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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™:
    • 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 our finance.
    • 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®, minimum £1,980
    • For full details please see: Home Owners Plan™ Clause 3 and 4.
  • 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.
    • Requires you confirm that you will take legal advice
  • RICS Surveyors Valuation
    • A professional valuation carried out by a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
  • 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.
    • When you submit your Application you will receive a DataSource Valuation of your property for sale with our Offer of Finance/LTV (Fall Back Price®).
  • DataSource Valuation vs. RICS Surveyors Valuation:
    • A computer-generated objective estimate of your house’s value (available at the click of a button) vs. a professional subjective valuation carried out by a RICS Chartered Surveyor (after viewing your house for sale).
  • Your Solicitors:
    • When you have received our Application Confirmation email you and your solicitors will be able to view online 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.
    • We will only ask for your solicitors contact details when we send you our Drawdown Documents.
    • 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/LTV (Fall Back Price®) your solicitor must send us a Drawdown Notice
    • Only your solicitor 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 fees or commissions.
  • Administration Fee:
    • Only payable when you are a member of the Home Owners Plan™ and decide to upgrade from DataSource Valuation to RICS Surveyors Valuation.
    • We will return the Administration Fee if your solicitor informs our Legal Department that your house is not freehold or does not have a Land Registry Title Number.
  • Upgrading from DataSource Valuation to RICS Surveyors Valuation:
    • You can upgrade at any time but no later than 15 days before the end of your 20 week Plan Membership.
  • When you take our finance (Fall Back Price®):
    • Your house must be empty, vacant 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 our finance) 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 to comply with current legislation.
    • Please Contact Us for details.
  • 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 (Source: The Advisory) so we have said 8 weeks (2 months).
    • 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® (a chain-avoiding insurance arrangement) is not for you.
  • Do many houses sell for less than asking price?
    • Homes in Britain are selling on average 17% below asking price, equivalent to –£62,602 on average house prices (Source: Yopa July 2024 Analysis).
    • 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.
    • CHAIN FREE® will make you a Proceedable Buyer able to negotiate an offer at less than asking price.
    • 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).
  • 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 our finance 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™ Clause 11.
  • Regulation
    • CHAIN FREE® is not a  regulated mortgage contract.
    • Your solicitors can obtain verification from our Legal Department of our financial credentials.
    • Although our finance is interest-free the Consumer Credit Act (CCA) requires us show the APR. Please see APR? which explains what this means.
    • 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.”
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  • Your Questions: