UK mortgage and protection brokers
Ask us anythingabout mortgages.
Six things we are asked for most.
Straightforward cases and awkward ones. If your income is complicated, your credit file is not perfect, or you are buying from abroad, that is the sort of case we spend our days on.
Residential mortgages
First-time buyers, home movers, remortgages, shared ownership and new build.
Buy to let mortgages
Individual landlords, portfolios, limited company purchases, HMOs and holiday lets.
Insurance & protection
Life insurance, critical illness, income protection and home insurance.
Adverse credit mortgages
CCJs, defaults or missed payments. Past credit problems need not close the door.
Self-employed & contractor
Mortgages that make sense of contract rates, retained profits and variable income.
Expats & foreign nationals
Buying in the UK from abroad, or without permanent residency.
Work out the numbers before you call.
The four people reach for first, with an overpayment calculator on the calculators page too. They are for general guidance only and are not a quote or a decision.
Repayment
Monthly cost on capital and interest, or interest only, with a rate rise check.
Interest only
Monthly cost, the balance still owed at the end, and whether your repayment plan covers it.
Stamp duty
Current rates for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Affordability
An indicative borrowing range for one or two applicants.
The cases the high street finds difficult.
Plenty of perfectly good borrowers get turned away by a computer that could not read their situation. Most of them are placeable somewhere else.
First-time buyers
People who have saved a deposit and now need someone to explain the process in order, from agreement in principle to keys, without assuming they already know the vocabulary.
Business owners and contractors
One year of accounts, retained profit in the company, a day rate rather than a salary, or income that arrives in lumps. Lenders read these very differently from one another.
Landlords
From a first buy to let to a portfolio held partly personally and partly in a company, including HMOs, holiday lets and cases where rental stress calculations are tight.
Four steps, and we do most of them.
A call
Twenty minutes on what you are buying or remortgaging, your income, your deposit and anything on your credit file we should know about.
We research
We look at which lenders will take your case as it actually is, and we come back with the options and what each one would cost you.
We apply
We package the application properly, send the documents once rather than five times, and deal with the underwriter and the valuation.
Through to completion
We chase the lender, keep your solicitor and estate agent updated, and stay with it until the funds are released.
The people you’ll actually speak to.
One named adviser from the first call through to completion, with a case handler doing the chasing behind them. No call centre and no starting again with someone new.
Plain English, on the bits that matter.
What lenders are actually doing, written by the people who submit the applications.
When to start your remortgage, and why six months is not too early
Most offers can be held for months while you wait to see whether rates move. Starting early costs nothing and rarely locks you in.
How lenders actually read self-employed income
Salary plus dividends, net profit, retained profit, day rate. Six lenders can reach six different figures from the same accounts.
Defaults, CCJs and missed payments: what still matters
Age, size and type do most of the work. A four-year-old telecoms default is not the obstacle people assume it is.
High street, specialist, and the ones you have not heard of.
A lot of the useful lending sits with building societies and specialist lenders who underwrite by hand rather than by score. Those are the ones worth knowing when a case does not fit a tick box.
Ask, and get an answer in seconds.
The questions we are asked most, answered instantly. Anything that depends on your own figures and we will get you on a call with an adviser.
Tell us what you are trying to buy.
Ask a question here, or book a twenty-minute call with an adviser. No charge for the first conversation, and no obligation to go ahead.
Six things we are
asked for most.
Every case starts the same way: a conversation about what you are trying to do, what your income really looks like and what is on your credit file. What changes is which lenders will take it, and that is the part we spend our time on.
Residential mortgages
First-time buyers, home movers, remortgages, shared ownership and new build.
- First-time buyers
- Home movers
- Remortgages
- Shared ownership
- New build
Buy to let mortgages
Individual landlords, portfolios, limited company purchases, HMOs and holiday lets.
- Portfolios
- Limited company
- HMOs
- Holiday lets
Insurance & protection
Life insurance, critical illness, income protection and home insurance.
- Life
- Critical illness
- Income protection
- Home insurance
Adverse credit mortgages
CCJs, defaults or missed payments. Past credit problems need not close the door.
