Precise Mortgages

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote in my column about the inconsistency in the way bridging lenders calculate interest payments which could end up costing borrowers thousands of pounds.
Shortly after publication I was at a meeting with a number of trade bodies interested in the bridging market and it was clear that now the issue has been raised we will get some consistency.
But in the meantime my advice to brokers is to compare the total amount repayable as this is the only reliable way to ensure you get customers the best deal. The last thing a broker or lender needs is an unhappy customer.

I am pushing for more transparency in the bridging market so that brokers and borrowers know how much is being charged so that they can make an informed decision when choosing which lender to go with. Not only is this important in terms of how interest is calculated on retained interest but also with regard to arrangement and other fees.

We charge the arrangement fee against the net loan, in other words the amount the customer has asked to borrow. Many lenders charge fees on the gross loan, which is the amount the customer wants to borrow plus retained interest and other fees. Another thing to look out for is when the borrower repays early whether the lender refunds the interest charged upfront on the retained interest.

Precise Mortgages have today announced that they will be hosting an exclusive event at the 2012 London Olympics and two lucky brokers will get the chance to attend the Men’s 200 metre final on 9th August with Precise Mortgages and special guests.

Every Short Term Lending or Bridging case that completes with Precise Mortgages between 13th February and 30th June will be automatically entered in to the prize draw. Two brokers will be randomly selected from the entries on the 1st July. The prize also includes dinner at a top London restaurant with overnight accommodation, plus the lucky winners will also get to see the Men’s 800 metre final, Men’s triple jump, Men’s decathlon – Javelin & 1500 metres, Women’s 800 metre semi-final, Women’s 4x 100 metre heats and the Women’s javelin final.

Alan Cleary at Precise Mortgages said; “We are really looking forward to hosting the event at the Olympics, it is a great opportunity to thank brokers for their business. I wish we had more tickets to give away, but as thousands of people will testify, tickets to the games have been difficult to source.”

Full terms and conditions are available here

As long as there are lenders there will be someone trying to defraud them so it is important that we remain vigilant and aware of the risks. The risk to lenders is obvious but the risk to brokers and other professionals in the supply chain is not so obvious.

Here is a good reason why you should protect yourself. We deploy a significant amount of resource and money to fraud detection and there appears to be a move by fraudsters away from standard mortgages towards bridging.

In December we identified three attempts at fraud, all of which were bridging cases. In one of them a borrower wanted a loan of £345,000 on a property worth £799,000 to carry out refurbishment work.
When we entered the case into our system, the national fraud database we subscribe to flagged the case as suspicious. On investigation we found that the owner of the property in question had no knowledge of the application for a mortgage and that a previous tenant had gathered enough data to attempt identity fraud.
When we approached the broker he was horrified and concerned about the consequences of his authorisation. He had accepted a deal from an introducer he did not know and in this instance we did not believe he was complicit so took no action against him.

But there could have been serious repercussions for that broker which could have cost him his livelihood.