Legal Support for Property Investors
Specialist legal advice on property finance, built to support investors of every size, from first-time landlords to established portfolios
Property Finance
Your Property Finance Partner
Property finance can unlock opportunities, but it also comes with complexity. With a wide range of lenders, funding structures, and security requirements, it’s essential to have clear legal advice you can trust.
At PLS Solicitors, we support investors, developers, and property owners with expert legal guidance on property finance transactions. We work with lenders across the market, each with different criteria, processes, and risk considerations. Our role is to ensure you fully understand the legal position, manage risk effectively, and move forward with confidence.
What is Property Finance?
Property finance provides funding secured against property, allowing lenders to take a legal charge in return for finance. The structure and term of the funding will depend on your circumstances and how the property is being used.
Short-Term Property Finance
Short-term property finance is commonly provided through bridging finance or development finance. This is often used where a property is being renovated or developed, or where traditional mortgage lending is not suitable.
These transactions can move quickly and often involve complex conditions, making clear legal oversight essential.
Long-Term Property Finance
Long-term finance is typically arranged through mortgages, including buy-to-let lending and other investment facilities. This type of finance supports longer-term investment strategies and portfolio growth.
In all cases, the purpose of the funding must be agreed with the lender in advance, and the legal structure must be carefully reviewed before completion.
Benefits of Property Finance
Property finance gives investors flexibility and access to capital when it matters most.
How Property Finance Can Support You
Property finance may be used to:
Purchase a new investment property
Release equity from an existing property
Refinance or consolidate existing borrowing
Whether you are expanding your portfolio, unlocking equity, or refinancing onto more favourable terms, property finance can help you move forward sooner, without waiting for capital to become available.
With many lending options on the market, it’s important to understand the legal and commercial implications before committing. Our experienced property finance lawyers
How does property finance work?
Once you have identified a lender and funding product, our role is to support you through the legal process and ensure the transaction progresses smoothly.
Reviewing the Loan Facility
We will review the lender’s loan facility documentation in detail, explaining the terms clearly and highlighting any key conditions or risks. While some facilities are straightforward, others include complex security arrangements or lender protections that require careful consideration.
Property Due Diligence and Lender Security
Lenders require a legal charge over the property as security for their funding. Whether the property is newly acquired or already owned, we carry out thorough legal due diligence to ensure the title is acceptable and marketable from the lender’s perspective.
This is a critical step in protecting both you and the lender and ensuring the finance can be completed without delay.
Clear Advice Through to Completion
Before completion, we make sure you are fully advised on the facility, the lending conditions, and any associated risks. Where appropriate, we support discussions with lenders to resolve issues early and keep the transaction moving.
This is a critical step in protecting both you and the lender and ensuring the finance can be completed without delay.
Supporting Your Property Finance Journey
If you are securing property finance and need experienced legal support, our property finance team is here to help. We combine legal expertise, modern systems, and a personal approach to ensure every transaction is handled with care.
Our Partner Lenders
Banks we work with
PLS has the infrastructure, technology and scale needed to provide fast, responsive and hands-on legal advice to lenders and developers. We act nationally for a wide range of specialist and high street lenders, and are on many major high street bank panels. Lenders trust us because we have highly secure checking procedures, integrated with the latest technology, from title checks to anti-money laundering.
Featured Case Study
Secured Lending
PLS secures the right result for a major high value development finance case in central London
This case was monumental in that it set the precedent for this Lender in how they approach development finance deals. The previous process in place was outdated in that it was better suited for smaller scale developments with less conditions precedents on the Developer to obtain the necessary construction documentation.
It is common to experience resistance, mostly from the Developer and the professional team, to provide the right construction documentation where required. If not completed in advance of the deal coming to us it can cause delays whilst the documents are drafted, which was demonstrated in this case. However, due to the high-risk nature of development finance it is important we maintain a balance of speed and mitigation of risk for all parties.
As this was a high value development with a professional team consisting of several different legal entities, we had to consider the contractual relationships between all parties involved in the build and adopt a risk averse approach to ensure the Lender had sufficient means to ‘step-in’ if the Developer became insolvent.
In a scenario where the Developer (or Borrower) falls away and is unable to complete the build, the Lender must have a sufficient contractual link to the professional team, so they are able to enforce any outstanding liabilities under construction documentation to ensure the build is finished where the Developer is not able to complete the build themselves.
