Inform 9th September 2022

British Friendly has introduced a new way of collecting medical consent forms from your clients to help speed up the application process. When completing an online application with your client, they will now be asked to give consent for British Friendly to request medical reports via our Access to Medical Reports Act (AMRA) form. Not only will this reduce delays in accessing any information required after the application has been submitted, but the improved experience ensures we can protect your clients sooner. This may also mean we can make faster commission payments to you.

In addition to this, British Friendly has made some changes to their non-financially underwritten product, Breathing Space, to bring it in line with Protect, offering extra flexibility for your client.

Cover can now be increased by up to 50% of the original cover value with no further medical questions, thanks to updates to their Guaranteed Insurability Option (GIO) limits. These GIOs may cover your client in the event of five life changes:

• A marriage or civil partnership
• The birth or adoption of a child
• An increase in or new rent
• An increase in or new mortgage
• A pay rise (if employed)

In addition, the Premium Holiday option on Breathing Space has been updated in line with Protect. With the rising cost of living, it’s a wonderful way to offer your client the option of focusing their finances elsewhere temporarily without cancelling their policy and removing their safety net.

• Clients can now suspend their cover and premiums for a maximum of 6 months
• Total Premium Holiday allowance available is 24 months over the policy lifetime.

Plus, the Premium Holiday option is included on all policies at no extra cost.

You can read their Breathing Space policy summary here and terms and conditions here.

For more information and sales tools visit their adviser website, or contact their Sales Team on 01234 348 007 or sales@britishfriendly.com with any questions or to register an agency.

From 5th September, TSB made changes to their system to help existing customers borrow well.

It’s never been more important for borrowers to save money, and with a mortgage being one of their biggest financial commitments, it’s crucial that their existing mortgage product meets their needs and circumstances.

TSB allows existing customers to switch their mortgage up to three months before their current product matures, waiving any Early Repayment Charges.

This will now give mortgage brokers the option to select the month they want their client’s mortgage to switch, ensuring that it only happens when they want it to happen, either sooner or later.

For more information please contact your National Account Manager.

We’ve got some great news – we’re switching to paperless mortgage offers. From Thursday 8th September all clients with an email address will automatically receive access to their mortgage offer documents digitally, the same day as they have been produced, this will save them waiting up to 5 working days. You’ll continue to receive a link to the offer documents securely via email, as usual.

Any applications made prior to Thursday 8th September will follow the previous paper process. And paper versions will still be available for new customers who don’t have an email address, or prefer to receive a paper version of the Offer. You’ll be able to select the client’s preference during the application process.

Please note
If your client is due to receive their mortgage offer documents digitally, they will either need to log in to Skipton Online or via an email link, to acknowledge receipt of their offer. Not doing this could potentially hold up completion.

We’ll be in touch with your client via email to explain how they do this, once their offer is ready to view.

How can refurbishment and bridging finance support investors to realise value, for Buy-to-Let or for sales? Looking in-depth at examples in Scotland, BDM Tatyana Stefanova explains the opportunities for brokers and their clients.

Find out more here.

1st August 2022 marked the 15th anniversary of the EPC in England and Wales. These were first introduced in 2007 as a result of EU Directives around the energy performance of buildings and played a key role in the integration of the Home Information Pack (HIP), a pack which was initially provided by those selling properties with four bedrooms or more. The requirement to have an EPC gradually extended to all buildings, both commercial and domestic. In May 2010, the government changed the legal requirement of a HIP but EPCs remained a compulsory element in the renting or sale of a property.

Click here to read the full story.

The Mortgage Lender has recently launched new buy to let products and can help your Individual, Limited Companies/LLP cases, Holiday Let/Short Term Let or Expat clients.

 Buy to Let Highlights:

• Impact Packaging offers a 50% proc fee for TML’s buy to let range.
• Core: 2 & 5 year fixed rates available up to 80% LTV
• Expat: 2 & 5 year fixed rates available up to 75% LTV
• Short Term Lets: 2 & 5 year fixed rates available up to 75% LTV

Credit Status:

• CCJs: Max 1 (max £250) in 36 months, 0 in 12 months.
• Secured arrears: 0 in 12 months,1 in 24 months
• Unsecured arrears: 0 in 6 months, 1 in 24 months
• Defaults: 0 in 24 months, Pay day loans: 0 in 6 years
• Bankruptcy/IVA – must be discharged or satisfied for a minimum of 6 years

Download The Mortgage Lender’s latest product guide
Take a closer look at The Mortgage Lender’s buy to let product guide to find a solution for your clients BTL cases.

Have a case you would like to discuss? Call the impact packaging team now on 01403 272625

Have you considered exploring Self-Build for your clients, but always considered it too complicated and time consuming to be worthwhile?

You wouldn’t be the first. Let Saffron help you become a Self-Build guru!

Build your own foundations
The easiest way to attract and encourage Self-Build and Custom-Build clients is a good foundation of knowledge. At Saffron for Intermediaries our team have been supporting brokers for years; educating them on the processes, understanding the complexities and helping them to grow their self and custom build offering.

Gathering your tools and materials
Over the years, our team have collated lots of information to answer the most frequently asked questions. This has been carefully compiled into a comprehensive Self-Build guide – a one-stop shop for the information that brokers need. You can download this here.
You can also see our most recent webinar on Self-Build and Custom Build mortgages, where we answer questions directly from mortgage brokers, like you.

Crack your first case
The next challenge a broker will face is getting the case right, first time. With the help of the Self-Build guide, you should have enough resource to hand. If not, then we also have a range of articles on the subject for you to review right here.

Learn from the best
Saffron’s Intermediary Support Team are always on hand to give you the best, industry-leading advice. They are supported by Self-Build specialists in our underwriting team, so you can be assured you will have access to the best possible advice.

