Switching lender feels administrative — a better rate, some forms, done. In fact a new lender needs the same assurance about your title as it would on a purchase, which is why a switch expected to take a fortnight occasionally takes considerably longer.
Switching Lender, and Why the Title Is Looked At Again
The title documents are taken up from your existing lender, the title investigated for the new one, its conditions satisfied, and your solicitor gives it the same undertaking as on a purchase. The new loan is drawn, the old mortgage redeemed, the old charge released and the new one registered. Smaller than a purchase because there is no contract, no negotiation and no other side — but real title work rather than a formality. And the reason it is looked at again is straightforward: the new lender is taking security and needs the same assurance any lender does, including that nothing has arisen since you bought. Things do arise. An extension built since you moved in without planning compliance. A judgment registered against an owner. A boundary issue. A first registration never completed after the last purchase. A remortgage is frequently where those surface, sometimes years after they were created — which is uncomfortable but useful, since finding them now is better than finding them when you are trying to sell.
Adding or Removing a Name
A transfer of equity changes who is registered as owner without an open-market sale — adding a spouse or partner to the deeds, removing a former partner after a separation, or adding or removing a family member. Mechanically it is a deed transferring an interest, then stamping and registration. Where there is a mortgage, the lender’s consent is required, and it will usually want the outgoing party released from the loan and the incoming party assessed. That is frequently the real determinant of whether the transaction is possible at all, and it is a lending decision rather than a legal one — which is worth understanding early, because no amount of legal work overcomes a lender unwilling to release someone from a loan. So removing a former partner requires two things, not one: their agreement or a court order, and the lender’s consent, with the remaining owner able to service the loan alone. Where this arises from a separation or divorce, the property arrangements normally form part of the wider settlement and belong with it — the conveyancing implements an agreement, it does not substitute for one, and that side of things runs through divorcesolicitor.ie. Where a name is being added or removed for succession reasons rather than relationship ones, the family transfer considerations apply, including the tax questions that belong with your accountant.
Switching, or Changing Who Is on the Deeds?
Two questions decide most of it: who holds your title documents, and what the lender will agree to. Both are worth establishing before anything else is set in motion.
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