MRT1 Mock Paper 4 — Mortgage Law, Practice & ApplicationHarder
A harder MRT1 mock with the widest spread: tax and schemes, MCOB regulation, valuations and borrower types alongside law. 50 questions in 60 minutes.
Ready when you are
The timer starts when you press the button. You can still finish after it runs out — it is there to mimic exam pressure, not to lock you out.
Free preview: the first 5 of 50 questions, with a timer to match. Unlock the full paper
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About MRT1 Mock Paper 4
Paper 4 has the widest spread of any MRT1 mock — no single topic exceeds nine questions, and all seven topic areas appear. It is also the most regulation-heavy paper in the unit, with six questions on MCOB alongside seven on tax and schemes. That combination is what makes it a harder-tier paper: you cannot revise one area and carry the paper on it, and the questions frequently sit at the join between two areas, asking how a regulatory carve-out interacts with a legal or tax position rather than testing either on its own.
It is paper 4 of 5 in the MRT1 ramp, the Mortgage Law, Practice & Application unit, sitting in the harder tier. Every question carries a written explanation.
Format, timing and pass mark
MRT1 Mock Paper 4 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 4 break down across 7 topic areas:
- Applications & affordability9 questions
- House-buying practice9 questions
- Mortgage law8 questions
- Products & lenders7 questions
- Tax & schemes7 questions
- Regulation & MCOB6 questions
- Valuations & surveys4 questions
Where candidates lose marks on MRT1 Mock Paper 4
Three traps this paper sets deliberately. Each one is a question where the wrong answer is the one most candidates would give.
A flying freehold is a positive covenant problem in disguise
Where part of a room extends over land the owner does not own, the real difficulty is enforcing support, shelter and repair obligations against the neighbour — the positive covenant problem again. Lenders commonly tolerate small flying freeholds, sometimes with indemnity insurance, so the answer treating them as automatically unmortgageable is wrong.
MCOB 11 carves out rate switches with no additional borrowing
An existing borrower moving to a new fixed rate with the same lender, with no extra borrowing and no term change, is a variation outside the full affordability requirement. The carve-out exists to protect existing borrowers — mortgage prisoners in particular — from being trapped by checks they would now fail. Applying the full assessment here is the trap.
Check whether the buyer qualifies before you start calculating
A qualifying first-time buyer paying £295,000 in England pays no SDLT at all, because relief charges 0% up to £300,000. The distractor is £4,750 — what a non-first-time buyer would pay: 2% on £125,000 plus 5% on £45,000. Both figures are correctly calculated; only one of them answers the question asked.
Read which multiple the question specifies
Joint applicants on £30,000 and £22,000 with a 4.25× cap can borrow 4.25 × £52,000 = £221,000. Every wrong option is a correct calculation of something else: £234,000 uses 4.5×, £208,000 uses 4×, and £127,500 applies the right multiple to the higher income alone. The arithmetic is trivial; the reading is where marks go.
Annual interest divides by twelve, not by ten
A £240,000 interest-only mortgage at 5.5% costs £13,200 a year, so £1,100 a month. The £1,320 option is a tenth of the annual figure and appears in every interest-only question in the unit. Under time pressure it looks close enough to right to survive an unchecked glance.
A worked example from MRT1 Mock Paper 4
A home mover with no other properties buys in England for £600,000. What is the SDLT?
- 1.0% on the first £125,000 = nil.
- 2.2% on the next £125,000, taking you to £250,000 = £2,500.
- 3.5% on the £350,000 from £250,001 to £600,000 = £17,500.
- 4.Add the bands together.
Answer: £20,000
Two wrong answers sit either side of it. £30,000 applies 5% to the whole price, ignoring the lower bands entirely; £17,500 calculates the top band correctly and then forgets to add the £2,500 beneath it. The second is the more dangerous, because the working looks right until the final line.
Try two questions from MRT1 Mock Paper 4
These come from the free preview of this paper. Answer them, then reveal the explanation.
Applications & affordability
A buyer borrows £171,000 against a purchase price of £190,000. What is the LTV?
- A85%
- B95%
- C90%
- D89%
Reveal the answer
C is correct. £171,000 ÷ £190,000 × 100 = 90%, meaning a 10% deposit of £19,000. Check by working back: 90% of £190,000 is £171,000.
Mortgage law
A homeowner remortgages to a new lender but has an existing second-charge loan she is keeping. What must happen for the new lender to obtain first-ranking security?
- AThe Land Registry decides the ranking after completion
- BThe second charge must always be repaid in full by law
- CNothing — under the Land Registration Act 2002 a remortgage advance automatically assumes the priority of the charge it redeems, so no consent is needed
- DThe second-charge lender must enter a deed of postponement agreeing that the new lender's charge ranks ahead of its own
Reveal the answer
D is correct. Without a deed of postponement, redeeming the old first charge would promote the existing second charge to first position, leaving the new lender ranking behind it. New lenders therefore require the subordinate lender's formal agreement to postpone — or repayment of that loan — before completing.
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.