Get in touch with your local BDM with our BDM Finder, here.

SUMMER MORTGAGE DEALS FROM SAFFRON
Saffron has launched our summer 2022 campaign with an exclusive Self-Build deal that includes discounted rate, no administration fee and 50% off the product fee too.

What better time to get involved in the future of housebuilding with Saffron?

Find out more about the Summer Mortgage Deals here.

As rising interest rates and the spiraling cost of living being to hit landlords profit margins, it’s more essential than ever that landlords are aware of the opportunities within the sector that can maximise their income. Holiday-lets are proving to be a popular option with landlords looking at ways to maximise their return on investment.

The pandemic triggered a boom in the number of Brits opting to holiday in the UK and a newfound appreciation for staycations. While the lifting of travel restrictions has made international holidays easier again, a whopping 47% of Brits are planning a UK holiday in 2022 – with a third of those looking for self-contained rental accommodation.

The benefit for landlords in investing in a holiday let over a traditional buy-to-let is that a holiday-let can deliver much higher rental yields, as the daily or weekly charge is considerably higher than a residential buy-to-let.

For example, as of July 2022, the average monthly rental of a property in St Ives, Cornwall is £795, while the average cost for a week long holiday rental is 2.6 times higher at £2,067, check out West One’s staycation wish list to compare the differences in other UK holiday hotspots: https://www.westoneloans.co.uk/west-ones-summer-staycation-wish-list.

How can West One help?

At West One, we offer a flexible approach to borrowers. Our specialist underwriting team, can consider applications from across the spectrum and work closely with brokers to find the right product for their clients.

Here are a few reasons to consider West One…

• Quick and simple AST rental assessment on holiday lets
• First time landlords, with no holiday let experience considered (provided they currently own a property)
• Lending to individuals, limited companies and expats
• No minimum income requirements
• Short-term lets and serviced accommodation can be accommodated

If you have a client looking to purchase or refinance a holiday buy-to-let please contact your BDM or the broker support team on 0333 123 4556 or btlbrokersupport@westoneloans.co.uk

Register as an introducer here: https://www.westoneloans.co.uk/buy-to-let-mortgages#introducer

Your free resource, bringing together key headlines around demographic patterns, customer habits, and market trends

Designed to provide you with all the key facts and statistics around customer demographics, their habits, and wider market trends, the newest edition contains a wealth of information spanning Q2 of this year, including:

• There’s currently £785bn of housing equity available to release in the UK
• Just 37% of over-55s have factored inflation into their retirement planning
• There was a 26% year-on-year increase in equity release activity in Q2

Download your copy via our Marketing Toolkit.

Across the UK, many people are experiencing health and financial challenges like never before.

To better understand these concerns, The Exeter surveyed 2,000 employed and 2,000 self-employed adults during a period of record NHS waiting times and increased living costs.

The research highlights key areas of importance for consumers when considering insurance and the needs our industry must meet if we are to make products more appealing to more people.

The research provides you with 30 mins of CPD.

Read now

Take a look at Richard and Jill’s story – a couple with a DMP and Payday loans.

Richard & Jill have been together for several years and are now wanting to buy their first home together.

When Richard was younger and living at home with parents, he got himself into debt and in order to regain control entered into a DMP (Debt Management Plan). The DMP has been active for 26 months and will remain at completion.

15 months ago, Jill took out a couple of payday loans to pay for some repairs to her car, but has not experienced any financial difficulties or adverse credit over this period.

The combination of Richard’s DMP and Jill’s history of payday loans has made it difficult for them to find a lender who will consider 85% LTV.

The Solution

• Richard’s DMP was shown to be conducted satisfactorily over the last 12 months
• The Underwriter was provided an explanation for Jill’s payday loans, could see they were fully settled and was comfortable there was no ongoing reliance on such borrowing
• The defaults from Richards historic debts were registered over 24 months ago allowing Vida to lend at 85% LTV on Vida 1
• The DMP was able to remain in place with the contractual monthly payment accounted for in affordability

For more information on how Vida can help your clients with complex credit, visit our website, or contact our team on 03300 246 246.

Visit our website.

We hope you’re enjoying exploring our Six Pillars series, the six key aspects our mortgage experts consider when assessing a mortgage application.

This week we’d like to turn your attention to our Individual Circumstances pillar:

There are many aspects that we consider when looking at an applicant. We may sometimes ask more questions about a client’s circumstances than other lenders in order to get to the right decision. Are they employed, self-employed or a landlord? Are they a first-time or next time buyer? Have they just got a new job, recently changed profession, or still in a probationary period? If they have debt, how are they managing it?

As one of our central pillars, the applicant’s individual circumstances can have a big impact on the decision-making process.

Case Study:

The case below is an example of how the strength of an applicant’s individual circumstances was the deciding factor in approving the mortgage:

• The next time buyer requested above our normal advance limit at 70% LTV
• The high-earning 32-year-old applicant wanted to use assets of over £3m for the deposit
• He was an established director of a successful investment company and had multiple private investment schemes of his own all of which were significant in value and performing well
• To meet affordability, we needed to accept some investment income with his employed income

Given the unusually high amount requested and the use of investment income, particularly by someone of a relatively young age, at a higher Loan to Value, other lenders had been reluctant to offer the full loan size. The applicant was an experienced borrower, had a perfect credit record and demonstrated a very strong capital base with multiple channels of income via his business and investments. On this basis, and with no other concerns surrounding the other pillars – a loan to income within our standard multiple of 4.49 and a high-quality subject property – we were happy to come to an agreement and offered the full amount requested.

Read about the Six Pillars of Lending.