Guide to Remortgaging Your Home

The Need for Advice

Remortgaging your property is a way for you to either, gain the benefit of a more favourable interest rate or to release further cash value of your property to carry out improvements etc. It is important to get advice from a qualified lawyer to help you avoid possible problems and to protect your interests at each stage of the process. Using the services of a local solicitors firm such as Fraser Dawbarns should ensure you avoid any legal pitfalls and have a trouble free completion of your remortgage.

This guide describes the stages of the remortgage process and the advice you should receive from us.

Our Services and Costs

At Fraser Dawbarns, we have over a 100 years experience helping clients buy and sell their homes. We understand the need to keep you informed at every stage of the remortgage process. Our highly trained lawyers will keep you informed of the progress through a method of your choice; this could be by email or phone. With offices across the region, we are close by if you need to meet face to face to discuss an urgent issue or call in to sign and pick up documents to save postal delays.

We provide a fixed cost for our service but remember you will need to pay a variety of other expenses such as Land Registry fees, VAT and search fees.

What We Will Need From you

We will require a variety of documents and details if we are instructed to act for you, these could include the following:

• personal identification;
• anything that may influence the exact time you need to complete the remortgage, for example, home improvements, change in interest rates or early redemption charges which you wish to avoid.

We will also need to know:

• why you have decided to take a remortgage;
• your current mortgage details;
• if there are other people occupying your property other than you; and;
• if you have taken independent financial advice on the details of the remortgage.

Types of Mortgage

Repayment mortgage – the mortgage will be secured against the property to ensure the lender can recover the monies lent should you default on the mortgage. The interest rate may be fixed or variable, and the interest is added to the loan monthly or yearly, but you will have to pay a proportion of the sum lent to you and the interest on a monthly basis until either your property is sold or you remortgage the property.

Interest-only mortgage – interest will be charged at a fixed or variable rate and you will pay the interest on a monthly basis. The original lump sum can be repaid at any point during the term of the mortgage e.g. from a savings account or endowment policy, or when you sell your home.

Buy-to-let mortgage – The sum you receive is secured against the property. Interest is charged on a monthly or yearly basis and you will pay the interest and possibly a proportion of the loan on a monthly basis. You agree that when the property is sold you will repay the sum that you borrowed.

Searches

We will make a number of searches on your behalf including enquiries to the local authority.

The searches will help to uncover any planning issues which might affect the property, for example, road improvements and any planning permission granted on the property. These searches will provide information about the property itself rather than neighbouring properties. If any of these searches reveal matters of concern then we will let you know.

Mortgage Offer

If you need a mortgage to buy the property then you will need a satisfactory offer from a bank or building society before exchanging contracts. It is important to check that you can meet the terms of any offer. We can help to explain these to terms to you.

If you require advice about any of these areas, or any other legal matter, do not hesitate to contact us by email info@fraserdawbarns.com or phone one of our offices.