Scare for Scottish conveyancing solicitors

Scare for Scottish conveyancing solicitors

Seeking out the cheapest conveyancing solicitor can be incredibly tiring, particularly in Scotland where the legal costs are on average higher than when you go further South of the border.
Some of the remortgaging deals available now include free conveyancing, which has hit some Scottish borrowers slightly at a loss, as many of those deals available in England and Wales are not stretched as far as Scotland, though sometimes cash is offered towards fees instead.
Such cash back will generally be to the value of  £200 to £400. HSBC's  much in demand term tracker, charges 1.95% over base rates, and comes with free legal services and search fees in England and Wales, but Scottish borrowers are offered £400 towards fees which may well turn out to be much more.

John Postlethwaite, a mortgage adviser from Punter Southall, feels this difference in arrangements North and South of the border is the result of the different choices the housing markets have chosen to work.

He said: "In Scotland, solicitors dominated the property market through their role as estate agents. When lenders started to offer free conveyancing in England, they were afraid of upsetting solicitors in Scotland. They were frightened that solicitors would recommend against them if they took conveyancing fees away, so were reluctant to offer borrowers free legal services."
Scotland has been trying to catch up, in more than one way.  Registers of Scotland has been slower to automate than the Land Registry, which operates in England and Wales meaning the solicitors have been finding it difficult in terms of the higher costs. The original property register in Scotland was the Register of Sasines created by the Registration Act 1617.

As half of the houses in Scotland have no changed their registration with Sansines, a new register has been established under the 1979 Land Registration Act, meaning counties joined up one after the other, most recent in 2003.

This means the Registers of Scotland has two registers to monitor, with 1.3 million properties on the new register, which incorporates many titles other than domestic homes of the two to 2.5 million residential properties in Scotland.

A spokesman for the Registers said: "We think around half of all homes in Scotland are now on the new register, although this would be higher for the central belt."

The conveyancing system is very similar regardless of which system is used, the lawyer involved plans a mortgage deed and a discharge document for the previous one. He will then seek out the old lender for a redemption figure, and coordinate the remortgage. This means he needs to raise the money from the new lender and paying off the old mortgage, receiving a signed discharge document for his work. He then goes to register the new mortgage and discharge document with the land registers, and one cancels out the other.

Elelctronically conducted  business deals for such a process cost £20, compared to £30 if done with paper.

Ray Boulger of Charcol advises:
"The bigger the loan, the less important free conveyancing is, and similarly the longer the new loan, the less penal the cost of paying for the conveyancing yourself. But borrowers need to compare costs carefully."

Find out the best conveyancing deal for you when remortgaging by contacting your conveyancing solicitor and mortgage lender today.