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CHAIN FREE®

Treating Customers Fairly

  • Market Value:
    • When you become a member of the Home Owners Plan™ with CHAIN FREE® you will never have to sell your house for less than market value.
    • The market value of your house is the highest offer Your Agent receives after proper marketing for sale when no higher offers have been received resulting in an exchange of contracts.
  • Home Owners Plan™:
    • Protects you against the financial risk of selling your house for less than Our Offer of Finance (Fall Back Price®).
    • You can join the Plan no later than 8 weeks from the date your house was “Added on” Rightmove for sale.
    • You join the Plan by signing the Offer Documents (which include the Plan T&Cs).
    • Joining the Plan does not legally commit you to sell your house or to take the Fall Back Price®.
    • You will only have to sell your house and take the Fall Back Price® when your solicitors send our Legal Department a Drawdown Notice.
  • Plan Membership Fee (1% Fee):
    • 1% Fall Back Price®
    • The Fall Back Price® is the Loan-to-Value (LTV).
    • The LTV is 90% DataSource Valuation.
  • 1% Fee is back-ended with No Sale-No Fee
  • Application:
    • CHAIN FREE® is only available if your house is on Rightmove for sale (for no more than  8 weeks) and Your Solicitors are not holding a contract for the property you want to buy.
  • DataSource Valuation:
    • An automated valuation model (AVM) uses a machine-learning algorithm to compare your home against a dataset of other homes to estimate its value.
    • An AVM uses a wide array of publicly-available and user-sourced data, such as property type, size, general location, and comparable property sales with mathematical / statistical modelling to provide an immediate value.
    • Our DataSource Valuations (AVM’s) are provided by Rightmove and fall within RICS guidelines for finance purposes.
    • When you submit your Application you will receive a DataSource Valuation of your property for sale with Our Offer of Finance (Fall Back Price®).
  • Your Solicitors:
    • When you have received our Application Confirmation email you and Your Solicitors will be able to view online the Plan T&Cs, our Offer and Drawdown Documents and our Valuation of the property you are selling.
    • The Offer Documents will require you to confirm you have taken legal advice.
    • The Offer Documents will require your solicitors to confirm they are not holding a contract for the property you want to buy.
    • It is important that you take advise from Your Solicitors before signing our Documents.
    • All our Documents can be signed electronically (subject to HM Land Registry conditions).
    • Keep Your Solicitors advised of any mortgage offer you have received for the property you want to buy.
    • If you want to drawdown (take) our Offer of Finance (Fall Back Price®) Your Solicitors must send us a Drawdown Notice
    • Only Your Solicitors can send us a Drawdown Notice (to protect you and to prevent fraud).
  • Your Agent:
    • We do not ask Your Agent for their valuation of the house you are selling.
    • You or Your Agent can submit an Application.
    • We do not recommend or promote any agents and we do not take or pay commissions.
  • When you take the Fall Back Price®:
    • Your house must be empty, vacant, clean and tidy and mortgage free.
    • You can pay off any outstanding mortgages with the Fall Back Price®.
    • Make sure you have time to find the right mortgage and any additional finance required if you are upsizing (there may be a difference between the Fall Back Price® for the house you are selling and the price of the property you want to buy).
    • We will sell your house (to recoup the Fall Back Price®) and will not gazump the buyer.
  • You can:
    • Return to your house after taking the Fall Back Price® and retain ownership providing you repay us the Fall Back Price® before your house is sold (you gave us vacant possession). No Charges – No Costs.
    • Rent your house after taking the Fall Back Price® (useful if your next property is not ready) providing your house already complies with the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 and has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rated an E or higher.
  • Can I have CHAIN FREE® without VAL FREE®?
    • No
    • VAL FREE® will help you sell quickly (and you don’t have to take our finance).
  • What is Islamic bridge finance?
    • Finance with “rent” as an alternative to interest.
    • Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
    • Anyone can apply for Islamic Finance. See: Home Finance Providers
  • What is the essential difference between bridging and CHAIN FREE®?
    • You can only access bridging finance after you have legally secured the house you are selling or the property being purchased.
    • You can use CHAIN FREE® to buy your next home with no such legal commitment.
  • Why do you say CHAIN FREE® is only available if my house is on Rightmove for sale for no more than 8 weeks and my solicitors are not holding a current contract for the property I want to buy?
