The DIP cleared on LTV. The exit memo looks tidy. Completion is pencilled for Thursday. Then credit opens the charges register and finds a first charge dated 2019, a second note from a director loan and a redemption PDF printed six weeks ago with a figure that no longer matches the lender portal. The bridging loan does not die on price. It stalls on a payout nobody can rely on.
StatusKWO prices short commercial facilities for professional investors, developers and corporate borrowers. Main-home owner-occupier files sit outside that book. The published schedule currently shows a monthly rate from 1.25%, an entry fee of 2%, an exit fee of 1.5%, LTV up to 85%, loans from £10,000 to £10,000,000+ and terms up to 16 months. Those numbers sit on the product sheet. They are not a promise that an old redemption PDF will clear drawdown.
The stale redemption PDF that stalls drawdown
A refinance bridge is often sold as simple. Pay out the existing lender. Take a new first charge. Move on. Credit does not underwrite that story from a covering email.
Our general bridging pack note covers identity, companies and the light title ask. The source-of-funds pack covers the cash the borrower is putting in. The SPV and Companies House pack covers the entity. The page you are reading is narrower. It is the redemption and discharge zip a specialist desk wants before it funds a facility that must clear an existing registered charge on completion.
Start the enquiry with one page. Address and title number. Gross and net loan. Term. Named exit. Existing lender name. Approximate balance. Charge date from the register. Early repayment charge flag if known. Named conveyancer. Then attach the live redemption statement before the glossy brochure. Credit can read a brochure in five minutes. They cannot invent a valid payout figure from a six-week-old PDF.
Stale figures create the worst kind of delay. The solicitor wires the wrong amount. The existing lender refuses to discharge. Priority sits with a charge that should have been cancelled. The new facility cannot complete cleanly. That is not a soft admin point. It is a completion failure.
What a live redemption statement must show credit
Ask for a statement dated for a named completion date, not a vague “current balance” screenshot. Brokers lose days when the PDF shows today’s figure but completion is twelve working days away.
Credit wants the lender name and account reference. The redemption date the figure is valid to. The capital balance. Accrued interest to that date. Early repayment charge if any. Admin or deed fees. Daily interest after the validity date if the statement says so. Any retention or undertaking condition the existing lender has written into the letter. The method they will use to discharge once cleared funds arrive.
A statement that stops at “amount to redeem £412,500” is incomplete. Credit needs the components. An ERC of £18,000 changes net equity. A £45 per day interest run changes the top-up if Thursday slips to the following Tuesday. Do not leave the broker to discover that on the morning of completion.
Validity windows matter. Many high-street redemption letters are good for a short period. If the date slips, request a fresh statement. Do not ask credit to re-use last month’s print “because the balance only moves a little”. A little is still a shortfall at the existing lender’s cashier desk.
If the borrower has more than one sub-account, say so on page one. Some lenders issue separate figures for each account. A pack that redeems account A and forgets account B leaves a charge on the register. Credit will ask which accounts sit behind the title and which ones this bridge is paying.
Keep the request trail. Email from the conveyancer to the existing lender. Portal confirmation. Broker chasing note with dates. When a redemption desk is slow, the dated chase log is useful. Silence with a completion date next week is not a plan.
Watch for borrower prepaid interest or overpayments that the statement has not yet applied. A portal balance the client screenshots at breakfast can sit below the formal redemption letter issued at lunch. Credit takes the lender letter. Argue the portal later if the figures diverge.
If the existing facility is in arrears, say so early. Arrears interest, litigation costs and receiver fees can sit inside the redemption total. A clean DIP memo that pretends the account is performing will be rewritten when the letter arrives. Better to price the ugly figure once.
Official copies charges register and matching title numbers
The redemption statement is only half the story. Credit still has to see what the register actually shows.
GOV.UK’s public page on getting a copy of the deeds is clear. For registered land the title register and title plan are the working record. Paper deeds are not sitting in a drawer at HM Land Registry waiting for a completion call. Download or apply for official copies early. Form OC1 covers the register and plan when you need the official version. Form OC2 covers filed deeds the register marks as copy filed.
Match three things before the DIP goes live. Title number on the one-pager. Proprietor name on the register. Charge entries in the charges register. If the SPV on the application is not the registered proprietor, stop and explain the transfer or nominee story. Do not hope credit misses it.