- CCJs
- Defaults
- Missed payments
- Debt management
Self-employed & contractor
Mortgages that make sense of contract rates, retained profits and variable income.
- Sole traders
- Directors
- Day rate contractors
- One year accounts
Expats & foreign nationals
Buying in the UK from abroad, or without permanent residency.
- British expats
- Foreign nationals
- Visa holders
- Foreign currency income
One named adviser
The person you speak to first is the person who researches your case and sees it through to completion, with a case handler doing the chasing behind them.
Documents once
We tell you exactly what the lender will want, collect it in one go and package it properly. Half of all delays come from a document sent late or in the wrong format.
A straight answer on fit
If we cannot help, or if your existing lender is already offering you something we would struggle to beat, we will say so on the first call rather than three weeks in.
Buying, moving,
or staying put on a better rate.
The mortgage on the home you live in. Most of these cases are straightforward, and the value is in getting the right lender first time rather than collecting declines. First-time buyers, home movers, remortgages, shared ownership and new build.
First-time buyers
We start with what you can realistically borrow and what you will need in cash beyond the deposit, then work backwards to a price range. You get an agreement in principle before you offer, so agents take you seriously, and we explain each stage as it arrives rather than assuming you know the vocabulary.
Home movers
Moving usually means porting your existing deal, taking a new one, or a mix of both. We compare the true cost of each, including any early repayment charge, rather than defaulting to whichever is easiest. If you are buying and selling at once, we work to the chain rather than to our own diary.
Remortgages
Switching lender at the end of a fixed rate, releasing equity for an extension, or moving off your lender’s standard variable rate. We also look at a product transfer with your current lender, because sometimes that genuinely is the better answer and you deserve to be told so.
Shared ownership
Buying a share of a property from a housing association and paying rent on the rest. Fewer lenders operate in this space and the housing association’s own rules matter as much as the lender’s. We also handle staircasing, where you buy a larger share later.
New build
New build brings its own problems: offer expiry against a build that slips, developer incentives that reduce the valuation, and a reservation clock running in the background. We choose lenders on the length of their offer as much as the rate.
Later life and other cases
Lending into retirement, joint borrower sole proprietor arrangements, and gifted deposits from family all have their own criteria. They are common enough that we treat them as normal, not exceptions.
How much deposit do I need?
Five per cent is the usual minimum for a residential purchase, and the pricing improves at ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five per cent. Whether five per cent works for you depends on the property, your income and your credit file. There are also guarantor and family-assisted products where the deposit comes from elsewhere.
What else do I need in cash?
Beyond the deposit, budget for legal fees, searches, a survey, any lender product fee if you add it up front rather than to the loan, removals, and stamp duty if it applies. Our stamp duty calculator will give you that last figure for the nation you are buying in.
How long is an agreement in principle valid?
Commonly somewhere between thirty and ninety days depending on the lender, and it can usually be refreshed. It is a soft indication rather than a promise, and the full application is where the real underwriting happens.
Should I fix, and for how long?
That is a genuine judgement call about your own plans and how much certainty you want in your monthly budget, so it is not something we would answer in a chat window. It is exactly what the first call is for.
One property,
or twenty-one.
Lending assessed on what the property earns rather than what you earn. Individual landlords, portfolios, limited company purchases, HMOs and holiday lets. The rules differ sharply between lenders, and on portfolio cases the difference is often the whole deal.
Individual landlords
Buying in your own name, whether it is a first investment property or a second. Lending is driven mainly by rental stress calculations, and higher rate taxpayers face a tighter test than basic rate taxpayers with most lenders.
Portfolio landlords
Once you hold four or more mortgaged buy to lets you are a portfolio landlord, and lenders will underwrite the whole portfolio rather than just the property in front of them. That means a schedule of properties, background rental cover and often a business plan. We prepare all of it before submission.
Limited company purchases
Buying through a company, usually a special purpose vehicle. The lender panel is smaller, personal guarantees are standard, and pricing and fees differ from personal lending. Whether a company is right for you is a tax question for your accountant, not for us.
HMOs and multi-unit
Houses in multiple occupation and multi-unit freehold blocks are valued and stressed differently, and licensing, article 4 directions and room counts all matter. Some lenders want experience as a landlord first, others do not.
