Like many businesses, Mortgage Plus is adapting to worldwide changes. At Mortgage Plus we are continuing to monitor the ongoing situation regarding the outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19) within the UK.
The health and safety of our clients and staff remains our number one priority and we will continue to adhere to the official government advice so that we’re able to keep serving our clients in the best way we can.
As a business we have invested heavily in technology and infrastructure in recent years, and this has made the business more robust and adaptable when faced with disruption.
Having made these investments, our staff are equipped to operate from multiple locations and are not reliant on being in the office.
We will continue to provide you with our usual professional level of service and a business as usual approach.
CURRENT SITUATION
The current guidance from the government is that everyone should avoid any unnecessary contact with other people.
As a result, we have taken the following actions:
- Our offices will be closed from Monday 23rd March until further notice.
- Our staff will continue to work from home
- Client Appointments can be conducted over the phone as well as Skype/FaceTime etc
- Documents can be provided to us via online upload and or secure email
We also understand that you may have questions and concerns around the financial impact of Coronavirus whether that’s how you are going to manage financially to pay your mortgage and other bills through a prolonged shut down, or indeed the financial consequences of becoming ill with the virus itself and the many possible outcomes it may lead to.
Below is the current information for existing mortgage holders to request a payment holiday:
- Accord Mortgages – If your payment is due within the next 7 days or you have more than one account or you are already in arrears, you need to call 0800 1382402 (open 9am – 5pm weekdays and 9am – 1pm Saturday).
Everyone else can apply for a payment holiday online - Bank of Ireland – If your payment is due within the next 7 days or you have more than one account or you are already in arrears, you need to call 0800 1382402.
Everyone else can apply for a payment holiday online - Barclays – Apply online. Their website states: “we’ll do our best to start it in time for your next mortgage payment. However, if your next payment is due soon, we might have to start the holiday payment from the following month.”
- BM Solutions – Apply online. If you’re payment is due in the next 10 days, your payment holiday may not start until the following month.
- Coventry Building Society – If your payments are up to date you can apply for a payment holiday online. If you are already in arrears you should call them on 0800 121 8899
- Halifax – Apply online if your payments are up to date. If you are already in arrears visit the financial difficulty page or call 0345 850 3750.
- HSBC – Apply online if your payments are up to date. If you are already in arrears click here or call 0345 850 0633
- Leeds – Their policy is a bit more complicated. If your payment is due before 5th April and your mortgage payments are up to date ( or less than 1 month in arrears) you can call now 0800 072 8738. If your payment is due after 5th April you can call the same number from Monday 30th March. If you are already one month or more in arrears you need to call 0800 072 9739. Full details are available here.
- Nationwide – Apply online.
- Natwest – Apply online.
- Platform (inc co-operative Bank) – Apply by email – visit their payment holiday page for details.
- RBS – Apply online.
- Santander – Apply online.
- Skipton Building Society – Apply by email – visit their payment holiday page for details.
- The Mortgage Works – Apply by email – visit their payment holiday page for details.
- Virgin Money – Apply online.
Lenders are being affected by staff shortages due to people self isolating and dealing with existing customer queries. This is causing significant delays in processing new applications.
Whilst most lenders are still processing applications it is increasingly difficult for us to obtain progress updates as all available staff in lender and solicitor offices are too busy trying to process cases to be able to take calls from us requesting updates.
If you have an application running at the moment, please understand that it will take longer than normal and please bear with us as we try to keep you as up to date as possible.
As of Friday 27th March the situation with new mortgage applications is as follows:
Not accepting new applications
MBS Lending
M&S Bank
Scottish Building Society
Skipton BS
Together
Vida Homeloans
West Brom
Adjusted lending criteria
| Lender | Adjusted criteria |
|---|---|
| Barclays | No purchase applications above 60% LTV currently being accepted |
| BM Solutions | No applications above 60% LTV currently being accepted |
| Family Building Society | No applications above 60% LTV currently being accepted |
| Halifax | No applications above 60% LTV currently being accepted |
| The Melton Building Society | No applications above 60% LTV currently being accepted for standard residential Not accepting Self Build, Buy to Let, Help to Buy, Shared Ownership or any other new build applications |
| Scottish Widows | No applications above 60% LTV currently being accepted |
| Santander | Residential Applications below 75% only
Not accepting applications for:
|
| Virgin Money | Residential Applications:
Buy to Let Applications:
|
| Clydesdale Bank |
|
Mortgage Valuations and Surveys
As a result of the current government guidelines, all physical valuations and surveys are on hold.
What does this mean?
Lenders are well equipped to carry out what are known as Desktop Valuations or AVM’s (Automated valuation model). This means they can assess the value of the property without physically inspecting it.
Whilst this is great for remortgages its not so good for new purchases where buyers appreciate the reassurance of a professional valuer visiting the property that they are buying.
More importantly, lenders generally only accept AVMs at lower loan to values (typically below 75%). For this reason, a number of lenders have withdrawn higher loan to value products, particularly for purchases (see table above)
Solicitors
Every purchase or remortgage transaction has to be completed by a solicitor or licensed conveyancer.
There is a lot of variation in how these legal teams are adapting to the changing market.
Most remortgages are dealt with by big conveyancing firms under the lenders “free legals” package.
For the most part, these firms appear to be carrying on business as usual albeit with lengthy delays especially in terms of being able to speak to them to get updates.
Some of the smaller, high street solicitor firms have adapted and are able to work from home.
Others have not been able to do this and have simply shut their offices for the foreseeable future. This causes a number of problems. Firstly, if one of these firms is your solciitor then nothing is going to happen with your case whilst we are in lockdown or until the firm manages to find a solution. Secondly, even if your solicitor is still working, if you are involved in a chain with a solicitor that is closed, this will hold up everyone in the chain.
At Mortgage Plus, we have a good working relationship with Tolhurst Fisher in Southend-on-Sea who are one of the firms who have adapted and are still working for their clients.
There have been a number of changes to insurance providers criteria and processes as a result of the Coronavirus crisis. We will update this section as soon as we have fully collated all of the information.
This page is a work in progress. The information is literally changing by the hour and we are doing our best to keep this page as up to date as possible. If you notice any errors or broken links, please let us know by using our contact form.
We will also be posting updates and breaking news on our social media channels so please give these a follow to keep up to date with the latest developments. Please feel free to share this page with anyone you know who may benefit from this information.
If you have any specific concerns please do not hesitate to get in touch.