West One | New Streamlined Underwriting Requirements For Residential Mortgages

To improve the customer journey, we are introducing some positive changes to our application process with immediate effect to streamline our underwriting requirements:

Rent References – Private Landlords

We can now accept a signed letter or email from private landlords alongside filtered bank statements to evidence the last 3 months’ rental payments. We ask that the landlord confirms the following:

• The date the tenancy started
• The current monthly/weekly rent
• Have any payments been missed in the last 12 months
• Has any part of the rental payments been paid by the housing association in the last 12 months

These references will remain valid for 2 months from the last rental payment made on the bank statement

Deposits & Stamp Duty Evidence

We now only require the applicant to confirm the source of the deposit and no longer require evidence prior to the offer stage that the client holds the required funds for the deposit and stamp duty.

The source of the funds will instead be confirmed by our solicitor before completion which will need to support the source explanation provided during the underwriting process.

Where the source of funds is gifted, we still require the “Gifted Deposit Notification” to be completed.

Living with Parents/Friends/Relatives

We have removed the requirement for a signed declaration to state that rent is not being paid for applicants living with friends or family.

We may request email confirmation from you where we need further clarity on the applicant’s residential status.

If the applicant cannot obtain the Memorandum of Sale for standard purchase applications, for the initial underwrite we can accept the following:

• Letter/Email from the Estate Agent confirming purchase price

Solicitors’ details – if the borrower is arranging separate legal representation to act solely on their behalf.

Should you have any questions regarding this bulletin or would like to find out more about working with West One, please do not hesitate to contact our intermediary support team: