From today, the lender will have three credit tiers across its residential tiers: Vida 36, Vida 24 and Vida 6.
The credit tier will outline how many registered defaults, county court judgements (CCJ), missed mortgage or secured payments, unsecured arrears and worst status secured payments they will accept in a set time period, like 48 months, 24 months or six months.
Vida said that the change would “assist those with historical adverse or minor blips to get the best products and rates available to them”.
It said that some people might have historical CCJs or defaults from three years ago and should have as “good an opportunity” as those with historical CCJs or defaults over four years ago, which is why it had combined Vida 48 and Vida 36 together.
It added that customers qualifying for Vida 36 will be offered its lowest range of rates even where there are unsecured payments of up to £250.
On the criteria side, the lender said that it would accept child benefit income up to 100 per cent and tips up to 75 per cent.
It will also consider back-to-back remortgages within six months so that it can cater for short-term investments, such as renovating a property before refinancing with a mortgage to move onto the next property investment.
The lender added it has increased the commercial element of mixed-used properties it will accept to 40 per cent.
The company continued that it would consider cases where evidence of self-employed income is up to 18 months old, an increase from 12 months, subject to bank statements.
Contractors working under the Construction Industry Scheme can now provide pay slips as evidence of income as opposed to acquiring an SA302 form.
Anth Mooney, Vida’s chief executive, said: “As the specialist lender, we recognise that sometimes people have a minor blip or historical adverse and we want to give these borrowers as good an opportunity as possible to find a place to call home, which is why we have simplified our credit tiers.
“We are always striving to improve our proposition and in a time of increasing interest rates and high inflation, we want to support people with affordability by increasing the types of income we can accept, alongside other criteria enhancements across residential and buy to let.”
