some local councils charge more than others for a local search, and the location of the property may mean that additional investigations need to be made, for example, whether a road is maintained by the council.
The total expenses will also depend on your lender’s requirements: some lenders will accept an indemnity insurance policy in place of a local search, and the insurance premium may be less that the search fee.
On a typical house mortgage, therefore, the expenses you incur (including VAT, where applicable) will be in the range £360 to £600.
There will be additional expenses incurred if you are mortgaging a leasehold apartment, which are likely to be:
- for obtaining “management information packs” from the landlord and/or the management company, which will contain detailed information which your lender will require: the typical cost of such a pack (including VAT) ranges from £300 to £480, and we may have to obtain packs from both the landlord and the management company
- for giving notice to the landlord that you have mortgaged the lease of the flat, £72-£144
- for giving notice separately to the management company that you have mortgaged the lease, another £72-£144, and
- for a certificate from the landlord or management company allowing the mortgage to be registered at the Land Registry, £120
For mortgaging a leasehold flat, therefore, the expenses you incur (again including VAT, where applicable) will typically be in the range £920 to £1,500.
Land Registry fees
The Land Registry’s registration fees are charged on a scale related to the amount of your mortgage, and range from £20 to £250. There is no VAT on Land Registry fees.
Is everything included in your fees?
Our fees include all the legal work normally involved in a mortgage or re-mortgage transaction. Sometimes, when we review the documents relating to the property, or read the results of our enquiries, or have full instructions from your lender, we may find that additional work is required.
Examples would be:
- if alterations have been carried out to the property without planning permission or Building Regulations approval; or
- if your legal title to the property is defective; or
- if your lender has additional requirements, such as a guarantee from a third party for your mortgage loan.
If a need for any additional work arises we will always tell you, and inform you what additional fees or expenses are likely to be incurred.
How long will my mortgage take?
This largely depends on how quickly we receive the results of our searches and enquiries, to enable us to give a full report on the property to your lender. In our experience, the average transaction will take 4-8 weeks from your accepting the mortgage offer to the mortgage advance being received.
What steps are involved in a mortgage or re-mortgage?
The precise stages involved in a mortgage transaction vary slightly from one transaction to another, but the stages in a typical transaction will be:
- we take your instructions and give you general advice
- we carry out searches against the property, and make any appropriate additional enquiries
- we report to your lender on the results of our examination of the title to the property, and the results of our searches and enquiries
- we arrange for you to sign the mortgage deed
- in a re-mortgage case, we obtain a redemption statement from your current lender
- we collect the mortgage advance from your new lender
- in a re-mortgage case, we pay off your existing mortgage
- where the property is a leasehold flat, we give notice of the new mortgage to the landlord and/or management company
- we register your mortgage at the Land Registry then
- we send you confirmation that the transaction is completed.