Free and Non-Standard Legal Work

The following applies to remortgages in England and Wales of £5,000 - £999,999

 

 

Free legal work

A firm of authorised solicitors will carry out, all the standard legal work for qualifying remortgage cases, free of charge. The only additional costs your client may have to pay in a standard remortgage case would be if something like a defective title or insolvency policy is required, or if property is currently unregistered and there's a Land Registry fee.

 

Non-standard legal work service

In addition to the standard legal work, if there is extra legal work that your client needs to have done in relation to their remortgage or the property, we offer a fixed-price service that covers the most common transactions. The following can be carried out, for the fees shown, by the free legal work solicitors at the same time as doing the free standard remortgage work:

 

• Transfer of Equity (sole to joint and joint to sole)*: £265 plus VAT and disbursements
• Guarantor applications: £120 plus VAT
• Repay loan/mortgage secured on another property: £30 plus VAT
• Deed of Postponement: £135 plus VAT

*If the mortgage is currently in negative equity your client would need to instruct their own solicitors

 

Which applications qualify for Free Legal work?

Please Note: Free legal work is available for remortgages in England and Wales of £5,000 - £999,999.

 

Application type	Free Legals available?
Remortgage/unencumbered
Remortgage/unencumbered (remortgage with only annexe let)
Remortgage (tied accommodation)
Forced Internal Remortgage (multiple primary, merge societies- subject to normal exceptions)
Internal remortgage from Heritage Lloyds/ Heritage TSB staff mortgage to C&G mortgage
Change name from Miss to Mrs (marriage certificate required)
Funds to be used for purchase of a property or land
Customers with a non-UK correspondence address
Applications where mortgage application form/loan documentation is to be signed by a Power of Attorney
Remortgaging a self build properties built more than 10 years ago
Remortgaging a Key Worker Scheme properties (only if customers own entire property)
Repay loan/mortgage secured on another property

There are some instances where the additional work required would be beyond the remit of our panel solicitors and so, in these cases, your client would need to instruct their own solicitors:

 

• House purchase
• Transfers of Equity (all other transfers of equity including those arising as a result of death of an owner, or if the mortgage is currently in negative equity) 
• Properties not occupied by the customer as main residence (includes informal occupation by relatives or friends / holiday or second homes / Pied a Terre but excludes tied accommodation)
• Funds to be used for purchase of Freehold where customer currently has a lease of the property
• Properties with land exceeding 10 acres (and/or agricultural restrictions/tenancies)
• Customers borrowing to build property themselves, or remortgage a property self-built within the last 10 years
• Purchase of remaining share
• Extension of lease
• Remortgage of Islamic mortgage from another lender
• Internal remortgage from C&G mortgage to Heritage Lloyds/ Heritage TSB staff mortgage

Leasehold properties

Please note, if the tenure of the property is leasehold your client will be responsible for any charges payable to the landlord under the terms of the lease.  If your client does not have a copy of the lease, our solicitors will get one from the Land Registry, which will cost £24.

 

 

Legal work for remortgages in Scotland

Free legal work is available for remortgages in Scotland of £50,000 - £999,999. For properties in Scotland customers have the option of either having a £400 contribution towards legal costs or free legals, providing the application meets all other eligibility criteria for the free legals offer, please see the type of applications acceptable for free legal work in the table above.

 

However, properties in Scotland are not eligible for the non-standard legal work fixed-price service.

 

 

Legal work for remortgages in Northern Ireland

Properties in Northern Ireland are not eligible for the free legals offer or non-standard legal work, however remortgage customers will qualify for a £400 contribution towards their legal fees for loans of at least £50,000, providing the application meets all other eligibility criteria for the free legals offer. Please see the type of applications acceptable for free legal work in the table above.