Holiday lets
Short-term and serviced accommodation, assessed on a seasonal average of low, mid and high season rates rather than a single assured shorthold tenancy figure. A smaller pool of lenders, and planning restrictions in some areas.
Refinancing and capital raising
Releasing equity to fund the next deposit, refinancing after a refurbishment, or moving a property out of a bridging loan. Timing matters here, particularly around the six-month rule most lenders apply after purchase.
How much rent does the property need to cover?
Lenders apply a rental stress test, expressed as a percentage of the mortgage payment at a notional rate that is usually higher than the rate you will actually pay. The required percentage and the notional rate both vary by lender, by product length and by your tax position, which is precisely why the answer differs so much between lenders.
Is buy to let regulated?
Most buy to let lending is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The exception is consumer buy to let, which broadly covers people who did not set out to be landlords, for example someone letting a property they inherited or previously lived in. Which one applies to you affects the protections you have, so it is worth establishing early.
Should I buy personally or through a company?
We will not answer that one, and you should be wary of anyone who does without seeing your figures. It turns on your tax position, your plans for the income, the cost of moving existing properties and how long you intend to hold. Speak to an accountant, and we will handle the lending once the structure is decided.
Do I need to be a homeowner already?
Many lenders prefer it, and some require it. There are lenders who will consider first-time landlords who are not yet homeowners, but the pool is smaller and the terms are usually less generous.
The part nobody
wants to think about.
A mortgage is usually the largest commitment a household takes on, and the conversation about what happens if the income behind it stops is the one people most want to skip. Life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection and home insurance.
Life insurance
Pays out if you die during the term. Usually written to match the mortgage, either level for an interest only loan or decreasing alongside a repayment balance. Writing it in trust normally means it pays out faster and sits outside the estate, and it typically costs nothing extra to do.
Critical illness cover
Pays a lump sum on diagnosis of one of the conditions listed in that policy. Definitions vary considerably between insurers, and the list is what you are actually buying, so this is a case where the cheapest quote and the best policy are frequently not the same thing.
Income protection
Replaces a proportion of your income if illness or injury stops you working, usually after a deferred period you choose. The most commonly overlooked cover of the three, and often the most relevant, because being unable to work for a year is far more likely than the other two.
Home insurance
Buildings cover is a condition of almost every mortgage and has to be in place by exchange, not completion. Contents is optional but usually cheap alongside it. Flats often have buildings cover through the freeholder already, and paying for it twice is a common mistake.
Do I have to take insurance through you?
No. You are free to arrange cover anywhere, or to decline it entirely apart from buildings insurance where your lender requires it. We will always raise the conversation because it would be negligent not to, but a no is a perfectly acceptable answer and it does not affect your mortgage application.
I already have cover through work. Is that enough?
It might be, and it might vanish the day you leave. Death in service and employer sick pay are worth having, but they are tied to the job and often run for a shorter period than people assume. The useful exercise is working out what you would actually have, and for how long.
Will my health stop me getting cover?
Usually not, though it can affect the price or add exclusions. Insurers rate conditions differently from one another, which is exactly why it is worth having someone place it rather than filling in a comparison site and hoping. Never leave anything off an application, because non-disclosure is the main reason claims fail.
Which of the three should I take first?
That depends on your household, your savings and who relies on your income, so it is not a question for a chat window. It is a short conversation and it is worth having properly.
A bad year should not
cost you a decade.
CCJs, defaults or missed payments? Past credit problems need not close the door. Specialist lenders underwrite these cases by hand, and what matters is the age, size and cause of the problem rather than a single score on a screen.
CCJs
County court judgments. Age is the biggest factor, followed by value and whether it has been satisfied. Older and smaller is easier, and satisfied is better than outstanding, although some lenders will consider unsatisfied ones.
Defaults
Frequently for small telecoms or utility balances people did not know they owed. Lenders treat these very differently by age and by type, and a communications default is generally viewed more leniently than a secured one.
Missed payments
On a mortgage, a loan or a credit card. Recency matters most. A clean run of the last twelve months does more for your case than almost anything else you can do.
