Inform 23rd February 2024

Precise Mortgages

Adverse credit getting in the way of your customers getting a mortgage?

Even though the average price of a house in the UK has fallen to £288,000*, many people are still struggling to secure a residential mortgage, especially those with blips on their credit scores.

That’s why Precise Mortgages have launched a range of residential mortgage options that support those with active and satisfied DMPs, CCJs, defaults and secured/unsecured arrears.

Here’s how we could help:

• You’re approached by a couple who’re expecting their first child and need to upsize from their current flat.
• They’ve found a three-bedroom property worth £300,000 and have £45,000 in equity from the sale of their existing property to put down as a deposit.
• Unfortunately, in the last few years the couple have experienced some financial difficulties which has left a mark on their credit score.
• They wanted to take responsibility for these and entered into a DMP 18 months ago, but they’re struggling to find a lender willing to support them.
• You reach out to Precise as you know our residential range provides options for people with adverse credit profiles, including those with active DMPs.
• We’re able to offer the customer a 2-year fixed rate mortgage at 85% LTV.

View our residential product guide here >>

For ease, our cascade system automatically filters your case until the appropriate product is found for your customer with no need to reapply.

To find out more about how we could help, speak with your business development manager, call our dedicated support service on 0800 116 4385 or contact us using Live Chat.

For intermediaries only. Product information correct as at 15/02/2024

Mansfield Building Society

Company Holiday Lets

Mansfield have launched a mortgage exclusively available for lending to Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Limited Company Holiday Lets.

Lending is available for up to 4 UK resident directors or shareholders, for purchase or remortgage on  Furnished Holiday Lets in accordance with HM Revenue and Customs rules.

Mansfield’s holiday lets are available across England and Wales and criteria includes:

• Maximum 75% LTV
• Minimum age of 25 years with the mortgage repaid before age 85 and a maximum mortgage term of 40 years
• Minimum income of £35,000 required
• Rental income assessed on an annual average of Low, Mid and High Season rental figures with Top Slicing also available for one property per borrower

A common sense approach

For further product details go to https://www.mansfieldbs.co.uk/intermediaries/mortgages/.

If you’ve got a case on your desk that requires a common sense approach to lending then please pick up the phone to our Broker Support team on 01623 676360 or email brokers@mansfieldbs.co.uk.

Marsden Building Society

Criteria Enhancements

We’ve made some changes to our criteria to continue to support your clients looking for a Later Life or Expat Residential mortgage.

For your Later Life clients….

• For our Later Life range, we’ve removed our maximum age based on mortality to a simplified criteria set as follows:
• Maximum age at start of term 85
• Maximum age at end of term 90
• Maximum term 35 years
• Employed and self-employed income accepted to age 75
• We’ve removed our minimum equity requirement for downsizing. Our new policy means the minimum equity requirement is subject to underwriter’s discretion.

For your Expat Residential clients….

• For our Expat Residential range, we’ll now accept income multiples of 5x for your clients who have gross income of £100,000 or more (joint or sole) subject to affordability. We’ve created a new tab on our affordability calculator specifically to support 5x income multiple cases
• We’ve also increased our maximum age at end of term to age 70 or intended retirement age, whichever is lower

Also…

We’ve increased the maximum loan size for all our product ranges from £750,000 to £1,250,000. Please note, loan sizes over £750,000 may be subject to LTV restrictions and a % arrangement fee.

Got a case in mind?

We’re here to answer any questions you may have, or if you’ve got a case in mind, please contact our Broker Support team on 01282 440583*.

Metro Bank

Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor Enhancements

We have made some enhancements to our popular Joint Borrower, Sole Proprietor offering:

• Joint borrowers (non-proprietors) now permitted to reside in the subject property (residential only)
• Joint borrower can now gift a deposit and reside in the subject property – updated Gifted Deposit Form to be used.
• Non-relatives are accepted as joint borrowers

Further Residential Core Range JBSP highlights

• Up to 95% LTV on houses and flats, purchase only (90% LTV for new build)
• Up to four applicants on the mortgage, with a minimum of one applicant on the property deeds
• Income can be accepted from up to 4 applicants, at full income multiples, subject to affordability
• Maximum age 80 considered (mortgage term based on the oldest applicant at the end of the term)
• Repayment, interest only and part and part options available (maximum LTVs apply)

For full details on the points above, please refer to our Mortgage Lending Criteria Guide and Product Guides.

Vitality

‘The tide is changing! Now is the time for quality over price’

The protection market needs to move with times, which means embracing quality over price once and for all, writes Vitality’s Chief Operations and Growth Officer Greg Levine.

Read the article

Your new toolkit: supporting your client conversations

We’ve developed a new and enhanced toolkit to support you when recommending Serious Illness Cover. These resources will help you unpack our unique proposition, as well as demonstrate the value of our cover to your clients.

Explore your toolkit

Santander for Intermediaries

Submitting a product transfer request online

Eligible to transfer online

• Your client must have an outstanding balance of at least £1,000 available to transfer.
• Their current deal ends before the completion deadline of our on-sale product transfer range. They’ll first become eligible just over 6 months before their current deal ends.
• They are already on our Standard Variable Rate, Follow-on Rate or a deal with no ERC.
• They have been granted consent to let on their residential property.

