Recent updates.

We’re committed to supporting you with Buy-to-Let business and those customers who benefit from using top slicing.

As a result of the current climate, we wanted to take a closer look at cases where top slicing is being used, which means that from yesterday (13th February), any Buy-to-let top slicing cases where the LTV is over 60% LTV will be on a referral basis, this will enable our underwriters to take a closer look at the case.

What's changing?

From 13th February, any Buy-to-Let top slicing cases where the LTV is over 60% will be on a referral basis.

Why are we making this change?

This is to support customers in the current climate who may be supplementing rental income with their background income.

Which customers does this apply to?

All customers with a top-slicing loan that exceeds 60% LTV and do not fit self-fund criteria prior to valuation.

How do I refer the case?

You can refer your case via MBV using the ‘Refer Application’ button on the case summary screen. Please ensure you fill in as much information as possible prior to referring your case, so that our underwriters have all the information needed when reviewing your case.

Do I need to submit any documents with my referrals?

As per our standard referral process, you don’t need to submit any additional documentation, however, if you have any information that you feel may support the underwriter in reviewing your case, please provide this information.

What if I already have a case in pipeline?

If you haven’t yet submitted your case to us on MBV you will need to refer the case to us as outlined above.

Do I need to have the valuation prior to referring the case?

No – a case can be referred before the client has paid for a valuation.

What is the SLA on the referral decision?

24-48 hours – we will endeavour to review your referrals as early as possible.

If you've got any questions or you'd like to place a case with us, speak to our dedicated team on 0161 933 7101 or your specialist account manager.

Why?

To ensure our customers are supported through the current microeconomic climate we are introducing a 1% stress to all of our Commercial term loans submitted on or after the 31st of October.

What’s Changed?

We are introducing a standalone affordability calculator for our Commercial term product.

What do I need to do?

From 31st October this affordability calculator needs to be used to assess the customers TSDI including the 1% stress.

If the property is currently rented (Or is projected to be) we’ve covered this in the calculator too.

What then?

Once you have assessed the customers affordability using the calculator you then upload the usual proof of income requirements with the case:

• 2 x SA302’s
• Accountants certificate
• Rental Agreements

Anything else I need to know?

This change doesn’t impact cases in our existing pipeline. Affordability for all other products can be calculated as normal through MBV.

Great, where do I find it?

The calculator can be found below and we’re working hard to get it onto MBV in the near future.

Download the calculator

We’ve now appointed VAS as our surveyor panel manager for all commercial finance applications. VAS work with a highly experienced panel of 3rd Party Valuation firms, with full UK coverage. This ensures your loan security valuations and monitoring surveys are carried out by the most relevant company based on location, transaction type and value.

VAS’ extensive and varied panel of nationwide firms is the most comprehensive database of its kind, with over 190 valuation firms covering in excess of 250 regional offices - many of whom are able to leverage off multi-disciplinary departments, which means they can provide the most up-to-date and accurate advice to you.

VAS understands the end-to-end lending process and the risks associated with providing secured loans. Our partnership ensures an efficient delivery of quality-controlled valuations and ultimately assists in reducing the time to cash for your clients.

Whilst technology plays a key role within all of VAS’ processes, experienced people remain at the heart of what they do. Technology drives the efficiencies, but not at the expense of human interaction and decision making. VAS exists to create a seamless and efficient journey for a lender, intermediary and the customer.

We’ve created a number of handy guides to help with the changes.

VAS Scale of Fees

VAS Dashboard

VAS Panel Management - Guide

We've made a couple of changes on My Broker Venue.

1. We're renaming the ‘Customer Account Details’ tab to ‘Funding Account Details’ and renaming the Direct Debit tab to ‘Direct Debit details’. This is to make it clearer which tab is for DD account information and which tab is for disbursement account information.

2. For personal finance applications we've removed the ‘letter from employer to confirm that the applicant is not at risk of redundancy' from the checklist.