Legal Fees for mortgage refinancing with a CEMA

Question for those who have gone through a mortgage refinancing with a CEMA reassignment to avoid re-paying mortgage tax. I’m being asked to pay the following legal 3 fees:

1) Attorney fee for new lender at closing
2) Legal fee paid to existing lender at the beginning of refinance process to start the CEMA process
3) Attorney fee to existing lender for closing

#1 and #2 I understand, but I just got surprised with #3. Is it typical for the attorney of your existing lender to be present at closing for a refinance? Is it because they need to reassign the mortgage due to the CEMA?

krobertson

in General Discussion 4 years and 1 month ago

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Guest User | 4 years ago

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With my CEMA everyone took a cut (seller, lender, attorneys) for the extra work or for being cooperative with the process. Just kind of felt like “you’re lucky to be saving some money so take it or leave it” I was really just excited to be able to take advantage of it I didn’t really care how much I was getting.

My attorney handled it start-to-finish and it was invisible to me until closing where I saved a few thousand more once the final worksheets came in.

krobertson

in General Discussion 4 years and 1 month ago

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#1 – Yes, the fee is listed on the loan disclosure. The new lender’s attorney needs to draft the docs and close the loan — this is their fee.
#2 – Yes I believe so, its your existing lender that drafts and does the paperwork for your CEMA. This is the fee they charge to do it. If your existing lender agrees to perform the CEMA, I would expect the large majority of cases it goes through unless they came across something unexpected on your existing loan that prevented them from reassigning it. (perhaps a foreclosure, title dispute, etc.?)
#3 – Only #1 fee was listed on the loan disclosure from the lender. #3 was listed on the agreement I signed when I started the CEMA process and paid for #2. It took them 4-5 months to process my CEMA (yes, really!) so I had forgotten about it until I saw the fee listed on my final closing estimates. and got surprised. I read somewhere that this fee isn’t standard and can vary by lender but it was there for the case of my CEM A and it was stated upfront when I started the CEMA. Frankly I think its a pretty bogus fee but there’s nothing you can do about it unless you don’t want the CEMA.

cobblehillhome | 4 years and 1 month ago

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I am curious about this since I will be closing on a CEMA mortgage, too.

I believe….
1) this fee is always required, CEMA or no CEMA – right?
2) is the extra attorney fee that requires someone to make sure all the deeds/documents are in the right order for the CEMA to even take place — heard that you pay for this and the CEMA might not even be feasible
3) interesting… so far I don’t have this fee in my first round of closing disclosures

cobblehillhome | 4 years and 1 month ago

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I am curious about this since I will be closing on a CEMA mortgage, too.

I believe….
1) this fee is always required, CEMA or no CEMA – right?
2) is the extra attorney fee that requires someone to make sure all the deeds/documents are in the right order for the CEMA to even take place — heard that you pay for this and the CEMA might not even be feasible
3) interesting… so far I don’t have this fee in my first round of closing disclosures

Guest User | 4 years and 1 month ago

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I can check mine if you’d like.

krobertson

in General Discussion 4 years and 1 month ago

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*** Edit ** Disregard post. I dug up my old CEMA documents and it stated the #3 fee at closing.