Remortgaging is the process that you might go through when you wish to switch from one mortgage supplier to another. Usually, this is because:

If you’re not sure, perhaps take a look here to decide if you should remortgage.

Most people may not at first realise that a remortgage is actually accompanied by some legal work to complete the transaction, which will be undertaken by a conveyancer or solicitor. The reason for this is that the mortgage will always be registered against the legal title to your house, and therefore any changes will need to be registered with the Land Registry. (If you remortgage with your existing lender, i.e. you move to a new rate or deal, it’s considered a “product transfer” and won’t normally require any legal work.)

The 10 steps of conveyancing work involved in a remortgage

1. ID Checks – we will ask you for proof of ID. It’s important to note that whilst your lender may have done this with you for their own checks, we also need to take the necessary steps for our own regulations and compliance under anti money laundering laws. It’s also good practice and means we can be sure we are acting in your best interests.
2. Existing mortgage – we’ll gather details of your current mortgage, particularly a redemption statement. This will tell us what amount is outstanding, whether there are any early redemption or early exit fees and when these will expire.
3. If your property is leasehold, we’ll check the terms of the lease and the term remaining on it to make sure we comply with your new lender’s requirements.
4. Property searches – in some cases, your new lender may want us to conduct searches on your property. They will want to be sure that there’s nothing that could negatively impact the value of your property.
5. Property valuation – your new mortgage lender will value your property and will usually provide you with a copy of the valuation within the mortgage offer. They may also provide this to us at the same time.
6. We’ll check through the all the fine print and terms on your mortgage offer, raising issues with both parties as they arise.
7. Deed – once all parties are happy, we’ll ask you to sign the new mortgage deed.
8. We’ll complete. On the day we receive the funds from your new mortgage, we will use these funds to pay off your existing mortgage.
9. If any funds are due back to you, we’ll also send this balance to you as soon as we can.
10. We register the changes with Land Registry. Once we receive confirmation that your old mortgage has been paid, we update the Land Registry that a remortgage has taken place.

It’s important to note here that on a standard remortgage we act on behalf of both yourself and your new lender – we’ll make sure that your legal title is updated and the land registry is informed, but we also ensure that everything complies with any specific terms or requirements imposed by your new lender.

Disclaimer: This article is for informal and general advice on remortgaging