Mortgage references

As accountants we’re often asked to provide information to assist with mortgage applications.  Here’s some information that might make life as painless as possible for you.

Mortgage brokers

In our experience the most efficient and effective way to get a mortgage is to use Continuum. Continuum are the firm that we have an established relationship as an introducer.  We have always found Continuum to be very efficient and experienced in the particular aspects of our clients.  Please let us know if you would like to be put in touch.

Data Protection

We are unable to release any of your information to a third party without your explicit consent in writing (email is acceptable) given directly to us.

SA302s

We use professional tax return software and that means that HMRC won’t provide an SA302.  Instead a lender should accept our tax calculation.  For more details see here.

Your tax calculation is included for you in your tax summary that we prepare each year and you should be able to access this yourself on Senta.

Tax Year Overviews

A tax year overview is a HMRC document that we need to obtain from HMRC.  Provided we are authorised to deal with HMRC on your behalf then we can obtain these for you from our online portal.

Forecasts

Some lenders still request that we provide forecasts despite clear instructions from our professional body that we cannot do this.  Our instruction from the ICAEW is as follows:

Future income and expenditure is inherently uncertain. No amount of enquiry can provide
accountants with the assurance needed to enable them to confirm that a client will have
sufficient income to service a loan or other obligation. Accountants are, therefore, unable to
report in positive terms on future income or future solvency.

We will therefore only be able to provide historic information and factual information (for example – how long we have acted for you).

Affordability

Some lenders will ask us to confirm that you are able to afford the payments on a mortgage.  We are unable to do this in line with the requirements of our professional body.

Form of reporting

Some lenders require us to report using their forms.  We are happy to do this provided that the form does not ask us to confirm information which goes against the guidance of our professional body.  In those circumstances we will provide the information we are able to in our own reporting format. If this is unacceptable to that lender then a different lender will need to be found.

Fees

We do not charge additional fees for completing a reference, providing tax calculations and tax overviews.

Additional fees may be payable if additional work is required such as discussions or correspondence with your mortgage broker (if you do not use ours) or preparing additional financial information such as management accounts.