Coronavirus implications for the conveyancing market

On the 23 March at 8.30pm the nation watched as Boris Johnson announced a full scale lock down, setting out essential travel and social distancing.  How we function as a society has changed and the impact this has had on businesses, schools, health and welfare is far reaching.

The Bank of England have announced they will be putting in place a package of measures to assist businesses and keep people in jobs to help prevent COVID-19 from causing long term economic damage.  Interest rates have been cut to 0.1% which means cheaper loans to business and households and a further £200 billion is to be injected into the economy to help with public spending and continued investment.

Mortgage Lenders are also playing their part, Mortgage Payment holidays through government assistance and for those who qualify will be eligible for a three month payment holiday, this applies to both residential and buy-to-let mortgages.  To find out if you qualify for this you must first speak with your lender, it may also be worth checking if there will be a negative impact on your credit rating.    

However tread carefully; Mortgage Brokers are advising that if you can afford to pay your mortgage without a payment holiday then you should do so, the payment holiday is not free money,  the banks will add up the amount you didn’t pay to your total mortgage and when the three months are up your repayments will go up but with interest rates so low at the moment some are saying this makes little difference.   The general opinion is only take this route if you have little to no other option and get advice from your lender first.

More positive news from lenders is extensions on mortgage offers, you may have seen in the media that some lenders are extending the mortgages offers for clients moving home by a further three  months, it is important to note though that this is for offers on matters where contracts have already exchanged, this allows further dates to be negotiated where moving is not possible during the lock down.  If you have not exchanged and you are concerned that your mortgage offer is due to expire you will need to speak with your lender about extending your offer.   In all circumstances where you are extending your offer the lender may ask for further proof of funds and will be discretionary based on personal circumstances.

The main question I  still get is how will this affect my ability to move and what impact will this have on the value of my property.  The Government have produced more guidelines on house moves during the lockdown, these can be found in the link below, in essence the government are saying you can move if the property you are selling and or buying is empty, limiting the amount of journeys and making it easier to obey the social distancing rules.  If however you are in a chain whilst the government are not saying you cannot move they are strongly suggesting that this is done through a risk managed approach which may include long stop dates and the addition of contract clauses.   The Law Society are supporting house movers but have made it clear that once exchanged the conditions of sale are still enforceable if you do not complete on the legal date agreement.  What does this mean?   If you have exchanged with a fixed legal date and are unable to complete on that date action can be taken against you under the contract, this could result in you forfeiting your deposit.

As a firm we are doing our best to help you navigate through these government guidelines, we are assessing each exchange on a cases by case basis with a risk managed approach.  For further advice and guidance about your matter please speak with your Conveyancer.

In terms of the future impact on the housing market as yet we do not know what effect if any this will have, at this stage there is no firm evidence that this will have an impact on house prices.

Stay safe and keep washing those hands.

We are continuing to monitor the situation together with government and law society guidance. For more detailed advice on your matter please speak with your Conveyancer by calling 01908 660966 / 01604 828282.