Daily Criteria Update

We hope you had a fantastic bank holiday weekend and managed to enjoy some of the sunshine.

We’ve only got four days this week to bring you the criteria changes and updates (although of course on Knowledge Bank it’s always available for you to search on 24/7)! So let’s get cracking with the first instalment of the week…..

Lenders who have paused accepting new mortgage applications:

• None

Lenders who have reinstated lending:

• None

Changes to income and affordability restrictions:

• Skipton for Intermediaries will now accept income from furloughed workers including any top-up contribution made by the employer

Changes to occupation restrictions:

• None

Valuations

Physical Valuation Updates and associated criteria

• Aldermore are resuming physical valuations on Buy to Let Purchases and Remortgages in England
• Aspen Bridging have confirmed that they will utilise both desktop and physical valuations where appropriate to comply with social distancing
• Principality Building Society have restarted physical valuations across England

Desktop Valuations

• None

Property Restrictions Imposed

• None

Property Restrictions Lifted

• None

Loan Sizes

• None

Property Values

• None

LTV Reductions

Residential

• Earl Shilton Building Society have announced that with immediate effect, they have reduced the LTV on their First Time Buyer product from 95% down to 85%

Buy to Let

• None

LTV Increases

Residential

• Leeds Building Society have increased their LTV to 85%
• Scottish Building Society are increasing their maximum LTV’s to 90% on Prime and 95% for their Professional mortgages

Buy to Let

• None

Bridging

• Aspen Bridging are increasing their LTV to 75% and raising their top loan amount to £3m net
• Roma Finance have increased their LTV on Residential Bridging from 65%to 70% LTV. They have also increased their LTV on semi-commercial cases from 60% to 65%

Product Transfers

• None

Industry News
We reported to you a couple of weeks ago about scams that could affect your clients but today we have one to make you aware of that is targeting advisers and firms in particular. It is a new “phishing” scam that is going round by email whereby the sender is purporting to be the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The email address being used is connect2@gabriel-fca.org.uk. The email is asking for an attached questionnaire to be completed and for up to date details to be entered in the ‘profile” section. The FCA have confirmed that this email is not from them and it should be deleted without clicking on anything or opening the email or the attachment.

In some cases, there have been additional restrictions placed on things like loan sizes and property values to enable the lender to do Desktop Valuations. You’ll find these have been amended by the lenders in the relevant criteria categories on Knowledge Bank. There are also the “lender announcements” under the lender’s logos in the search results to alert you to anything you need to be aware of before placing the case. To see these features and much more, log in to Knowledge Bank here.

Our Lender Relationship Manager, Matthew Corker comments:

“We told you last week that Aldermore had restarted doing physical valuations on Residential properties in England with Buy to Let to follow and the announcement came today that they are back doing physical vals on Buy to Lets as of this week. They have said that they will still be doing desktop valuations where possible in Scotland and Wales and that any applications in those countries that require a physical valuation will be put on hold until their social distancing restrictions have been eased. This includes larger rental properties such as HMO’s in Scotland and Wales which aren’t suitable for desktop valuations.

Principality Building Society have also announced that they are resuming physical valuations but have told us that Connells, who are their valuation partners, are understandably experiencing longer SLA’s than usual due to the backlog. They have said that they will work through them in date order but that they will continue to do desktop valuations for eligible properties in England and Wales to get through them as quickly as possible.

Finally, worth a mention are Scottish Building Society have today increased their maximum LTV’s but additionally have said that all of their other criteria has reverted back to what it was pre-Covid-19.”