Debt management plans
Whether the plan is running or settled, and how it has been maintained, both matter. Some lenders will consider a plan that is still active if the conduct has been good.
IVAs and bankruptcy
Options exist after discharge, and generally improve the further back the discharge sits. The deposit required is usually higher, and the lender pool is smaller but real.
Low or thin credit files
Not adverse at all, but it produces the same result at a high street bank. If you have never borrowed, there is little for a score to work with, and some lenders handle that far better than others.
Can I get a mortgage with a CCJ?
Frequently yes. The honest answer depends on when it was registered, how much it was for, whether it is satisfied and what your deposit looks like now. A four-year-old satisfied CCJ for a few hundred pounds is a very different case from a large one registered last month, and lenders price them differently.
Will it cost me more?
Usually, yes. Specialist lending is priced higher than the high street because the lender is taking more work and more risk. The sensible plan is often to take a shorter product now and remortgage onto better pricing once the adverse ages out or drops off, and we will tell you at the outset whether that route looks realistic.
How much deposit will I need?
More than a clean case, and how much more depends on the severity and recency. It commonly starts higher than the standard minimum and rises the more recent the adverse is. We will give you a realistic figure on the first call rather than an optimistic one.
Should I check my credit file first?
Yes, and please do it before we speak. Pull your file from more than one agency, because lenders use different ones and the files rarely match. Bring what you find, including anything you think is wrong, and do not worry about explaining it neatly. We have heard it before.
Six lenders, six
different incomes.
Mortgages that make sense of contract rates, retained profits and variable income. Hand the same set of accounts to six lenders and you can get six different assessments of what you earn. Knowing which one reads your situation most generously is most of the job.
Sole traders and partnerships
Usually assessed on net profit from your tax calculations and tax year overviews. Some lenders average the last two years, some take the latest year, and a few will use the latest year even where it is higher than the year before, which matters enormously if you are growing.
Company directors
Some lenders take salary plus dividends. Others take salary plus your share of net or operating profit, which usually produces a far larger figure if you leave money in the business. If you have been paying yourself modestly for tax reasons, this single difference can change what you can borrow substantially.
Day rate contractors
A number of lenders will annualise your day rate, typically multiplying by days worked per week and weeks worked per year, and lend on that rather than on your accounts. That is usually the strongest route for contractors, and it does not require the company to have a long trading history.
One year of accounts
Two or three years is the common request, but lenders exist who will consider a single completed year, especially where you were doing similar work as an employee beforehand. Fewer options, but they are genuine options rather than a theoretical possibility.
Variable and multiple income
Bonus, commission, overtime, second jobs, rental income, dividends from elsewhere. Every lender takes a different proportion of each, sometimes all of it, sometimes half. Cases with several income streams are usually where a broker earns their keep.
Recently gone self-employed
If you have left employment recently, the first accounting year is the difficult one. Sometimes the right answer is to wait for the year end. We will tell you if that is the case rather than submitting something we expect to be declined.
How many years of accounts do I need?
Two is the most common requirement, three unlocks the widest choice, and one is workable with a smaller group of lenders. What you will need in every case is your tax calculations and tax year overviews from HMRC, plus your accountant’s details, so it is worth having those to hand before we speak.
My latest year was much better than the year before. Does that help?
It depends entirely on the lender. Some average the two years, which drags a strong recent year down. Others use the latest figure. If your income is climbing, choosing a lender that reads it the second way is worth more than shopping around on rate.
I take a small salary and leave profit in the company. Am I penalised?
Not necessarily, though you will be with lenders that only look at salary and dividends. Lenders that use salary plus retained or operating profit exist precisely for this situation, and they are usually the right place to start.
How much can I borrow?
We cannot answer that honestly from a chat window, because the figure genuinely depends on which lender we use and how they read your accounts. Our affordability calculator will give you a rough range to work with, and a short call will give you a realistic one.
Buying in the UK
from somewhere else.
Buying in the UK from abroad, or without permanent residency. A smaller group of lenders operate here, and their criteria turn on where you live, what you are paid in, what visa you hold and how long you have been in the country.
