Bridgewater said the checklist had been designed to help clients and advisers pull together all the necessary documentation for the application to complete as quickly as possible and to ensure that the client is able to meet any legal enquiries that may result from the application.
The checklist provides details on the necessary documentation required by the clients’ solicitor including buildings insurance documents, proof of identity, title deeds, an energy performance certificate, service agreements and original guarantees for completed work.
Also on the checklist is documentation for relevant planning permission and building control documentation, mortgage or charge details affecting the property and property or leasehold information forms.
The checklist also outlines the documents that the solicitor will require the client to sign including Counterpart Lease, Transfer, Declaration of Trust and Occupation waiver for any occupiers in the property over the age of 17.
Peter Welch, head of sales and distribution at Bridgewater, said: “Many of the hold-ups and dragging points with a home reversion case can be put down to documentation required by the solicitors which has not been forthcoming from the client.
“Advisers and their clients can get frustrated by such legal hold-ups and enquiries and it was therefore our aim to put together this client checklist in order to help with this overall process.”
Welch said that use of the checklist should allow clients to collate most of the necessary information and documentation required by their solicitors in order to progress far more quickly and smoothly with a case.
“By doing this, clients are much more likely to see their application turn into actual funds in a far shorter space of time,” Welch said.
“We do make a point of stating on the checklist that this is not an exhaustive list of documents that may be required however it will help in terms of meeting some of the more common legal enquiries that can be raised by a home reversion application.”
