Inform 6th October 2023

We are excited to bring to you an extended “Technology Special”! The world of technology has an ever-changing landscape and evolves at such pace so how can advisers keep abreast of the tools which can enhance their role, their customer service and provide them time to advise on protection? James Adams, Director of My Simple Mortgage and Thora Kehoe Chief Product Officer at Smartr365 spent time with Wayne and Hazel to uncover some of the truths around using technology in our industry, how it can enhance customer relationships, help keep advisers the right-side of compliance and drive efficiencies. All these aspects are key to running a successful business and in turn, provide extra time to provide great advice to our customers.

Listen here. 

Watch here.

We understand that your self-employed customers can sometimes come off second best when mainstream lenders assess their income. Over 40% of our residential customers are self-employed.  Our criteria includes:

• Using most recent years’ salary and share of profit before tax for Ltd Co Directors’ income
• Only one year trading required
• Recent incorporations without accounts can use previous sole trader accounts
• 100% of income used if multiple businesses

Read one of our self employed case studies here.

Vida Homeloans

Criteria wrap-up: HMOs and MUBs

Here’s a wrap-up of our HMO and MUB criteria and how we can help your specialist customers to get life moving.

Applicant Profile
Applicants with no previous experience (First Time Landlords) can be considered for HMOs and MUBs.

Minimum Valuation
Minimum valuation for MUBs: £175,000 for the freehold block in London and South East, £125,000 in all other regions. Minimum valuation for HMOs: £100,000.

Number of Units/Bedrooms
MUBs can have up to 6 self-contained units on a single freehold title. Flats only, no mixed units. HMOs with up to 6 bedrooms accepted.

Licence Requirements
A HMO Licence is required if deemed appropriate from the Local Authority.

Rental Cover Rates
Basic Rate & SPVs – 125%
Higher Rate – 140%

Let’s get life moving for you and your customers.
Take a look at our lending criteria or download our criteria guide here.

To ensure that the most recent Tax Calculations (SA302s) and corresponding Tax Year Overviews are no more than 18 months old, please note that for all applications fully submitted from Friday 6 October 2023 the latest Tax Calculations and Tax Year Overviews must be for tax year 2022 / 2023.

There’s no change to self-employed income verification and you should continue to follow the existing process.

Please see our website Criteria page for more details on self-employed incomes.

When your client wants to buy a new home before selling their existing one TFI can offer a sweet solution: ERC free short-term mortgages.

THE CASE
With a growing young family the clients wanted to move for additional space whilst staying in the same area of London. Having found the right property for their needs they were keen to secure it before the opportunity was lost, selling their existing home separately once the purchase was complete.

THE PROPERTIES
The current home was valued at £2.3m, with the purchase price of the new larger property agreed at just under £3 million.

THE FINANCIAL DETAIL
Whilst both applicants worked as City barristers, one partner was just returning to work after an extended period of maternity leave. Both earned significant six figure salaries as salaried members of LLPs.

THE SOLUTION
Despite an extended period of maternity leave, it was clear the applicant had a history of earning at a high-income level and the combined incomes plus bonus met affordability requirements.

We agreed on a short-term interest only ERC free mortgage to release capital and raise equity against their existing home, with funds being used to provide a deposit against the new property. Once the former home was sold the clients planned to redeem the mortgage in full.

Do your clients need to purchase before selling? Just ask us at TFI…

We’re pleased to announce the following improvements to our self-employed criteria. These apply from today, Tuesday 3 October.

• The maximum LTV for self-employed applications has been increased to 95%.
• We’ve extended our LTI cap to 5.5 times income.

Click here for more information on our self-employed policy.

Tips to speed up your mortgage application

1. Always check the information you provide is accurate e.g. your client’s name, address and date of birth.
2. If your client is capital raising, give us a full breakdown of what the money will be used for in general notes.
3. Sometimes we receive documents we don’t need, so only provide the documents we’ve requested.

For more tips, click here.

The popularity of owning buy-to-let properties though a limited company structure is evident and they have become increasingly prominent from both a tax efficiency perspective and in terms of lower levels of stress testing by many lenders. Read the full story here.

If yes, have they considered Heavy Refurbishment Finance?

A heavy refurbishment loan is a short-term loan required for larger jobs that aren’t just cosmetic. This could involve, work that requires planning, is structural or that will result in a change of use to the property.

Impact SF has access to a comprehensive panel of bridging lenders. We have built strong relationships with these lenders who will take a view on all aspects of an individual case, including limited distribution lenders.

Access a faster bridging solution, call the Impact team on 01403 272625 or email bridging@impactsf.co.uk.

From Thursday 5 October, we’re increasing proc fees for product transfers – matching what we pay for new business.

We appreciate the hard work that you, our intermediaries, do in this ever-changing interest rate environment.

With the new Consumer Duty regulations, we recognise that product transfers are becoming more and more complex. We feel you should be rewarded for the additional work this entails, especially in what continues to be a difficult market for many.

Our new product transfer fee scale via TMA is as follows:

Owner Occupier – 0.4%

Owner Occupier – Offset – 0.5%

Owner Occupier – Family Mortgage – 0.55%

Buy-to-Let (All Products) – 0.5%

The new fees apply to requests received from 5^th October and any illustrations issued onwards.