Inform 30th July 2021

Saffron are now doing 95% LTV

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new 95% LTV First Time Buyer products and

85% LTV Self Employed & Contractor products, to enhance our current ranges and help you better meet the needs of your clients.

We have also reduced the rates of our 90% LTV First Time Buyer products, and extended the end dates.

How will we say yes to your clients?

First Time Buyer:

• 95% Maximum LTV, including new build houses
• 75% Maximum LTV for new build flats
• Free Valuation fees
• No Arrangement fees
• Gifted Deposits are acceptable

Self Employed:

• 85% Maximum LTV
• Happy to consider a minimum of 1 year of accounts
• We will use net profit after tax & salary for 100% Limited Company directors
• The latest years figures are taken as standard for affordability when there is a rising income trend

Contractor:

• 85% Maximum LTV
• All types of contract/industry can be considered
• Minimum contracting history is 3 months – must have 2 years industry experience
• No minimum income requirement
• Day rate calculation – day rate x days worked x 48

The Lending Lowdown: How to package the perfect mortgage case

Doing business with us shouldn’t be hard work.

It should be clear, quick and simple. Always. That’s why we’ve created ‘The lending lowdown’ – a series of helpful content that highlights how we do business and makes your life easier.

To kick things off, we’re giving you the lowdown on how to package the perfect mortgage case – and give your clients the best chance of success.

We’re on the case

Top tips to package your case for success

Now you know the most common reasons for applications being delayed, referred or declined, it’s time to get the lowdown on packaging the perfect case.

The biggest queries we get from brokers is around bank statements and proof of deposit – so we’ll go into them in more detail below.

But to get you started, here’s our top five tips for getting your clients’ applications right first time, every time:

See the article here.

LV= launches two new Income Protection products

LV= are pleased to introduce two new Income Protection products this week:

Firstly, Mortgage and Rent Cover, a new outgoings based protection solution designed to protect monthly mortgage or rental payments. This new product can help you protect more clients where traditional income protection wouldn’t always be suitable. Find out more here about how we can help you provide valuable cover to more clients.

Secondly, Executive Income Protection which is designed with smaller businesses in mind, and can help employers cover the cost of providing sick pay to their employees. It also includes an additional option to cover employer National Insurance Contributions and employer pension scheme contributions. Find out more about this new product here.

If you require any help with the LV= Protection product range, please contact your LV= Account Manager, visit the LV= adviser centre or call us on 0800 032 4219.

FLEET MORTGAGES ANNOUNCE ACQUISITION BY STARLING BANK

Fleet Mortgages, the buy-to-let specialist lender, has today (26^th July 2021) announced the acquisition of the business by Starling Bank in a £50 million cash and share deal.

This is the first acquisition by the bank and means Starling will become the sole funder of future originations for Fleet Mortgages, allowing Fleet to build on its already successful lending operation by securing access to Starling’s growing deposit base.

Fleet Mortgages has, to date, originated £2.3 billion of mortgages and experienced zero credit losses. It currently has circa-£1.75 billion of mortgages under management.

Day-to-day operations at Fleet continue unchanged with the company’s existing and highly-respected management team still in charge of the lender.

The acquisition is part of Starling’s wider plan at the bank to expand lending through a mix of strategic forward-flow arrangements, organic lending and targeted M&A activity.

Find out what Bob Young, Chief Executive Officer at Fleet Mortgages, and Anne Boden, CEO of Starling Bank said here.

Starling Bank was advised by Rothschild and PwC as financial advisor and TLT as legal counsel. Fleet Mortgages was advised by West Hill Corporate Finance as financial advisor and Humphries Kirk as legal advisor.

Fleet Mortgages’ product guide and full list of lending criteria is available to view by visiting its new website at: www.fleetmortgages.co.uk

Home Finance

new priority access portal

We’re delighted to tell you that based on your feedback, we’re making enhancements to our products and systems.

A new portal – saving you time and offering new product features

Our Later Life Mortgages Portal makes it easier for you to do business with us:

• Greater choice – access both fixed and variable Early Repayment Charges (ERCs) on our Flexible and Optional Payment Lifetime Mortgages
• Save time – produce KFIs and applications in the same place and track each stage of the process online
• Additional product – access to our Retirement Interest Only Mortgage (RIO) product

We’ll be inviting you to sign up and gain access to these new features over the coming weeks.

