Following last week’s Budget announcements the temporary Stamp Duty waiver for properties will be extended to the End of June for properties in England/Wales and Northern Ireland. The existing waiver for Scotland will cease at the end of March.
LBG still anticipate a large increase in queries and completion related activity for the March month end period, as a result the deadline date of 24th March for Certificate of title submission will still apply.
To ensuring funds are available for completion firms in Scotland must ensure that they submit their CoT through Lender Exchange (for cases received via Lender Exchange). Using the online portal will also allow the firm to track progress of your CoT submission. In this way the firm will receive an update once the CoT has been accepted .
The pre-populated PDF CoT in the offer pack will soon be removed entirely, and in order to ensure the process is smooth, it’s vital that all CoTs are submitted using the Lender Exchange Submit CoT button, and from the end of the month, any CoT not submitted via Lender Exchange (for cases received via Lender Exchange) will be rejected.
Key reminders:
- Certificates of Title should be submitted by the 24th March to ensure completion by Month end.
- Requests for Completion (CoTs) should be submitted via Lender Exchange. We will be monitoring CoT’s received and any requests received on paper/fax that should have come through Lender Exchange will be rejected.
- 5 Days’ Notice is required for all completion requests, requests submitted inside this 5 day period will be processed on a best endeavours basis.
- Do not submit a request for funds if you have outstanding matters that still require attention, issues need resolved prior to COT submission.
- For cases issued via Lender Exchange, CoT’s should not be submitted by e-mail unless you have been formally requested to do so. Please check Lender Exchange for completion status rather than calling us.
- During busy periods LBG see an increase in volumes of returned mortgage advance payments. Please be aware that LBG require a minimum of 48 hours for funds to be re-released once returned, please consider if the initial completion dates are viable before submitting your COT.
- Solicitors should carefully check the lender handbook for what account to return funds to, we are seeing an increased number of scenarios where they are sending funds to the wrong place (e.g. sending to old A/ account which is now closed, sending 60/ funds back to the 2002 account details), please ensure these are returned to the correct account to avoid delays.
- For cash incentives alteration, it is only necessary to contact LBG if the value of the cash incentive declared increases from the amount already notified to us, as detailed within the mortgage offer. For example - Where the incentive reduces, is removed or the structure of the incentive changes there is no need to notify us, providing it does not exceed the amount already advised to us. Information for conveyancers can be found in Section 6.4.4 of the UK Finance Handbook which identifies in which scenarios a conveyancer needs or does not need to report changes to the bank, and this does not alter that advice.
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