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Free and Low Cost Legal Work

Free legals

A nominated firm of solicitors will, free of charge, carry out all the standard legal work for qualifying remortgage cases. Your client will only have to pay for any non-standard costs, eg, for a defective title, insolvency policy or Land Registry fee if the property is unregistered.

 

Low Cost Legals

For cases that don’t qualify for our ‘Free Legals’ service, the ‘Low Cost Legals’ service offers clients the opportunity to benefit from the legal work being carried out by one of C&G’s panel of solicitors, at a very competitive rate.

 

Which applications qualify for 'Free Legals' and 'Low Cost Legals'?

Please be sure to read this list in full as some exceptions are detailed towards the bottom of the list.

 

Application type

Free Legals

available?

Low Cost Legals available? Notes
House purchase No No Free Legals and Low Cost Legals are not available for all house purchase applications 
Remortgage/unencumbered Yes1 Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003

Remortgage/unencumbered (Buy to Let, or remortgage with only annexe let)

No  Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003

Remortgage (tied accommodation)

No  Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Forced Internal Remortgage (multiple primary, merge societies- subject to normal exceptions)   Yes1  Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Internal remortgage from Heritage Lloyds/ Heritage TSB staff mortgage to C&G mortgage  Yes1 Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Internal remortgage from C&G mortgage to Heritage Lloyds/ Heritage TSB staff mortgage No No  
Transfer of Equity (sole to joint ownership only) No  Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £350
Transfer of Equity (all other transfers of equity including those arising as a result of death of an owner) No No  
Change name from Miss to Mrs (marriage certificate required) Yes1 Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Guarantor applications No   Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Properties not occupied by the customer as main residence (includes informal occupation by relatives or friends but excludes tied accommodation and buy-to-lets) No No  
Holiday/second home or Pied-a-Tierre No  Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Funds to be used for purchase of a property or land No   Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Funds to be used for purchase of Freehold where customer currently has a lease of the property No No  
Customers with a non-UK correspondence address No Yes2  Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Capital raising to buy out a partner in divorce or separation proceedings or where the property is the subject of matrimonial proceedings No No  
Properties with land exceeding 10 acres (and/or agricultural restrictions/tenancies) No No  
Applications where mortgage application form/loan documentation is to be signed by a Power of Attorney No No  
Customers borrowing to build property themselves, or remortgage a property self-built within the last 10 years No No  

Remortgaging a self build properties built more than 10 years ago

Yes1 Yes2 Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Remortgaging a Key Worker Scheme properties (only if customers own entire property) Yes1 Yes2 Low Cost Legal fee is £2003
Purchase of remaining share No No  
Extension of lease No No  
Remortgage of Islamic mortgage from another lender No No  
Repay loan/mortgage secured on another property No No  
Properties in Scotland Yes1 No For properties in Scotland, customers have the option of either having a £400 contribution towards legal costs or Free Legals, providing the application is eligible for the Free Legals offer.
Properties in Northern Ireland No No For properties in Northern Ireland, a contribution of £400 towards legal costs will be made, providing the application is eligible for the Free Legals offer.

1Free Legals are available for customers remortgaging £50,000 - £999,999

2Low Cost Legals are available to customers remortgaging £5,000 or more

 

How much do ‘Low Cost Legals’ cost?

The fixed-rate fee for Low Cost Legal applications is £200.

3However, if any of the scenarios below apply to the application, the fee is £200 plus the additional fees:

 

  • Transfer of equity - £150
  • Property is leasehold - £30 plus any charges payable to the landlord under the terms of the lease
  • If the HM Land Registry fees are over £50 - any excess over £50 (the £50 fee currently covers mortgages of registered land up to £200,000).

These fees include VAT.

 

For further guidance on free and low cost legal work offers please refer to your Business Development Manager.