Next steps

You don’t need to take any action now. However, if you have an upcoming case that could benefit from these changes, please request an invitation for priority access.

Protection

The 6 myths and misconceptions of protection #1: ‘I don’t need it’

In his second blog in our series looking at the myths and misconceptions of protection, Robert Betts, Market Development Manager at Legal & General, discusses the most common reason clients give for not having income protection, as revealed by the latest Deadline to Breadline report. Here, he shares the ways in which you can help clients reframe their perception by building a risk profile.

Read more

So what happens when you can’t find a home for it?

by Phil Gray, Managing Director, Watts Commercial Finance Limited

So what happens when you have, what on the face of it looks a nice residential deal, but none of your residential lenders can assist?

For example, a HMO with too many rooms or a small block of flats all on one title?

Watts Commercial are perfectly placed to assist with these types of enquiries and as one of your Master Brokers, we are on hand to support you.

When we say that we offer Commercial Mortgages, the word “Commercial” sometimes puts people off, conjuring up images of huge business parks, skyscraper hotels or big office blocks. It’s true we do finance all of those but in reality our Commercial Mortgage offering starts with you!

We work with IFA’s and Mortgage brokers all over the UK assisting them in the first instance when their lenders say “no” and they can’t place a deal.

So where can we help?

Well as already mentioned we can assist you and your clients with an HMO with too many rooms, very large portfolios, too many flats on one title, flats above a takeaway and situations where lenders have reached their exposure limits.

We can then assist if a property is uninhabitable, we have a variety of lenders happy to work with clients working on a simple refurb to a major structural redevelopment and right up to a complete new build from single to multi-unit sites.

Next we can avoid you having to say “adios” to an overseas client looking to invest in the UK as we have lenders happy to consider low value properties, serviced accommodation and holiday lets.

Customer type for us is no issue either, having worked with individuals, sole traders, partnerships, Ltd Companies, LLPs, Trusts and Pensions to name but a few, so don’t let the entity the client is looking to borrow in put you off.

Finally, we have lenders with no minimum income rules and in the commercial world you will be pleased to know that we don’t have the 6 month rule, so a client can purchase a property one day and in theory remortgage it the next.

So put all of the above together and we believe we have the winning formula to assist you and your clients when you have a case that you can’t place.

Call us today on 03303 110777 or email advice@watts-commercial.co.uk to see how we can help you and your clients find the right home for those difficult cases.

Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)

Under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), contractors deduct money from a subcontractor’s payments and pass it to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The deductions count as advance payments towards the subcontractor’s tax and National Insurance.

Contractors must register for the scheme with the HMRC. Subcontractors do not have to register, but deductions are taken from their payments at a higher rate if they’re not registered.

Who counts as a contractor or subcontractor

Register as a contractor if either:

• you pay subcontractors for construction work
• your business does not do construction work but you have spent more than £3 million on construction in the 12 months since you made your first payment

Register as a subcontractor if you do construction work for a contractor.

You must register as both if you fall under both categories.

Work covered by CIS

CIS covers most construction work to:

• a permanent or temporary building or structure
• civil engineering work like roads and bridges

For the purpose of CIS, construction work includes:

• preparing the site – for example, laying foundations and providing access works
• demolition and dismantling
• building work
• alterations, repairs and decorating
• installing systems for heating, lighting, power, water and ventilation
• cleaning the inside of buildings after construction work

Exceptions:

You do not have to register if you only do certain jobs, including:

• architecture and surveying
• scaffolding hire (with no labour)
• carpet fitting
• making materials used in construction including plant and machinery
• delivering materials
• work on construction sites that’s clearly not construction – for example, running a canteen or site facilities

Auction Finance bridge in 7 days to beat Stamp Duty Deadline

Impact Specialist Finance and Together teamed up in late June to deliver a customer’s auction funding within seven days to beat the June stamp duty deadline.

The client, who’d bought at auction, was looking to complete before the rise in July stamp duty rates. Perfect packaging, focussed solicitors and swift Together underwriting ensured seven days later the case was funded before the end of June.

