I have a few questions about mortgages, can you help?

[Linnet]

Dh and I have a mortgage on our flat. It's not a big mortgage and the fixed rate will be coming to an end in a few months.
I'm not sure what we should be doing about this, still have plenty of time to get organised though but I have a few questions and I'm hoping someone on here can give me some answers.

First of all when we're looking online at mortgages are we looking at remortgaging?

The deals we've looked at with the company we have our mortgage with at the moment all mention a 25% deposit,this confuses us, do we need to put up money upfront to remortgage the flat?

Our fixed rate was for 3 years out of 25, so do we remortgage for 22 years?

If we move to another lender how does that work? We owe the first lender the money so does the new lender pay off the first one then we start a new mortgage with the new lender?

Do we have to get the flat valued before we can remortgage?

I think that's all apologies for not having a clue and thanks for any help.

If you do nothing you'll usually revert to current standard variable - check your t and c's - otherwise you are remortgaging

a 25% deposit,this confuses us, do we need to put up money upfront to remortgage the flat - they'd only lend up to 75% of current valuation, for which you'll probably have to pay

Our fixed rate was for 3 years out of 25, so do we remortgage for 22 years - you could extend the term to 25 again or leave as is.

our fixed term has just ended and the interest rate went from the fixed rate of 6.5% to the standard variable of 2.5%, saving us approx £400 a month. We're saving the difference in a high interest account, but obviously when the rates go up, we'll have to pay more (hopefully savings will deal with this).

If you remortgage then yes, you will usually have to get a valuation.

The old lender will pay off the new lender, you won't have to find any deposit again.

You may be asked to pay a valuation fee (a few hundred pounds-ish), but for remortgages they often waive this, especially if your new mortgae is a new mortgage with the same lender.

The mortgage broker or the new lender will tell you if they need a valuation, and they will arrange it, you don't need to do anything.

You will be able to choose the length of repayment, keep it as short as you can as you will pay less interest in the long run.

Hope that helps!

Mot remortgages have deals that mean you will not pay for the legal fees are the valuation fees. There is usually a booking/product fee of around £1000 that is usually added to the mortgage.
When they talk about 25% deposit they mean Equity. Obviously the more equity you have in your property the better the deal you can get.
Who is your current lender? Some lenders offer very good rates to stay, eg Woolwich Abbey and Halifax to name a couple and it maybe worth going onto the mortgage company web site to have a look at what they are offering. Another convenience of staying with the current lender is that you do not have to go through the application process again so you will not be credit scored or assessed on yuor income. (Quicker too
In short speak to an IFA or mortgage broker. You can always come back on here to check if what they are offering is good.