You’re contacted by a client who’s the owner of a small social media marketing consultancy. The client is looking to purchase their next home for £450k, with stamp duty at £10k. Out of the equity from the sale of their existing house, they want to keep £20k back for home improvements which means they need a residential mortgage at 80% LTV.

They only have the last 12 months’ accounts and the salary they draw from the business doesn’t provide the affordability needed for the purchase. This is making it challenging to find a lender who’ll support their application.

You call your office BDM to discuss the case as you know we can look at each case on its own individual merits. They explain that we may be able to consider a projection for the second-year income from a qualified accountant, as long as a suitable business plan is provided. The level of projected income used can be up to 30% greater than year one’s confirmed income. Alongside this, on exception, we might also consider using a salary plus net profit.

The BDM works closely with an underwriter to see if we can accept the case and after reviewing the application details, we’re able to offer the client the mortgage they need to enable them to purchase the property.

You’re approached by a landlord who wants to purchase a 20-unit MUFB property in an area of London popular with young professionals.

The loan needed to purchase the property is £2.6m with an LTV of 80%.

You think the client’s case could fit as the new property would be part of a large existing portfolio they already hold with us. Plus, we also offer no maximum portfolio size and no maximum loan size, whereas some lenders have limits in place.

Because of the property type, high loan and high LTV needed, you call your field BDM to have a chat about the case. They get the details they need and after speaking with our underwriting team, we’re able to consider it. Our transactional credit committee take a view on the case as it’s over £2.5m and confirm we’re able to progress to full application.

That’s why it’s always worth picking up the phone to speak with our experienced and knowledgeable BDMs. Even if a case doesn’t look like it’ll fit at first glance, they’ll always scratch under the surface to see if we can make it work.

You’re contacted by a client who’d like to expand their buy to let portfolio by purchasing an HMO. The property has six bedrooms, each with en-suite facilities, and two kitchens, with the rooms spread over three floors. The property is also located outside of an Article 4 Direction area.

Despite running a successful rental business of 43 properties worth around £10 million for a number of years, they’re struggling to secure a mortgage. They’re finding that many lenders either have a cap on the number of properties they’ll accept or impose a maximum mortgage value. In addition, due to the unusual layout of the property, some lenders won’t consider adapted properties such as the HMO they’re hoping to buy.

You have a face-to-face meeting booked in with your field BDM already, and bring up the case. You already know we don’t set a limit on the number or value of properties within a portfolio but you’re unsure about whether we’d accept the property type. Your BDM explains we can consider adapted properties and can instruct investment valuations on five and six bed HMOs, for properties inside and certain properties outside of Article 4 Direction areas (subject to product criteria).

Your BDM takes the case to underwriting, pre-application, and based on the case information and subject to a full underwrite, they confirm we can approve the application in principle. A conversation worth having.

An experienced landlord has run a portfolio of 10 buy to let properties in their personal name since the early 2000s but wants to transfer them into a limited company structure as they heard they could benefit from incorporating their rental business.

They’d like to buy a new rental property but, as a newly formed SPV, they’re now finding some lenders won’t dig into the details required to understand their income.

You get in touch with your BDM to discuss the client’s case and they explain that we accept newly formed SPVs and LLPs, and we don’t apply specific SIC code requirements. What’s more, we assess limited company applications at 125% ICR to help with affordability and we also accept intercompany loans, shareholder deposits and director loans as deposits, subject to full underwrite and valuation.

As the client has been self-employed as a private landlord for many years, they’re able to provide the latest accounts and credit history we need to help approve their case. This is where a conversation at the start has made all the difference.