Read the charges register slowly. First legal charge. Second charge. Restriction in favour of the lender. Notice of deposit. Home Rights notice. Caution. A tidy covering email that says “only one mortgage” fails when the register shows two. Our older second charge bridging note covers ranking when the first charge stays. This pack is for files where the existing charge must leave.
Cross-check the charge date on the redemption letter against the register. Wrong date, wrong lender name or wrong title number is a red flag. Some titles carry two charges with the same date. HM Land Registry’s own e-DS1 portal guidance tells lenders to check an official copy when identification is unclear. Brokers should do the same before they send the pack.
If a restriction requires lender consent to a dealing, say so on page one. A redemption that clears the charge still has to clear the restriction mechanics the register imposes. Credit wants the consent letter or the solicitor’s route before funds are marked ready.
Leasehold titles need the lease and any landlord charge notes that affect priority. Freehold titles with estate rentcharges or older mortgage notes need those papers too. Do not assume “residential refinance” means a clean A-register and one charge.
Pending applications against the title matter as well. A transfer lodged last week, a new charge application or a restriction being updated can block an otherwise clean electronic discharge. Ask the solicitor for an OS3-style pending check when the register looks busy. Credit would rather hear about a queue now than after funds leave.
Early repayment charges retention and per diem interest
Net loan maths fails when the ERC is missing from the schedule.
Put the ERC on the one-pager even if the borrower hopes to negotiate it away. Credit prices the known figure. A hope is not evidence. If the existing lender has offered a waiver letter, attach it. If they have not, assume the charge bites and size the facility or cash top-up accordingly.
Retentions appear more often than brokers expect. The existing lender may hold a buildings insurance condition, a repair retention or a consent fee. Those sums still sit inside the redemption total until released. Write them as separate lines. Quiet retentions are how Friday completions become Monday crises.
Per diem interest is the small number that ruins a thin equity buffer. If the statement quotes £38.20 a day after the validity date, multiply it by the realistic slip risk. Auction clocks and tight private-treaty completions do not forgive a two-day miss. Our auction finance files already run on a hard twenty-eight day completion. A stale redemption on an auction refinance of an existing charge is a common own-goal.
Interest type on the new bridge still matters for cash planning. Rolled-up, retained or serviced interest changes how much cash the borrower must show beside the redemption top-up. The source-of-funds pack covers the trail for that cash. Do not mix the two asks in one muddy paragraph. Redemption figure first. Cash trail second.
Portfolio files need a redemption schedule per title when several charges leave. A single blended “about £1.2m across the book” line is not underwritable. List each title number, each lender, each statement date and each figure. The portfolio finance desk will still want rent roll and company papers. They will not invent redemption maths for six titles from one round number.
How discharge routes e-DS1 and DS1 change completion risk
Paying the redemption figure is not the same as clearing the register.
HM Land Registry practice guide 31 on discharges of charges sets out how registered charges leave the title. Many lenders now discharge by electronic discharge or by e-DS1 through the portal. The guide tells conveyancers what the redemption statement should say about the route and what happens if the new application reaches the Registry before the discharge lands.
Credit wants the discharge method named in the pack. Electronic discharge. e-DS1. Paper DS1. Undertaking to discharge. Each route has a different timing risk. A paper DS1 that still has to be executed and lodged sits differently from an electronic discharge the lender’s system sends once cleared funds are booked.
The solicitor acting on the new facility should confirm how they will protect priority while the old charge is cancelled. Practice guide 31 discusses applications that arrive before the discharge and how Registry treats the existing charge in those cases. Brokers do not need to draft the priority application. They do need to flag when the existing lender is known to be slow on electronic discharge and when a paper route is still in play.
Do not treat a lender email saying “we will discharge on receipt of funds” as the same as a completed cancellation. Credit may ask for post-completion confirmation that the charge entries have gone. Build that into the solicitor’s completion checklist rather than discovering a live charge a week later.
Undertakings need the same precision. A solicitor’s undertaking to redeem and discharge is only as good as the figures and the discharge route behind it. Credit will ask who is giving the undertaking, on what wording and against which statement date. Vague “usual undertaking” language is not enough when the ERC alone is five figures.
Second charge and cross-charge structures change the ask. If the new facility sits behind a surviving first charge, this redemption pack is the wrong tool. Use the ranking story and the first lender’s consent papers. If another owned asset is charged instead of or beside the subject title, read the cross-charge bridging note and still supply redemptions for every charge this bridge is paying out.
