In a panel discussion at the Financial Services Expo 2014 in London, Size said brokers had to go beyond the minimum requirements of a lender to protect themselves.
Lloyds’ broker monitoring manager told the audience: “Not submitting the case until they fully understand all the facts is critical. We cannot get ourselves in a position as an industry where we are just doing the minimum to get the case through.
“There has to be a case file there that stacks up and truly reflects the position. My advice to brokers is don’t just play the minimum requirements of a lender card to get a case through, undertake due diligence right across residential and buy-to-let in the same way.”
Martin Reynolds, mortgages chief executive at SimplyBiz, said the reason brokers submitted cases quickly was often to seal a low rate for the client.
He said if lenders were able to provide more notice of product withdrawals this issue would fade away.
“Historically the rationale has been that we didn’t want to lose that rate so we popped the application in and the rest will follow. I think the last few years it has not been too bad because rates have been going down but I think over the next six months we could have that challenge again if lenders pull rates quickly.
“Obviously Coventry give a days’ notice which is great but then it’s back to us to make sure we understand the requirements of what lenders want before we submit it as well.”
He added: “The challenge to the lenders is please don’t pull products with half an hours’ notice, at least give us a couple of days. But for us as intermediaries it’s making sure we understand most lenders will have a minimum requirement for every case and we should have that ready for every lender.”
