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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 estate agent receives after proper marketing for sale when no higher offers have been received resulting in an exchange of contracts.
  • Home Owners Plan™:
    • You join the Plan by signing the Offer Documents (which include the Plan T&Cs).
    • You will be a Proceedable Buyer up to our offer of finance (Fall Back Price®) with time to find any additional monies required /mortgage.
    • 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 see Plan T&Cs Clause 3 and 4.
  • Application:
    • CHAIN FREE® is only available if your house is on Rightmove for sale (for no more than 10 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 and that if you want to take our finance only your solicitor can send us a Drawdown Notice (to protect you and to prevent fraud).
  • 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 free DataSource Valuation of your property for sale.
  • DataSource Valuation vs. RICS Surveyors Valuation:
    • A computer-generated estimate of your house’s value (available at the click of a button) vs. a professional 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.
    • 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.
  • Your Estate Agents:
    • Must be high street estate agents.
    • Estate agent fees are visible and clear.
    • We do not ask your estate agents for their Opinion of Valuation.
    • You or your estate agents can submit an Application.
    • We do not recommend or promote any firm of estate 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).
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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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