MRT1 Mock Paper 1 — Mortgage Law, Practice & ApplicationEasier
The easier entry to MRT1: 50 questions weighted to mortgage law and the house-buying process, with MCOB scope, SDLT and 2025/26 rule changes. 60 minutes.
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About MRT1 Mock Paper 1
Paper 1 is the gentlest entry to MRT1, but it is also the most law-heavy paper in the unit: 17 of its 50 questions sit in mortgage law, with a further 13 on house-buying practice. That weighting is deliberate. MRT1 is the unit where candidates who have only ever met mortgages from the sales side discover how much of the assessment is really about land, title and the mechanics of a conveyance. There is very little arithmetic — three calculation questions in the whole paper, all of them stamp duty — so a weak score here is almost always recall rather than maths, and the fix is reading rather than drilling.
It is paper 1 of 5 in the MRT1 ramp, the Mortgage Law, Practice & Application unit, sitting in the easier tier. Every question carries a written explanation.
Format, timing and pass mark
MRT1 Mock Paper 1 follows the live MRT1 format: 50 standalone questions, in 60 minutes — about 72 seconds a question. Pass mark 35/50 (70%), as in the real assessment. There is no negative marking, so answer everything.
What this paper tests
The 50 questions in MRT1 Mock Paper 1 break down across 6 topic areas:
- Mortgage law17 questions
- House-buying practice13 questions
- Regulation & MCOB8 questions
- Tax & schemes7 questions
- 2025/26 updates3 questions
- Market & economics2 questions
Where candidates lose marks on MRT1 Mock Paper 1
Three traps this paper sets deliberately. Each one is a question where the wrong answer is the one most candidates would give.
The 10% deposit is contractual, not a maximum
A buyer who negotiates to pay 5% at exchange and then fails to complete has not capped their exposure at 5%. The customary contractual deposit is 10%, and standard conditions let the seller claim the balance of the full 10% on default. Candidates reliably read the reduced deposit as a limit on liability when it is nothing of the sort.
Heave and subsidence are opposites, and the examiner knows it
Remove a mature oak from clay soil, wait a few months, and the ground re-absorbs the moisture the tree was drawing off and pushes upward — that is heave. Subsidence is the reverse: ground sinking, classically clay shrinkage in drought. The two words describe movement in opposite directions, and the distinction is a long-standing exam favourite.
Restrictive covenants run with the land; positive ones generally do not
A covenant not to use a property for trade or business can bind a later freehold owner in equity, following Tulk v Moxhay, and will usually appear in the Charges Register. The burden of a positive covenant — an obligation to spend money, such as maintaining a shared drive — does not generally pass to successors in the same way. Questions here pair the two deliberately.
SDLT is charged band by band, never at one rate on the whole price
A home mover buying at £400,000 pays nothing on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000 and 5% on the £150,000 above £250,000 — £10,000 in total. Applying a single headline rate to the full price is the most common wrong answer in the tax questions, and it overstates the bill dramatically at higher prices.
The additional-dwellings surcharge applies to the entire price
Buying a £300,000 buy-to-let while already owning a home costs £5,000 in standard SDLT plus a 5% surcharge on the whole £300,000 — £15,000 — for a total of £20,000. The surcharge is not a slice above a threshold and it does not replace the standard charge. Both are due, added together.
A worked example from MRT1 Mock Paper 1
Amira is a genuine first-time buyer purchasing a flat in England for £510,000. What SDLT is payable?
- 1.Check the price against the relief's ceiling: first-time buyer relief is withdrawn entirely above £500,000, and £510,000 is above it.
- 2.So calculate at standard rates, not relieved rates: 0% on the first £125,000.
- 3.2% on £125,001–£250,000 = £2,500.
- 4.5% on the £260,000 from £250,001 to £510,000 = £13,000.
Answer: £15,500
The relief is a cliff edge, not a taper. A buyer £10,000 over the limit does not lose a proportionate slice of the benefit — they lose all of it, and pay as though they had bought before. Candidates who start calculating before checking the ceiling reach a much lower figure with confidence.
Try two questions from MRT1 Mock Paper 1
These come from the free preview of this paper. Answer them, then reveal the explanation.
Regulation & MCOB
Under the FCA's rules, which of the following is NOT a requirement for a loan to be a regulated mortgage contract?
- AThe contract must be secured on land in the United Kingdom
- BThe lender must take a first legal charge over the property
- CAt least 40% of the land must be used as a dwelling by the borrower or an immediate family member
- DThe borrower must be an individual or a trustee
Reveal the answer
B is correct. Since the Mortgage Credit Directive took effect on 21 March 2016, the 'first charge' requirement was removed — second-charge loans on a home are now regulated mortgage contracts too. The other three conditions all still apply.
Mortgage law
Karen is asked to agree to a second charge over the jointly owned family home to secure her husband's business borrowing, from which she gains no direct benefit. Following Royal Bank of Scotland v Etridge, what should the lender do?
- AProceed once her husband confirms in writing that she consents
- BDecline the application outright, because a spouse who receives no direct benefit is barred by statute from standing surety for business borrowing
- CProceed only if Karen owns less than 50% of the property
- DEnsure Karen takes independent legal advice and obtain written confirmation from her solicitor that the transaction was explained
Reveal the answer
D is correct. Etridge (2001) established that where one party stands surety for another's debts, the lender is put on notice of possible undue influence. It must insist the surety takes independent legal advice and receive the solicitor's confirmation — otherwise the charge risks being set aside.
Scored under 70%? Revise these next
A near miss is almost always a calculation you cannot do under time pressure, a definition you half-know, or a rule you have never read in the examiner's words. Start with the topic areas above where you dropped marks, then:
- →Drill the calculations on the CeMAP formula sheet — LTV, income multiples, SDLT, APRC, ERCs and rental cover, each worked through.
- →Nail the terminology in the CeMAP glossary — a surprising share of wrong answers are a term you nearly knew.
- →Re-read the syllabus coverage on the MRT1 exam guide, then sit the next paper in the ramp.
The other MRT1 mock papers
5 timed mocks for this unit, running easier → harder. Sitting the whole ramp is what moves a borderline score to a comfortable pass.