Remortgaging and Transfers of Equity

Brethertons LLP can deal with the legal work for you if you are intending to do any of the following:

• paying off your existing mortgage
• taking out a new mortgage
• transferring ownership of a property from joint names to sole name (or from several names to fewer)
• transferring ownership of a property from sole name to joint names (or from some names to more).

A note of warning - Some lenders offer their own in-house legal service.  If you decide to sign up to the lender’s legal service, it is important to bear in mind that the lender’s lawyer will normally be acting only for the lender.  They will not be acting in your interest if it conflicts with what the lender wants. This can have disastrous results.  We know of one case where a bank’s solicitor was dealing with remortgage of a property that had not previously been registered at the land registry.  After completion he had to register it for the first time.  Because the title had not been checked correctly, a large part of the garden was omitted from the title that the land registry registered.  The bank decided they were content with the smaller garden, since the house alone was adequate for their security, but the borrower ended up with a title containing a much smaller garden.  When he complained, the bank’s lawyer said he was only acting for the bank and did not have any responsibility to the borrower.

It is far better therefore to appoint your own solicitor who can act in your best interest.  We can certainly do the legal work for the bank as well, as long as there is no conflict between what the bank wants and your own interests. 

Please contact any of the Conveyancing Team for a quotation for fees and other costs, details of the process involved and answers to any legal questions you have.

Michael Dibben Partner and Head of Conveyancing Tel: (01295) 270 056 Fax: (01295) 277 648 Email: michaeldibben@brethertons.co.uk