Mortgage broker in London

What a whole of market broker does that a bank cannot

A bank can only offer you its own products and can only assess you against its own criteria. If your income does not fit the way that particular lender reads income, or the property does not fit the way it reads property, the answer is no and there is nowhere else for the conversation to go.

Our job is different in three ways. We compare products across the market rather than within one range. We choose where the case goes based on criteria as much as on price — which lender counts your bonus in full, which one is comfortable with a flat above a shop, which one will lend on a short lease. And we present the case, so that the underwriter reading it has the explanation in front of them rather than a gap to make an assumption about.

The balance to that claim: whole of market does not mean every product in existence. Some lenders and some products are only available direct from the lender, and occasionally the best available answer for a client is one we cannot arrange. When that is the case we will tell you, and tell you where to go. We would rather lose a fee than have you take a worse deal because we did not mention it.

What directly authorised means

Many brokers operate as appointed representatives of a network, which means the network holds the regulatory permissions and sets what its members may do. We are directly authorised: London Mortgage Solutions Ltd holds its own permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority, and our Financial Services Register number is 933918. You can check that on the FCA register at register.fca.org.uk.

In practice it means we are responsible for our own compliance, our own advice standards and our own lender relationships, and we are not restricted to a network's approved panel. On specialist finance in particular that matters, because it lets us place a case direct with the lender rather than through a packager who sits between us and the decision-maker.

It also means we can decline work. Being able to say no to a case that does not stack up, and to explain why, is part of the same independence.

How we are paid

We are paid in two ways and you will know both figures before you commit to anything. We charge a fee for advice, and where a lender pays a procuration fee on completion, we receive that too. On protection business, insurers pay commission. All of it is disclosed in writing, in your documentation, before you apply.

We do not charge for a first conversation, and we do not ask for anything until we have told you what we think and you have decided to proceed.

The two offices and the areas we cover

Our registered office is at 35 Berkeley Square, Mayfair, London W1J 5BF, and we have a second office at 5 Penn Road, Beaconsfield HP9 2PD for clients outside central London. Meetings at either are by appointment.

Most of our work is done by telephone, video and email, because that is what clients with jobs and deadlines actually want, and because documents move faster electronically than across a desk. Geographically we advise clients across London and the Home Counties, and further afield where the case suits us — a London broker is not much use if you have to be in London to use one.

What makes London lending different in practice

London is not simply a more expensive version of the rest of the market. The properties and the incomes are different in kind, and both create the problems we spend most of our time on.

The property side

• Leasehold, and short leases in particular — the length of the remaining lease affects which lenders will lend at all, and extension negotiations run on their own timetable
• Ex-local-authority flats and high-rise blocks, where construction, deck access and the proportion of privately owned flats all feature in lender criteria
• Flats above commercial premises, where the type of business below changes the answer — a solicitor's office and a late-night takeaway are treated very differently
• New build, with reservation deadlines, developer incentives that must be disclosed, and offer validity that has to stretch to a completion date nobody controls
• Cladding and building safety paperwork, where a lender may need documentation from the freeholder or managing agent that takes weeks to produce
• Non-standard construction, conversions, flying freeholds and properties with a commercial element

The income side

• Bonus, commission and carried interest, treated differently by every lender
• Company directors, where retained profit may or may not be considered
• Contractors on day rates, and fixed-term or newly started contracts
• Income paid in a foreign currency, which narrows the market sharply
• Foreign nationals and visa holders, where time in the UK and visa type drive the criteria
• Multiple income sources, including rental income from an existing portfolio

The cases we see most often combine one from each list — a company director buying a flat above a restaurant, or a contractor buying in an ex-local-authority block. Each element on its own is manageable. Together they eliminate most of the market, and the remaining lenders have to be identified before an application is made rather than after a decline.

What a failed application costs

A rate you cannot actually get is not a saving. An application that fails on criteria costs you weeks you probably do not have, and leaves a credit search behind for the next lender to see.

What happens on a first call

A first conversation takes twenty minutes or so. We ask what you are trying to do, what the property is, and how you are paid. If there is something unusual — a lease, a construction type, a recent change of employment, a credit event — we will want the detail on that rather than a summary.

By the end you should have an initial view: whether the case looks placeable, roughly what kind of lender it belongs with, what documents we will need, and what to do next. What you will not have is a definitive answer. Anything firmer depends on the paperwork, the valuation and the lender's underwriting, and a broker who gives you certainty on a first call is guessing.

If the honest answer is that the case does not work yet, we will say that and tell you what would change it. Specialist enquiries go straight to Nik Mair, our managing director, and get a call the same working day.

What to have to hand: the property address or the type of property you are looking at, an idea of the price and the deposit, how your income is made up, and any dates you are working to. If a lender or a broker has already declined the case, tell us what they said. It is usually the most useful sentence in the conversation.

What we charge

Our fee is typically £495, though complexity moves it, and it is always disclosed in writing before you apply. Each stage of the fee is earned when that stage is reached and is not refundable after that point. Separately, you have the right to cancel within 14 days, as set out in our Terms of Business. We are usually also paid a procuration fee by the lender.