Do I Need a Solicitor for My Remortgage?

Yes, you do need a valuation with a remortgage, but it differs slightly depending on if you stay with your current lender or if you change to a new remortgage provider. Read our comprehensive Guide to Valuations.

If you stay with the same lender, they may use an automated valuation model (AVM) to determine the value of your house, which can be quite quick. This model needs a good amount of recent sales data for houses in your area, which will determine whether it’s used or not. 

If you change to a new lender, they might use an AVM or a qualified valuer to look at the market value of your house.  As with "free legals" you can obtain a "free valuation" with some new remortgage products, but it’s important to check. Checking the fees, cost of borrowing and any other incentives like cashback is essential to be able to properly compare different remortgage deals. 

The reason why you need a valuation for your remortgage is because the company lending you the money needs to understand the risk (amount you want to borrow) in comparison to the value of the house. As you would expect, low risk would be a small amount of money borrowed against a house that’s worth four times that amount. High risk would be the opposite. 

Your level of risk determines whether you can apply for certain remortgage products. You can see this by looking for "minimum loan-to-value (LTV)". 

Here’s an example: 

• House value: £200,000
• Amount to borrow: £150,000
• You have a 75% LTV

You need equity to obtain a remortgage as opposed to a deposit, which you’d have required when you obtained your first mortgage. 

Unlike a cash deposit (money in your bank), equity refers to the amount of your property which you own (without debt) as part of the total value of your house.

As above, this refers to how much you’d like to borrow in comparison to the value of your property (LTV).

You do have the option, however, to pay off some of your mortgage when remortgaging, so if you’ve managed to save a little, it’s worth discussing this with a remortgage adviser. 

Paying off some of your mortgage can mean that you pay less interest (cost of borrowing) over time and may even pay your mortgage off a little earlier.

You may need a survey as part of any new agreement for a remortgage, but it’s less likely if you stay with the same lender. There are many types of survey, each with a different level of detail. 

The company lending you the money will read your description of the age and type of house and that will determine the type of survey (along with the construction material). A remortgage lender will consider some construction types as riskier than others when it comes to letting you borrow money.