Development exits that repay a bridge with a longer facility still need the same discharge hygiene. A development finance take-out that leaves the short-term charge on the register is not a take-out. The redemption and discharge papers belong in that completion bundle too.
Refinance purchase and cross-charge files that still need the pack
Three file shapes keep landing on the same evidence gap.
First, a refinance of an owned asset. The borrower wants capital out or a cheaper short facility while they wait for a term lender. Existing charge must leave. Redemption statement, official copies and discharge route are mandatory on day one.
Second, a purchase where the seller’s charge must be redeemed for clean title. The seller’s solicitor usually runs that redemption. Credit still wants comfort that the figure is live and that the discharge route is electronic where possible. A purchase pack with no seller redemption plan is incomplete when the register shows a heavy first charge.
Third, a portfolio reshuffle. Titles move between SPVs. SIPP extractions. Share purchases that need charges cleared or replaced. Those files collect redemption statements the way other files collect rent rolls. Miss one title and the whole priority map breaks.
Sale-exit bridges sit beside this pack rather than inside it. If Plan A is a private-treaty sale that also needs the existing charge cleared on completion, send both zips. The sale-exit evidence note covers the marketing diary. The redemption pack covers the payout. Credit will not infer one from the other.
Broker channels should treat redemption chasing as part of packaging, not as a completion-week surprise. The brokers desk would rather see a dated chase log on Monday than a panicked call on Thursday afternoon.
What brokers should send with the first redemption request
Send one zip. Name it clearly. Do not drip PDFs across six emails.
Include the one-page summary. Live redemption statement for the named completion date. Official copies of the register and title plan. Charges register extract highlighted if the PDF is long. Any ERC waiver or retention letter. Solicitor details for both sides where a purchase sits behind the refinance. Existing lender contact or portal reference. Dated chase log if the statement is still outstanding. Source-of-funds schedule for any cash top-up. Company and PSC papers when an SPV borrows.
Say what the facility is paying. Full redemption of charge dated X. Partial redemption with a stated remaining balance if that is truly the structure. Most specialist first-charge bridges want a clean title after completion. Partial stories need an explicit ranking memo.
Name the exit again. Term refinance. Sale. Auction disposal. Development take-out. Soft prices and firmer fixed mortgage pricing make refinance exits harder. That is why the redemption maths and the exit evidence have to sit together. A perfect discharge pack with a fantasy exit still fails.
Use the decision in principle only after the one-pager and the live statement are ready. A DIP raised on a guessed balance wastes underwriter time and burns trust when the real figure arrives £40,000 higher.
If the existing lender will not issue a statement without a solicitor’s undertaking letter, say that on day one. Credit can work with a dated request and a solicitor already instructed. They cannot work with “redemption TBC” three days before drawdown.
Keep a simple version table in the zip. Statement dated 12 September for a 19 September completion. Statement dated 18 September after the date slipped. Credit should see which PDF is live without opening six identically named files. Delete the superseded prints from the pack you send, or mark them superseded in the filename.
When the figure is higher than the borrower expected, rewrite the one-pager before you argue with credit. New gross loan. New cash top-up. New exit residual. A cheerful covering email that ignores the ERC will not survive first read.
Frequently asked questions
Can credit price a refinance bridge on a statement from last month?
No. Ask for a statement valid to the planned completion date. If the date slips, refresh it. Daily interest and ERC windows move the figure even when the capital balance looks stable.
Does an electronic discharge remove the need for official copies?
No. Official copies show what must be discharged and who owns the title. The discharge route only explains how the existing lender will cancel the charge after cleared funds arrive.
What if the register shows two charges but the borrower only mentioned one?
Stop and rebuild the pack. Identify each charge, each lender and each redemption figure. A forgotten second charge is a completion failure, not a paperwork nicety.
Do purchase files need a seller redemption statement in the broker zip?
Yes when the register shows a charge that must leave for clean title. The seller’s solicitor may hold the primary letter. Credit still wants the live figure and the discharge method in the file before funds are marked ready.
How does this sit beside source-of-funds and SPV evidence?
Separately. Redemption papers clear the existing charge. Source-of-funds papers clear the borrower’s own cash. SPV papers clear the borrowing entity. Send all three when all three are in play rather than hoping one PDF covers the rest.