    • 7 weeks is generally regarded as the average time to get an acceptable offer from first marketing so we have said 8 weeks (2 months).
    • IMPORTANT POINT: If Your Solicitors are holding a current contract for your next property it means you are already in a chain in which case CHAIN FREE® (chain-avoiding protection) is not for you.
  • How long will it take me to sell my house?
    • You have 8 weeks to join the Home Owners Plan™ plus 20 weeks Plan Membership = 28 weeks vs. 16 weeks average time from 1st day of marketing to contract exchange.
  • Do many houses sell for less than asking price?
    • Homes in Britain are generally selling on average 17% below asking price, equivalent to about –£62,602 on average house prices.
    • This compares to our Example at 6% with a discount on asking price of –£24,000.
  • How likely am I to buy at less than asking price?
    • This depends on the location of the property you are buying (within the local market), asking price (realistic or optimistic) and seller sentiment.
    • The success of your negotiation with the seller will also depend on their personal circumstances (selling a house is stressful), their confidence in local house prices and the time they think it will take to sell (seller sentiment).
  • What is Guzundering?
    • When a buyer, just before the exchange of contracts want a price reduction, the seller has been Gazundered.
  • If I take your Fall Back Price® and then make a mortgage application to buy another property will I have to say that I already have a mortgage?
    • You must answer “Yes“
    • Because a lender will ask you on completion if there will be any other loans secured against the property you want to buy.
    • Because you have said “Yes” the lender will ask for details.
    • You should say that you “have non-recourse finance from Albani and therefore you have no mortgage or home loan commitment“.
    • Non-recourse means you have no legal commitment to repay our finance (we can only recover the Fall Back Price® from the sale of your house).
  • What do I do if I want to take your finance and my existing mortgage is greater than the Fall Back Price®?
    • We cannot advise you what to do.
    • You should consider taking advice from Your Solicitor or independent financial adviser.
    • If our Fall Back Price® is not enough to pay off the mortgage on the house you are selling you may be able to get a mortgage on the property you want to buy that releases the extra money you need or perhaps you have savings or access to other funds to make up the difference.
  • When do I no longer legally own my house?
    • In conveyancing the property the transfer deed (Transfer) is the document which transfers ownership of the property from the seller to the buyer.
    • You will no longer own your house when the Transfer is signed by you and submitted to HM land Registry.
  • When I take the Fall Back Price® do I still legally own my house?
    • Yes
    • If you want to take the Fall Back Price® we will ask you to sign a Sale Contract (leaving the purchasers name blank for our Legal Department to fill in later) and Transfer so we can sell your house to recover our finance.
    • Albani Limited will register a charge securing the finance it has provided (the Fall Back Price®)  and caution that a Sale Contract has been entered into.
  • If I take your finance and buy another property and there’s a delay in your company selling my old one won’t I have to pay the higher rate of Stamp Duty as I will own two properties? 
    • If we sell your house (First Property) within three years of your buying your next property (Second Property) you can apply for a Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) refund (this will let you claim back the extra tax you paid on the Second Property).
    • If you take our finance (Fall Back Price®) and buy another property (Second Property) before your house is sold we will pay our solicitors any Additional Rate of SDLT so that you only have to pay the Standard Rate of SDLT on the Second Property (our Legal Department will provide your solicitor with an Undertaking to this effect).
    • For full details see: Home Owners Plan™ para 10.
  • Explain Empty, Clean and Tidy referred to in the Plan?
    • On the day you want to take our finance Your Agent will visit the house you are selling to confirm to us that you have removed everything from the house, garden and garage (you told us you would do this in your Application).
    • We will accept their confirmation (at our Absolute Discretion to prevent fraud) that you have removed furniture, rubbish, batteries, florescent tubes etc.
  • What is APR?
    • Please see APR? which explains what this means.
  • If your finance is interest-free what is the relevance of the APR?
    • Although our finance is interest-free the Consumer Credit Act (CCA) requires us to show the APR.
    • Even though our legal documents say you do not have to pay back the Fall Back Price® the CCA requires us to say that “your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a Loan or on any other debt secured on it.”
  • Your Solicitors can obtain verification from our Legal Department of our financial credentials.
  • You can decline permission for us to share information. Please see: our Privacy Policy.
  • Your Questions will be answered by a senior member of staff not a robot. Please see: Contact Us