We have always accepted search insurance on remortgage cases, but recently we also agreed to accept search insurance on purchase cases where contracts had been exchanged before 1 April 2021, to fit with the stamp duty holiday deadline. 

In the budget, the Chancellor confirmed that the stamp duty holiday would be extended to the end of June and then tapered until the end of September. The stamp duty holiday will continue to apply to properties for sale up to a threshold of £500,000 until 30 June, and will then drop from 1 July to £250,000 until the end of September, returning to the standard cut off rate of £125,000 from 1 October.

Given this extension, we will continue to accept search insurance on all cases where exchange has taken place before 1 October 2021. 

We hope this will help you and your clients to get your cases through as smoothly as possible before the stamp duty deadline. 

Our team of BDMs are ready, willing and able to answer any of your queries and guide you through the application process. If you don’t have a BDM in your area, you can contact our dedicated Mortgage Desk.