Good Afternoon everyone. I thought today in view of the UK Property Market that I say something about remortgaging or refinancing your property.

There are a number of reasons why you may wish to raise capital on your property or merely refinance the existing mortgage. I set out below a few examples however the list is not exhaustive and I am sure you will be able to think of many other ones.

(a) The present fixed rate term of your mortgage is due to expire
(b) You are selling or buying another property
(c) You have run up debt and wish to consolidate all your borrowing under one payment
(d) You wish to raise additional capital from your property perhaps to fund a new business venture or to have a holiday
(e) You are nearing retirement and need to raise additional money by way of an Equity release scheme
(f) You are acquiring an interest in a property held by your spouse or partner

Whatever your reason for refinancing your mortgage be it capital raising or conveyancing you must be careful to ensure that you receive the correct advice ensuring that your mortgage advisor is correctly registered with the Financial Services Authority and that the conveyancing relating to your proposed mortgage is carried out by a suitably qualified lawyer which will not necessarilly be a Solicitor as specialist property lawyers can also perform this work.

In the present climate it has become more difficult to obtain mortgages so a Broker who has the ability to research the whole of the refinancing and mortgage market may be a wise investment. If your mortgage is coming to an end do not leave it to the last minute as the conveyancing can take up to two months to be finalised although we as a firm guarantee to complete any remortgage or refinance within the month of the mortgage offer if our instructions from you and the lender are received no later than the 15th of the month.

Please Note that if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage your home may be at risk.

I hope this has been of help and in my next posting I will talk about property repossesions and the reasonswhy this is happenning.

Reg