Our advice differed somewhat form the Quantity Surveyor (QS) which caused a great deal of friction during the transaction. Our advice consisted of a detailed report on the reasons for obtaining a suitable JCT, Appointments and Collateral Warranties for the main contractor and sub-contractors followed by an urgent conference call with the Lender, the Developer and the QS to explain our advice in greater detail.
As a result of our risk averse approach and expertise, we received the “lions share” of this particular Lender’s development finance work due to increased confidence in our ability to ensure the Lender’s and Developer’s security is our primary concern, whilst putting precedents in place to ensure a smoother journey for future Developers.
“It is important for our clients to trust the advice we give them and in this transaction, it proved how critical our expertise was to the success of a case.”
– Kieran de Vares, Associate Director
“PLS is now our trusted advisor for all development finance deals – anything between £1-20million”
Why choose us:
We have a dedicated team of over 200 staff based in our Liverpool, Manchester, Teesside and London offices and we work with a significant number of lenders in the market.
Let us help you to secure the property finance for your project. By working closely with a vast range of brokers and lenders, we can help you to fund a purchase of a new investment, release equity from your existing property or consolidate any debts.
Rebekah Bowyer
As first time buyers, this is all so new to us and Rubina Rob has been superb in making such a daunting experience easy and smooth. She’s super friendly and gets things done very quick! Nothing has been too much for her and she has been so patient regarding anything I’ve needed clarification on. Honestly, I could not recommend her more and will definitely come back to hopefully work with her in the future. We’ve exchanged contracts today and will complete on Thursday and none of this would have been possible without Rubina. We are buying a shared ownership property that is move in ready and in all the process has taken us around 2 months for anyone wondering. Thank you so very much!
Lucy M
I previously wrote a bad review but since a new solicitor took over my case, she has been absolutely fantastic. I can’t thank Rubina Rob enough for her hard work for getting me to complete within 9 weeks. She was extremely professional, proactive and constantly kept me up to date. She responded quickly to any queries I raised and always gave me a phonecall to explain further. I can’t thank Rubina enough, I would definitely use her in the future. Thank you so much! Rubina is a credit to PLS.
Zainab Hassan
I would say it was not straight forward but Will from PLS Contact made things clear and helped me. They were prompt in replying and making me understand the whole process.
Joy Brown
Fantastic service would definitely use again
Adam Tyrer
Good solicitors for us as first time buyers
Sean Fox
This feedback is specifically for Rubina Rob at PLS Solicitors. After a very poor start to my conveyancing experience, where much of my time and efforts were wasted by Matthew Howard and Sam Burton, Rubina took over my case. Once she did, things rapidly improved. Rubina kept me in the loop and was very responsive to emails and phone messages. She understood my frustrations with the previous handlers and dealt with my case in an efficient and professional manner. I will be leaving a separate review for PLS as a company when I have time to put everything in writing.
Consumer
We had Sean help us with our house buying experience and he was brilliant from start to finish. Emails were replied to quickly and searches were also completed in good time - we didn’t have to chase once. Would definitely use in the future. Thank you!
Kyle Van Dyk
We had a very pleasant and extremely quick process with Shah from PLS solicitors. He was always quick to respond to our queries and guided us through the whole process. I will highly recommend them!!!
Elaria Ibrahim
Thank you so much for making the process smoother and faster than we expected. We particularly appreciate Amy’s support in handling our case and all the effort they have put into helping us.
Kaj
Amazing experience from start to finish with one person, Clare Hessey, her professionalism stood out we never had to chase she kept us informed throughout a stressful and anxious process she took the time to explain with clarity when we did not understand. We have no hesitation in recommending Clare, she is simply amazing at what she does, an asset to PLS. Thank you so much Clare.
Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Explore our FAQs for Property Finance!
What's the difference between short-term and long-term property finance?
Short-term finance, such as bridging or development finance, is typically used for renovation or development projects where a standard mortgage isn’t suitable. Long-term finance is arranged through mortgages, including buy-to-let and other investment lending, to support longer-term strategies.
Can I use property finance to release equity from a property I already own?
Yes. This is one of the most common uses of property finance, alongside purchasing a new investment property or consolidating existing borrowing.
Does PLS act for buy-to-let investors as well as developers?
Yes, we support investors, developers, and property owners across a full range of property finance transactions.
Why does the lender need a legal charge over the property?
A legal charge gives the lender security against the property in return for the funds advanced. We ensure the title is good and marketable before the lender’s charge is registered.