British expats
UK nationals living and working abroad, buying a home to return to or a buy to let in the meantime. Lenders will look at your country of residence, your employer and whether you still have a UK credit footprint. Some countries are excluded by most lenders, so it is worth checking yours early.
Foreign nationals in the UK
Living and working here without permanent residency. Time in the country and the length of time remaining on your visa both matter, and requirements vary widely. Some lenders want a minimum period of UK residence, others focus on the visa itself.
Visa holders
Skilled worker, health and care, global talent and other routes are all treated differently. Settled and pre-settled status also change the picture. A larger deposit typically widens the choice considerably.
Foreign currency income
If you are paid in a currency other than sterling, lenders apply a haircut to allow for exchange rate movement, and rules under the Mortgage Credit Directive apply. Some accept a long list of currencies, most accept a short one.
Buying to let from abroad
Common for expats who want a foothold in the UK market while overseas. The rental stress calculation applies as it would for any landlord, alongside the residence criteria.
Returning to the UK
Moving back and buying at the same time is a specific case, and the timing of your return relative to the application changes which lenders will look at it. Worth planning a few months ahead rather than on arrival.
Can I get a UK mortgage if I live abroad?
Often yes, though the choice is narrower and pricing is usually higher than for a UK resident. The main variables are your country of residence, the currency you are paid in, your employer and your deposit. Some countries are ruled out by most lenders for sanctions or anti-money laundering reasons.
How much deposit will I need?
More than a UK resident would need, and how much more depends on your circumstances. Larger deposits open up meaningfully better options in this space, more so than in mainstream lending.
Does a short time in the UK rule me out?
Not automatically. Some lenders want a minimum period of UK residency and a UK credit history, others focus on your visa status and income. If you have only recently arrived, the number of options is smaller but rarely zero.
Will the paperwork be worse?
Honestly, yes. Expect more identity and source of funds evidence, certified copies, and sometimes translations. We will give you the full list at the start so you can gather it once, and we work around time zones rather than expecting you to.
Work out the numbers
before you call.
Four tools that answer the questions people ask us first. Change any figure and the results update as you type. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.
Please read before you use these
These calculators are for general information only. They may contain mistakes. They are not a quote, an offer of credit, a tax calculation or advice, and no lender or tax authority is bound by anything shown here.
Lenders use their own affordability models, stress rates and credit scoring, so what you can actually borrow will differ, sometimes substantially. Tax depends on your own circumstances and the rules change. Check anything that matters with us, your solicitor or your accountant before you rely on it.
Mortgage repayment
What a mortgage would cost each month on capital and interest, and on interest only, at the rate you enter.
Interest only
What an interest only mortgage costs each month, and whether your plan for repaying the balance is on track to cover it at the end.
Overpayment
What paying a bit extra each month, or a lump sum now, could do to your term and your total interest.
Stamp duty
Purchase tax on residential property. England and Northern Ireland charge SDLT, Scotland charges LBTT and Wales charges LTT, and all three are different.
Affordability, for one or two applicants
A rough guide to what lenders might consider, based on income multiples. Leave the second applicant at zero if you are buying alone.
Whether a lender will actually say yes
None of these run a credit search, look at your bank statements or apply any lender’s real criteria. Two households with identical incomes can get very different answers depending on their outgoings, their credit file and the property itself.
What the right product is for you
The cheapest headline rate is regularly not the cheapest deal once fees, the term and any early repayment charge are included. Working that out is advice, and advice needs a conversation.
Your exact tax position
The stamp duty tool covers the standard residential cases. It does not handle mixed-use property, multiple dwellings, linked transactions, non-residential purchases, company purchases over five hundred thousand pounds that attract the flat higher rate, or reclaims. Your solicitor is the right person for those.
What we charge,
and who else pays us.
There are two ways a mortgage broker gets paid: a fee from you, and a commission from the lender or insurer. Both should be on the table before you commit to anything, so here they are.
