Independent Legal Advice on a Bridging Facility, Inside 24 Hours
Windermere Road, Putney SW15. A completion date fixed, a bridging lender requiring certified independent advice, and a day to arrange it.
At a glance
- Service
- Independent legal advice on a bridging facility
- Location
- Windermere Road, Putney, London Borough of Wandsworth, SW15
- Requirement
- The lender required certified independent legal advice before the facility could be drawn, and the client had 24 hours
- Outcome
- Same-day appointment arranged, advice given, and the certificate issued to the lender in the form required — allowing the loan to complete on the planned date
The situation
Our client was completing a purchase funded by a bridging facility. With the completion date fixed, the lender confirmed it required independent legal advice, certified by a solicitor, before the money could be drawn.
That left twenty-four hours.
This is the normal shape of an independent legal advice instruction, not an unusual one. The requirement sits in the lender’s conditions rather than in the borrower’s mind, and it surfaces when somebody works through the drawdown checklist. By then the completion date is agreed, the seller is expecting to move, and a delay costs money in a way it did not the week before.
Why bridging finance makes it sharper
Bridging lending is short-term and priced accordingly. Interest runs at rates that make a week’s delay a real number, exit dates are fixed, and the facility is often the only thing holding a transaction together — an auction purchase with a completion deadline, a chain break, a purchase timed against a sale that has not yet happened.
So the consequence of missing the date is not simply inconvenience. Deposits can be at risk, arrangement fees may be wasted, and a rescheduled drawdown can mean re-pricing.
None of which changes the advice itself. What it changes is how quickly it has to be available.
The practical point. Independent legal advice is almost always the last requirement anybody notices and the one with the least slack behind it. Ask your broker or lender early whether it will be required — on bridging, assume it will.
What we did
We arranged an appointment the same day, gave the advice, and issued the certificate to the lender in the form the lender required.
That last part matters more than it sounds. Lenders specify their own certificate wording and their own requirements about how the meeting is conducted — in person or by video, who may be present, what has to be confirmed. A certificate in the wrong form is returned, and the time saved by moving quickly is lost checking it.
The advice covered what the client was taking on personally, the extent and limits of the liability, what happens on default and how enforcement would proceed, the exit route the facility assumed, and the practical consequences if that exit did not materialise on time — which, with bridging, is the question that actually matters.
The loan completed on the planned date.
Speed is most of the value
Same day, fixed fee, two minutes from the station
The legal content of an independent legal advice appointment is well settled. What a borrower needs is a solicitor who can see them today, at a price known in advance, and produce a certificate the lender will accept first time.
Our office is a two-minute walk from Raynes Park station, with bus links and pay-and-display parking, and we offer same-day appointments for independent legal advice. Fees start from £350 plus VAT per person, with discounts where several parties are advised on the same agreement.
Common questions
How quickly can independent legal advice be arranged?
Same day in most cases, as here. The appointment itself is short; what matters is availability and issuing the certificate in the form the lender requires.
Why does my bridging lender want it?
Because a security or guarantee may be challenged later if the person giving it did not properly understand what they were signing. Independent advice, certified by a solicitor who does not act for the lender, protects the enforceability of the lender’s security.
Can my own conveyancing solicitor give it?
No — the point is that the advice comes from someone independent of the transaction. That is why it is a separate instruction, often arranged at short notice alongside a purchase somebody else is handling.
What does it cost?
From £350 plus VAT per person, with discounts where multiple parties to one agreement are advised together. Same-day and expedited appointments are available on request.
Client names are not used in our case studies. Properties are identified by road, block and postcode only. Every matter turns on its own facts, and outcomes described here are not a prediction of what will happen in yours.