The property, a 3 bedroom terrace in London was purchased at an LTV of 60% with a loan of just over £240k on a 12 month term. The property was to be refurbished before letting out and Together accepted an AVM which cost £21 instead of a full valuation, making the process much quicker.

Dale Jannels, Managing Director at Impact Specialist Finance, commented:

“Despite the pressure on my team and with most lenders leading up to the end of the Stamp Duty holiday, Together pulled out all the stops for this client and their flexibility to accept the AVM made a significant difference.”

Sally Precious Ward, Business Development Manager at Together, said:

“Teamwork really was the key and everyone involved performed to our usual high standards to get this across the line in time. At Together we’re focussed on being flexible where others wouldn’t and we are thrilled we delivered the funding for the client before the stamp duty deadline.”

For further information visit http://www.impactpackaging.co.uk/intermediaries/ or call them on 01403 272625

A guide to limited company buy-to-let

There has been a growing interest in limited company buy-to-let since the government completely phased out mortgage interest tax relief for buy-to-let properties in April 2020.

We have created a free guide for you and your landlord clients who are interested in finding out more about the possibilities of using a limited company for their buy-to-let businesses.

Download guide

Room for improvement?
Download the Later Life Finance Q2 report

A national desire for home improvements is driving a surge of activity in the equity release market, as wealthy homeowners look to release funds to upgrade their properties. Read about this and more in Knight Frank Finance’s Q2 report.

Knight Frank Finance are an Equity Release referral partner for TMA members. You can contact them directly on 01483 378 629 or email later.life@knightfrankfinance.com
Find out more here: https://www.tmaclub.com/lender-panel/knight-frank-finance/

Darlington Intermediaries joins Brilliant Solutions lender panel

Darlington Intermediaries have joined the growing lender panel of Brilliant Solutions mortgage club.

The partnership gives Brilliant Solutions advisors access to Darlington Intermediaries’ wide range of standard and specialist mortgages including interest only, buy-to-let, complex income/property and credit impaired.

The society has a flexible approach to specialist lending and included in the range are specialist let (inc. Holiday Let) and Joint Borrower/Sole Proprietor purchases.

Brilliant Solutions are none transactional, and profit only through broker relationships. This long-term partnership approach means they really know their brokers, adding huge value to its lenders.

The mortgage club also manages payments for many lenders, vastly improving payment times whilst simplifying and standardising the process.

Chris Blewitt, Head of Intermediary Distribution at Darlington Intermediaries, said, “We are delighted to join Brilliant Solutions panel. Our strapline at the society is ‘we make complex cases simple’, and with no credit scoring each application is underwritten on an individual basis.

Brilliant has a great reputation and puts their advisors, and their clients, first – just like us. We look forward to working with their advisors, especially those with trickier and more specialist cases.”

Michael Craig, Sales Director of Brilliant Solutions, added, “Darlington Intermediaries is a welcomed addition to our mortgage club.  Their extensive lending criteria means we can offer our advisors additional outcomes for their difficult cases.

The society is passionate on building relationships with brokers, and meeting their clients needs. We look forward to working with the team at Darlington Intermediaries.”

The FCA GI pricing practices market study – what does it mean for brokers?

Following the announcement of the recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) General Insurance pricing practice review, you may be questioning what it means and how it will affect your business.

To help you understand the new rules, our Head of Compliance, Phil Lewis, has put together some insightful information for you to get to grips with the changes.

What are Source doing to help?

This is potentially one of the biggest changes to GI compliance in recent years.

Source have been thoroughly reviewing the paper published by the FCA to interpret the rules and help it make sense. Source will continue to release updates as and when more information or confirmed guidelines are provided to ensure you are prepared.

Source also hosted a webinar around the pricing practices market study, which you can watch on-demand, here.

If you have further questions, please reach out to Source by contacting us.

Find out more.

Every case is worth a referral

We pride ourselves on making common sense lending decisions, and whilst we use automation to speed up the process we still apply a degree of manual underwriting.

This is to ensure we treat every borrower as an individual and assess them on their individual merits.

We actively encourage referrals and pride ourselves on working with our intermediary partners to find lending solutions for customers otherwise underserved.