Residential
Purchases and remortgages that fit mainstream criteria
- Initial call and research at no charge
- Whole application handled for you
- Lender, valuer and solicitor chased
- Protection review included
Complex
Adverse credit, self-employed, expat and unusual income
- Everything in Standard
- Full document packaging for manual underwriting
- Case presented to the underwriter in writing
- A realistic view on fit before we start
Buy to let
Single properties, portfolios and company purchases
- Everything in Complex
- Portfolio schedule prepared for the lender
- Reduced fee on multiple simultaneous cases
- Company and personal structures both covered
Procuration fee from the lender
When a mortgage completes, the lender pays the broker a procuration fee, typically a small percentage of the loan. It is paid by the lender and does not increase what you pay for your mortgage. We would tell you the amount for your specific case in writing before you apply.
Commission from insurers
If you take protection or general insurance through us, the insurer pays us a commission. Again, it is not added to your premium. If you would rather we arranged cover on a fee basis instead, we can, and we will tell you which is better value for you.
Do I pay anything to talk to you?
No. The first call, the research and the recommendation cost you nothing. Our fee only becomes payable at the point your mortgage offer is issued, which is the point you know the lending is actually there.
What if the application is declined?
Then there is no offer, so there is no fee. If a case falls apart at valuation or underwriting we do not charge you for the work, which is a reasonable incentive for us to be honest about your chances at the start.
What if I pull out after the offer?
If the offer has been issued, the fee is earned, because the work is done. If a chain collapses through no fault of yours we would look at it sensibly rather than hiding behind the wording, and we would say so in writing at the time.
Are you cheaper than a fee-free broker?
Not on fees, obviously. A fee-free broker is paid entirely by lender commission, which works perfectly well on straightforward cases. Fees exist where a case needs hours of work that a percentage of a small loan will not cover, which is why ours are highest on the complex and portfolio work. If your case is simple, it is fair to ask whether you need us at all, and we will tell you.
Do I have to take insurance through you to get the mortgage?
No, and anyone who suggests otherwise is wrong. Buildings insurance is a lender requirement, but you can arrange it anywhere. Everything else is optional.
From first call
to keys in hand.
Most people have done this once or twice and are working out the process as it happens. Here is the whole thing in order, including the bits that usually cause delays and what you can do about them.
A call
Twenty minutes on what you are buying or remortgaging, your income, your deposit and anything on your credit file. Free, and with no obligation.
Research
We work out which lenders will take your case as it actually is, then come back with the realistic options and what each would cost you over the deal period, not just the headline rate.
Agreement in principle
A soft indication from the chosen lender, usually within a day. Enough for an estate agent to take your offer seriously, and it does not commit you.
Full application
We package the documents, submit, and manage the valuation and the underwriter. This is where a well-prepared case moves and a scrappy one stalls.
The valuation
The lender values the property for its own purposes. It is not a survey and it will not tell you whether the roof is sound. If it comes back low, we deal with it, either by challenging it with evidence or by moving lender.
Underwriting
An underwriter reads the case and often asks for more. On a well-packaged file the questions are few and specific. On a rushed one they arrive in waves, and each round adds days.
The offer
A formal offer to lend, issued to you and your solicitor. Offers have an expiry date, which matters on new build and on slow chains. We track it.
Exchange
Your solicitor exchanges contracts and you are legally committed. Buildings insurance needs to be live from this point, not from completion.
Completion
Funds are released, the sale completes and you get the keys. On a remortgage there is no chain, so this is usually a much quieter day.
And after
We diary the end of your deal period and get in touch several months before it, so you are never quietly rolled onto a standard variable rate by accident.
Sometimes your own bank is the right answer. If you are on a clean employed income with a decent deposit, and your existing lender is offering you a product transfer at a competitive rate with no new underwriting, that can be genuinely hard to beat. We will tell you when we think that is the case, because the alternative is charging you for work that adds nothing.
Where a broker earns their keep is when the case does not fit a template. Self-employed income that different lenders read differently, anything on a credit file, buying through a company, income from abroad, a property type a high street lender will not touch, or a deposit that came from somewhere that needs explaining. In those cases the difference between lenders is not a few basis points, it is yes or no.
The other thing you are buying is the chase. Applications do not fail because the borrower was unsuitable nearly as often as they fail because a document sat in an inbox for a fortnight. Somebody whose job it is to ring the lender every few days is worth more than most people expect.
Identity and address
Passport or driving licence, and something recent showing where you live. If you have moved in the last three years, we will need the history.
