Repaying Mortgage

if I repay my mortgage early, must I get a solicitor involved? how do I transfer the deeds from land registry from the banks name to my own?

3 Answers

You don't need a solicitor. The bank are not owners so you don't need to transfer ownership. They hold a mortgage over the property. If the land is registered with Land Registry the mortgage will be noted on the register of title as a Charge. If the land is unregistered, the lender will be in possession of the deeds, including the mortgage deed you will have signed in their favour.

For registered land the lender will apply to the Land Registry electronically to remove the charge from the register. You should check with them two weeks after you have repaid the mortgage that they have done so and you should press them until they do. Once they say they have you can obtain a copy of the register and check for yourself.

If the land is unregistered they should send you the deeds including the mortgage deed in their favour which they should have "vacated". This means signed the vacating receipt - the part of the deed which says that al monies due under it have been received. They may also seal it with their company seal but this is no longer essential.

Hope this helps.

Admin

You need don't a solicitor, no. The title will not be in the name of the bank. It will be in your name and the bank will have registered a charge against the property. Once the mortgage is repaid the bank should either provide you with a "DS1" which you can either submit to the Land Registry immediately in order for them to remove the bank's registered charge or retain until you sell the property, or the bank will lodge an Electronic Notification of Discharge directly with the Land Registry and the Registry will then remove the registered charge. You should speak to the bank and make sure they do one or the other as otherwise when you come to sell the property (or someone else does) it may be difficult to obtain evidence from the bank that the mortgage has been repaid to satisfy the Land Registry (the account will be closed, records will be archived etc). If the bank are removing the charge electronically, you can obtain an up to date copy of the register once they confirm it is done so that you can check for yourself. You can order this at http://land-registry-documents.co.uk/order-documents

No you don't need a solicitor. You will already be registered as the owner, the bank will just have a Registered Charge. Once you have paid off the mortgage the bank should either send you a signed form DS1 or instruct Land Registry to remove the charge electronically. Call them and ask which they will do. If they discharge electronically then you should ask them to confirm once they have and check by getting a copy of the register from http://land-registry-documents.co.uk/order-documents

If they send a DS1 to you, you will need to send it to Land Registry with form DS2.