Paul Wareham, senior manager, commercial development at Lloyds Banking Group-owned Colleys, said surveyors are much more tuned in than much of the industry to suspicious activity.
In a debate hosted by Mortgage Solutions editor Victoria Hartley held in November, Wareham said: “It could be a back-to-back transaction or an over-inflated purchase price that alerts the surveyor, anything that alerts him or her that things are not quite right.”
He said lenders support those endeavours with technology and scrutiny post-valuation to assess the potential property risk they are taking on.
He said brokers can help in a variety of ways.
“It’s just about not taking the application at face value. The vast majority are legitimate but it’s about having the nous to pick up potential problems,” said Wareham.
The panel debate, sponsored by Colleys, asks lender panel members what the FLS has added to lending capacity, how advisers can establish stronger relationships with mutuals and how much further the mutual sector has to go in terms of growth this year.