Income evidence
Employed: three months of payslips and a P60. Self-employed: two years of tax calculations and tax year overviews, plus your accountant’s details.
Bank statements
Usually three months. Lenders read these properly, so it is worth knowing in advance what a gambling transaction or an unexplained large credit will prompt.
Deposit evidence
Where the money came from and how it got there. Gifted deposits need a letter from the person giving it, plus their own identity and source of funds.
The property details
Address, price, tenure, and for a flat the lease length and service charge. Short leases and unusual construction narrow the lender pool sharply.
Anything awkward
A missed payment, a period of unemployment, a company that had a bad year. Tell us at the start. Every one of these is survivable, and every one is far worse discovered by an underwriter.
Plain English, on
the bits that matter.
What lenders are actually doing, written by the people who submit the applications. No scaremongering about rates, and nothing we would not say to a client on the phone.
Your fixed rate is ending. Here is the order to do things in.
The months before a fixed rate expires are the ones where people lose the most money, usually by doing nothing. A step by step on when to start, what a product transfer really costs you, and how to keep your options open while you decide.
Written for anyone within twelve months of the end of their deal period.
When to start your remortgage, and why six months is not too early
Most offers can be held for months while you wait to see whether rates move. Starting early costs nothing and rarely locks you in.
How lenders actually read self-employed income
Salary plus dividends, net profit, retained profit, day rate. Six lenders can reach six different figures from the same set of accounts.
Defaults, CCJs and missed payments: what still matters
Age, size and type do most of the work. A four-year-old telecoms default is not the obstacle most people assume it is.
How much deposit you actually need, and what else the cash is for
The deposit is the number everyone saves towards. It is rarely the only cash you need on completion day.
Rental stress tests, and why two lenders disagree by £60,000
The same rent, the same property, and a wildly different maximum loan. How the stress calculation works and what moves it.
The cover people skip, and the reason they regret it
Life insurance gets bought and income protection gets postponed, which is roughly the wrong way round for most working households.
Paid in dollars, buying in sterling
What foreign currency income does to a UK mortgage application, and why the lender applies a haircut before it even starts.
Limited company buy to let: what actually changes
A smaller lender panel, personal guarantees as standard, and different pricing. What the lending side looks like once the tax decision is made.
We’ve added an assistant to the website
You can now ask the site a question and get a straight answer immediately. What it can help with, and where we still insist on a human.
The monthly, in five minutes
One email a month on what lenders have changed, what it means if you are buying or coming to the end of a deal, and nothing else. No rate predictions.
The people you’ll
actually speak to.
One named adviser from the first call through to completion, with a case handler doing the chasing behind them. If your adviser is on holiday you get a second name who already knows your file, rather than starting the story again.
Rachel Hollis
Rachel started the firm after a decade on the lending side, having watched too many perfectly good applications get declined for reasons nobody explained to the borrower. She takes on residential cases and handles anything that needs an argument put to an underwriter.
Tomas Almeida
Tomas handles landlord cases, from a first investment property to portfolios held across personal and company names. He spends most of his week on rental stress calculations, HMO criteria and portfolio schedules.
Nadia Bello
Nadia runs the protection side: life cover, critical illness and income protection. She is direct about what each one does and equally direct about when you do not need it, which is a rarer combination than it should be.
Chidi Obi
Chidi takes the cases that have already been declined somewhere else. Self-employed income that needs interpreting, credit files with history on them, and applications that need to be explained to a human underwriter rather than fed to a scorecard.
Hannah Kerr
Hannah runs the part clients notice most: chasing lenders, valuers, solicitors and estate agents so you do not have to. If your case has gone quiet, she is usually already on the phone about it.
Marcus Shaw
Marcus looks after clients living abroad and foreign nationals buying here, which means visa criteria, foreign currency income and a great deal of certified paperwork. He works across time zones as a matter of routine.
A named adviser
One person owns your case from the first call to completion. You have their direct line and they know your situation without a briefing.
A case handler behind them
Your adviser gives advice and your case handler does the chasing, so neither job gets dropped when the other gets busy.
A specialist when it helps
If your case turns out to be a portfolio question or a visa question, your adviser brings in the person who does that every day rather than guessing at it.
