01 / 11 · Practice · Checklist
Twenty questions for the solicitor who has only done mortgages.
If they cannot answer these without calling the bank’s panel, they are learning on your stamp duty. Pay for someone who has completed a Home Purchase Plan.
The Mizan desk · 7 September 2026 · 8 min
How many HPPs have you completed in the last twelve months? Who is on the title on day one? Where is the declaration of trust? How is rent distinguished from unit purchases on the monthly debit? What happens to arrears — cost, charity, or increment?
The rest of the twenty
How is early settlement priced — remaining units, or a mortgage ERC in costume? Who insures, and who is named? If the house burns, who is owed what? How is SDLT reported — alternative finance, one transaction? Help to Buy, gifted deposits, family undervalue: have you done that combination with this provider?
Leasehold term remaining. Ground rent. Cladding. New-build NHBC. Ex-local authority. Flat above a shop. All of these fail Islamic books more often than they fail Halifax. Ask before you pay for a survey the book will not take.
Default and sale: who can force a sale, how is the equity split, is there a possession action as if you were a mortgagor? Assignment of the book: what notice do you get if a Waterfall-style sale happens again? Shariah board: named, current, report on this product not a 2019 brochure.
If the answers are vague, stop. A confident conveyancer who has never seen an HPP will map every clause onto a mortgage because that is the software they have. Mapping is how a partnership becomes a loan in practice.