<h2>Whilst there are one of two notable exceptions, the pulling of mortgage products without adequate notice is a bad practice that almost all major lenders have been guilty of this year.</h2>I feel it’s about time they showed their genuine commitment to mortgage brokers by committing to a 48-hour best practice for withdrawals.Surely if the top 10 lenders all signed up to this, it would reduce the potential for any of them to leave themselves over-exposed at the top of the sourcing lists.Looking back over my 25 years as an adviser, it’s hard to remember a more stressful time (with the exception of 2008). We have found ourselves very much on the front line recently trying to keep our clients calm and fully informed about the impact of the recent sudden rises in interest rates. Despite all the turbulence, brokers have somehow managed to keep their service standards up in 2022 when many others in the property food chain have seen theirs fall to pieces, including most lenders and many conveyancers. The impact of late notice of withdrawals is extremely negative. Advisers’ standards can occasionally slip in a rush to get cases submitted on behalf of anxious clients and that can’t be what lenders are looking to achieve long-term in terms of business quality. Sometimes the withdrawal announcements happen late in the day and, now and again, the cut off is as late as 10.30pm. To me, this feels like the lender thinks they are doing the broker community a favour but it also puts pressure on us to work late into the evening, which of course most of us do anyway. It’s rare for me to finish earlier than 9-10pm at the moment. Lenders are not helping brokers' mental health. Despite us being regularly informed of “squeezed margins”, I understand some lenders are actually making record profits and have already smashed 2022 targets. Perhaps it’s also about time lenders showed their commitment to our sector by making two strategic investments:<ul><li>Invest in technology that lets brokers pre-book funds at AIP stage</li><li>Redistribute some of those profits by way of an increase in proc fees</li></ul>We hardly ever seen lender proc fees increase and this is way overdue in my opinion, as is an increase from the frankly paltry amount paid for product transfers. Lenders can afford this now and I can assure them brokers would appreciate the gestures as a true statement of intent.<blockquote>I feel it’s about time lenders committed to a 48-hour best practice for product withdrawals, both for the sake of clients and brokers' mental health."</blockquote>

Malcolm Davidson

Brokers deserve 48 hours' notice - for their clients and their own mental health

UK Moneyman Limited is a national Mortgage Broker lead by Malcolm Davidson. Expect him to take the side of the Mortgage Brokers, but not always the Lenders! UK Moneyman specialises in all types of mortgages including: - Residential mortgages - Later life mortgages including equity release and retirement mortgages. - Buy to let and bridging loans. Malcolm is the voice of the North for all things mortgages and regularly appears in the mainstream press, TV and radio.

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As has been well-reported over the years, property prices have risen by approximately 1000% since Halifax started keeping count back in 1983. We have had two significant “crashes” since then, one in the late 80’s and another more recently due to the credit crunch (or the “global financial crisis” as our Politicians refer to it as). More on those shortly. We also know that we are pretty pathetic at building enough houses for our growing population. Until recently, we used to have a target of 300,000 new homes per year, but Michael Gove has said we are not allowed to call it a target anymore, (just like the Banks can’t have “sales targets”, right?) it’s now a “guideline” or “starting point”. Of course, the real reason we’re not allowed to call it a target is actually that we have not managed to build 300,000 new homes in a single year since 1977. So, if the Government no longer has a target, then it can’t be missed so no more Bad News days - Hooray! We probably ought to talk about why those 2 crashes happened. Until 1997, when the Bank of England was given control of interest rates, they were set by the Government and, as such, they could be used as a kind of electioneering tool. So, pre-election rates could be cut to buy some votes, even if there was some inflation looming. Things got really out of hand in the end and we had double-digit interest rates for quite a long time, people simply couldn’t afford their mortgages and sadly many lost their homes. The credit crunch was a different issue altogether, the money all dried up making mortgages practically impossible to obtain for a while. New, stricter lending guidelines were implemented in 2014 and we have seen a more stable and compliant mortgage market ever since. So, with these new stricter affordability rules, coupled with the Bank of England having control of the interest rates, one could say that the market has learned its lessons pretty well on the whole. We also know that even those people who bought at the two peaks that preceded the two crashes made a lot of money on their properties between then and now (as long as they could afford their mortgages of course). Knowing what we know about successive Governments doing nothing to address the shortage of affordable homes crisis contributing to consistent returns, why are we in a situation now with a very flat market and potential home movers playing “watch and wait”? Surely it’s almost always a good time to buy looking at the historical data. Property values will ebb and flow over a 25-year mortgage period and so will interest rates. Well, I think it’s that the majority of us behave a bit like Warren Buffet in reverse. We all wait for the market to be flying before we invest, even though we know we should really be buying during downturns. There are plenty of sellers who would accept lower offers on their homes at the moment, but we shy away because “interest rates might come down” (the Bank of England has said they won’t anytime soon) or “we just want to get Christmas out of the way”. There are also rumours of changes to Stamp Duty in the upcoming Autumn statement. It all comes back to that old chestnut – Uncertainty. Yes, we know the supply and demand problem is too big to be fixed for decades ahead and we also know deep down mortgages won’t get much cheaper. Add to this that we have witnessed for the last 40 years how resilient the property market is despite everything that has been thrown at it – but actually, tell you what, “shall we just wait and see instead?!”. &nbsp;<blockquote>“Shall we just get Christmas out of the way first?!”</blockquote>

Why are we Waiting? Are we Buffet in reverse?

Much has been written in recent months about the difficulties homeowners with spray foam insulation in their lofts have faced when trying to secure a mortgage. We have guided clients through the process of having the foam removed and even pursuing legal routes to claim the cost of removal against the original installers, but it remains to be seen whether this will be a successful approach in the long term. Things seems to be changing, at least for older borrowers, with Livemore mortgages taking the bold step to accept properties with spray foam insulation, subject to valuation and an undertaking to have the spray foam removed. Livemore’s head of risk gave the following answer to the question: • What would your requirements be regarding spray foam in the roof? • We would ask for written evidence of a quote to remove the sprayfoam and a future appointment having been arranged. We would then require proof that the repair had been completed within 3 months of the loan being drawn. This opens the way for clients to raise the funds for removal of spray foam alongside their other objectives when looking at a lifetime mortgage/equity release. This particular product has limited availability at the moment and is only available through selected partner advisors. Where one goes, we hope that the others will follow, this development certainly shows what is possible in support of older borrowers with difficult circumstances. Livemore’s Leon Diamond really seems to have the will to convert feedback into product innovation which makes them an interesting and creative firm to work with in this ever-changing market. &nbsp;<blockquote>so many older clients have "invested" in sprayfoam insulation to reduce their outgoings and found themselves with an unmortgageable property. It is good to see common sense underwriting giving hope to these, often vulnerable, borrowers.</blockquote>

Dan Osman

Lender warms to older borrowers with sprayfoam insulation