When not to secure a new deal for your client

• Your client wants to make any other changes (mortgage term, method of repayment, loan amount), borrow more or make an overpayment at the same time.
• Your client is thinking about letting their property, but has not yet been granted consent to let.
• Your client wants to move home or remortgage to another lender within the next 6 months – or are already in process of moving home. Pre-booked deals can’t be ported. If your client has 6 months or less on their current deal at time of application, they can choose a new product and we’ll waive their ERC if they’re borrowing the same amount or more. Please view our moving home page for more information.
• Your client has multiple loan parts on their mortgage and the end dates of their existing deals are within the next 6 to 7 months. You need to review the impact of pre-booking a deal on one loan part. If you pre-book a deal on one loan part, no other loan parts can be changed until that new deal starts.

Market Harborough

Finding the ideal mortgage solution for a quirky property and complex income

As one of the UK’s fastest-growing building societies, we have an impressive track record when it comes to finding solutions for scenarios with more than one quirk or complexity.

We’ve recently helped four applicants from different generations remortgage their former stately home. An unusual property, high net worth clients, lending into retirement and multiple sources of income, this case had many complex factors. Yet, our team managed to pull out all the stops and find the ideal solution. Find out how here.

If there’s a case with multiple complexities on your desk, you can rely on us to find a solution. We provide award-winning service and have recently received a Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award. Our team are ready to help on 01858 412345 or visit our website.

The Exeter

The value of value-added services

Join us for the third of our sessions where we examine consumer perceptions of value-added services and explore how your clients use the services.

Join Jamie Page, Head of Protection Distribution at The Exeter and Andrea Ryan, Senior Account Manager at SquareHealth as they look at how these services are run to ensure clinical governance and quality of care and how value-added services can support you with consumer duty guidance.

By the end of this session, you’ll:

• Have an insight into consumer perceptions of value-added services
• Understand how your clients are using The Exeter’s member benefits
• Understand how member benefits can support the delivery of good customer outcomes for your clients. 

Register here!

more2life

Tailored Enhanced

At more2life we are constantly driven by delivering excellent customer outcomes. With that in mind we’ve brought back Tailored Enhanced. Built to take into account your clients history and if eligible, provide them with access to some of the highest LTVs available in the market.

There are no medicals, no complicated paperwork – just 13 simple health questions, and a signed medical declaration to be completed at application stage, which could unlock the borrowing your clients need.

To check if your client could access enhanced LTVs, take a look at our Medical Questionnaire and use this with your clients to see if they’re suitable for a Tailored Enhanced plan.

Virgin Money and Clydesdale Bank

Weekly Service Update

Service at 21st February

Virgin Money:

• Initial Assessment:- 2 days
• Correspondence & Valuations:– 1 day to assess documents and valuations
• Speed to Offer – rolling month:–  9 days
• Post Offer:- 2 days
• Calls:–  97% calls & 99% webchat – Average wait 01.39 and longest wait 21.09
• Policy Exceptions:– 2 days
• New adviser registrations:- 2 days
• Product Transfers – Offers 3 days; Correspondence 3 days; Underwriting 2 days

Clydesdale Bank:

• Initial assessment:- 3 days
• Correspondence & Valuations:- 3 days to assess documents and 4 days to assess valuations
• Offers:- 2 days
• Speed to Offer:- 9 days
  • Cases fully packaged at outset are achieving lower speed to offer timescales
  • Average speed to offer is working days based on applications received since April 2021.
• New adviser registrations:
  • Adviser already on VM panel and firm already on CB panel:- <2 days
  • All other registration requests:- <5 days.
• Product Transfers:- 4 days

Red Hot Things

• The Virgin Money residential 5 year Fix and Switch product has been extended to offer 70% LTV remortgages
• Fix and Switch offers your customers a 5 Year Fixed Rate mortgage with a 2 Year Early Repayment Charge (ERC). Customers get certainty for five years on their interest rate and monthly payments, but if interest rates go down, your customer can switch to another deal after two years without incurring an ERC.
• If you were to arrange a product transfer with Virgin Money for your customer after the two year ERC expiry, a procuration fee would be payable.
• Affordability for Fix and Switch will be assessed using our recently updated approach for residential mortgages fixed for five years or longer.

Virgin Money & Clydesdale Bank can lend on a range of non-standard BTL scenarios…

Virgin Money BTL:

• Concessionary purchase between family members accepted
• Remortgage within 6 months of ownership – valuation passed on original purchase price + spend
• Capital raising for any purpose as long as it’s not business e.g. repaying debt, reducing lending across other properties in the portfolio, purchase another property (even if they haven’t found it yet!) etc.

Clydesdale Bank BTL:

• No minimum rental coverage needed as our assessment will be based on the customers affordability rather than rental coverage.
• First time buyers / non-owner occupiers accepted
• Multi-unit properties considered
• Remortgage within 6 months of ownership – valuation passed on open market value
• Have a look at our Prize Draw on our new Virgin Money for Intermediaries LinkedIn page…

1  lucky broker can win a whopping 1,500,000 Virgin Points which is enough to book a trip to go on a safari or buy you 7,500 Greggs sausage rolls : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/virgin-money-intermediaries_were-going-big-for-our-mortgage-brokers-activity-7162825176907255808-DpHP

Outside of policy enquiries can be considered on a case by case basis, with prior agreement from an underwriter.  Applications can be discussed with local BDM’s – full details available here: Find your BDM | Intermediaries (virginmoney.com)