The mortgage desk are happy to discuss enquiries and provide a 2 hour SLA to enable intermediaries to go back to their customer in a timely manner

Referrals should be sent to the following email address referrals@centraltrust.co.uk

• 2 hour referral turnaround time
• Dedicated mortgage desk
• Automated valuations
• Access to our broker portal
• Electronic income verification

Award-winning Shared Ownership lending now available to all brokers

Low Deposits
Available up to 95% loan to share, 75% loan to value.

Individual Approach
A case-by-case approach with underwriter assessed DIP available.

Staircasing Available
The option for borrowers to increase the proportion of the property they own.

We’re delighted to announce the expansion of our Shared Ownership mortgage below to all brokers.

With our individual underwriting approach available up to 95% loan to share (75% LTV) and our designated product offering no completion fee and a free basic valuation, it’s not surprising we were awarded Highly Commended as Best Shared Ownership Mortgage Lender in the 2021 What Mortgage Awards.

Available property types and minimum loan sizes
Our Shared Ownership lending is available on properties across England and Wales.

In addition to lending on houses, we can allow purpose built flats of up to four storeys constructed since 2003. Minimum loan size is £100,000 but this can reduce to £75,000 for properties in our Heartland Area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or South Yorkshire.

For more information about our products and services, including our affordability calculator and applying through our online portal, visit our website at mansfieldbs.co.uk/intermediaries.

Launch of our Green Remortgage

What’s happening:

As part of our commitment to champion climate change and support our purpose we are excited to announce the launch of our Green Remortgage products on 29th July. The products are being introduced alongside further rate reductions of up to 42bps on both our new and existing customer ranges.

What you need to know:

• Our Green Remortgage Product offers customers a preferential interest rate for having an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of A or B
• Green Mortgage products are now available for purchase, porting & remortgage transactions.
• Eligible products will be displayed across all sourcing systems.
• Validation of properties energy performance rating will be verified against the government EPC registers ONLY. We will not accept any exceptions.
• Our normal remortgage criteria will be applicable when applying for a Green Remortgage.

What you need to do:

• Review the ‘Green Mortgages’ section (including FAQs) on our A-Z page of our website.
• Our application form has already been updated to include the question “Is this a Green Mortgage Application?”. If Yes is selected, the related remortgage products will then be displayed
• Please follow your usual sales, advice and submission process

You can download a PDF of the updated product ranges on our Website. For a full summary of the changes, including transitional arrangements, visit the Latest News section on our home page.

How big is the market of clients with 2^nd incomes?

It will come as little surprise that the effects of the last 18 months are now resulting in rising demand for flexible underwriting for complex income residential cases; and this is true for both employed and self-employed borrowers.

The pandemic has been the driving force behind many people changing their employment status and how they earn – either through choice or necessity.

PeoplePerHour, a platform for freelance workers, reported its biggest rise in registrations for more than a decade. PeoplePerHour reveals that:

• Nearly one in five freelancers (19%) are now self-employed with a supplementary ‘side gig’ alongside an employee position.
• Almost two fifths of these (37%) said they started freelancing in the last 12 months, suggesting a spike in the number of 2^nd jobbers during the pandemic.
• Nearly a quarter (24%) of those freelancers surveyed said they had gone into self-employment to add to their main income.
• Almost a quarter of a million (227,000) people applied to use the platform in 2020, up from 136,000 in 2019.
• Ninety-eight per cent of people with a 2^nd income stream said they plan to continue freelancing in some form.
• Importantly, 13 per cent said they planned to take their side gig full-time, 22 per cent said they planned to work part-time as a freelancer and 33 per cent said they would continue freelancing alongside a full-time employee position.

Try our complex income loan calculator

People’s motivations for taking up freelancing were said to be overwhelmingly positive, with over half (55%) citing the desire for greater flexibility and over two-fifths (44%) saying they wanted to increase their income.

It’s evident that many people are becoming more and more reliant on a wider variety of ways to generate income. As a result of this, here at Foundation Home Loans, we have been working hard to develop and implement a significant number of product and criteria-related enhancements to better service the ongoing mortgage requirements of the self-employed community and enable borrowers with complex incomes to access the mortgages they need within responsible underwriting boundaries.

View our Client Case Studies