Fleet Mortgages makes raft of criteria changes

Buy-to-let lender, Fleet Mortgages, has announced a series of criteria changes designed to provide greater flexibility and help advisers place more landlord borrowers.

Fleet will now accept TR1 forms - Transfer of Whole of Registered Title - in order to go to offer on the loan, with the Land Registry not needing to be updated until completion. This change is particularly aimed at streamlining and simplifying day one remortgage applications.

Fleet will also now consider both satisfied and unsatisfied CCJs the borrower holds. It will consider CCJs of up to £500 satisfied within the last three years and will also consider CCJs up to £250 unsatisfied within the same time period.

The lender said the latter consideration was so as not to exclude credit-worthy borrowers who may, for instance, be in dispute over a parking ticket with a car park company.  

Finally, following a range of broker feedback on the issue, Fleet has reduced its minimum floor area requirement to 30 square metres, whereas previously this was 35 square metres.

The criteria changes follow this week’s rate cuts to Fleet’s range of standard and limited company five-year fixed rate products, with rates starting at 5.24%. 

Steve Cox, chief commercial officer at Fleet Mortgages, commented: “As always, we keep a close eye on our existing criteria, and take on board the range of feedback we always gratefully receive via advisers. In this regard we’ve been able to announce a number of criteria changes, plus we also have others in the pipeline which we’ll be able to reveal very soon. These latest changes provide a greater degree of flexibility, a common-sense approach to CCJs, plus we want to be able to support those clients who are looking to remortgage on day one. If advisers are seeking clarification on these, or any other part of the Fleet proposition, they shouldn’t hesitate to contact their local BDM or any member of the telephone team.”