The clue is in
the name.
A lintel is the beam above a door. It carries the weight of everything above so the opening underneath can stay open. That is a reasonable description of the job: take the load off the process, and keep the door open for people the high street would rather close it on.
We answer the phone. Every client has a named adviser rather than a reference number. If something matters you speak to the person who already knows your case, not to whoever picks up.
We say no early. If your existing lender is offering you a product transfer we would struggle to beat, or if the case genuinely will not fly, we will tell you on the first call. It costs us a fee and saves you a month.
We put the case in writing. A great many applications are declined not because the borrower is unsuitable but because nobody explained the situation to the person reading the file. Where a case needs an argument, we write it down and send it with the application.
We do not predict rates. Nobody knows, including the people on television who say they do. What we can do is show you what each option costs under the terms available today, and make sure you are not left on a standard variable rate by accident.
Somebody read the case
Manual underwriting still exists, mostly at building societies and specialist lenders. Knowing which of them will actually read your file is the difference between a decline and an offer.
The chasing is done
Cases stall in inboxes, not in credit committees. Having someone whose job it is to ring the lender every few days moves things faster than anything else we do.
Straight answers
Including the ones that lose us the work. If you do not need a broker, we would rather tell you than take your fee for arranging something you could have done yourself.
Book a call with
an adviser.
Twenty minutes, no charge, and no obligation. Tell us roughly what you are trying to do and we will come back with some times. Please do not send account numbers or anything confidential through this form.
hello@lintelmortgages.example
A demonstration address. Nothing sent to it is received.
Hours
Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm
Saturday mornings by appointment
The assistant answers at any hour.
Where we work
Across the UK, by phone and video.
A live site would show the firm’s real trading address here.
What we do with
your information.
Short version: this website sets no cookies and does not track you. If you use the assistant we receive what you send so we can answer it. The calculators run entirely in your browser and send nothing anywhere. Nothing else.
We do not set any cookies. There is no analytics, no advertising pixel, no session tracking and no third-party script following you around. That is why you have not been shown a cookie banner: under UK law consent is only required for non-essential cookies, and this site sets none at all.
The only third-party request the page makes is to Google Fonts, which loads the typefaces used here. Your browser contacts Google to fetch those font files, and Google may log the request as part of serving them.
What happens when you type a question. Your message, and the earlier messages in that conversation, are sent to our server and passed to Anthropic, which provides the AI model that generates the reply. The answer comes straight back to your browser.
Please do not enter personal or confidential information. The assistant is there for general questions about the firm and about mortgages. There is no reason to include your date of birth, your income, your account numbers, your credit file or anyone else’s details. If a question depends on your own figures, book a call instead.
Conversations are not saved to an account. The thread lives in your browser for the length of your visit and disappears when you close the tab. Your IP address is held briefly on our server purely to limit how many messages can be sent per minute, which stops the assistant being abused, and it is discarded shortly afterwards.
The calculators run entirely in your browser using JavaScript on this page. The figures you type are not transmitted to us, to Anthropic or to anyone else, and they are not stored. Closing or refreshing the page clears them.
On a live site, a contact form would collect the name, email address and details you provide, used only to respond to your enquiry. It would not be sold, added to a marketing list without asking, or shared with anyone not involved in replying to you.
On this demonstration site the form does not submit anywhere, so nothing you type into it is transmitted or stored.
The newsletter signup on this demonstration site does not submit anywhere and collects nothing. On a live site, an email address would be used only to send the update, with an unsubscribe link on every email.
Under UK data protection law you can ask what information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to how we use it, or ask for a copy. We will respond within a month. If you are not satisfied with our response you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Because this is a demonstration site, the data controller is Recruitico Limited, not Lintel. To make any of those requests, or to ask anything about this page, contact:
Recruitico Limited (company no. 11507660)
41 Burlington House, 369 Wellingborough Road, Northampton NN1 4EU
Email: hire@recruitico.com
Telephone: 01604 312104
Recruitico’s full privacy policy is available at recruitico.com/privacy-policy.
If we change how the site handles information, we will update this page and change the date below.
Last updated: 13 August 2026.