Saffron Building Society has undertaken a policy review and has made a series of updates following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The policy updates that brokers should be aware of include self-employed support: the society now has the option to exclude the pandemic year from affordability for businesses who traded for more than a year post-2020/21 financial year.
As well as this it has furthered support for contractors by including zero hour contracts and made a change to the society’s stance on adverse credit with discretion to accept up to £250 of unsatisfied CCJs/Defaults.
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The lender has also increased flexibility on policies involving acreage of land and its use, and it has made updates to rules on annexes to coincide with growing interest in 2021
All the policy changes are available to brokers and were recently distributed to contacts of the society. If brokers are not signed up to receive updates from Saffron, they should visit the site and sign up as soon as possible.
Tony Hall, head of mortgage sales at Saffron Building Society, said: “We don’t use the phrase ‘common-sense lending’ loosely; it is part of our ethos at Saffron. We know that every applicant has their own story.
“Therefore, we have spent a long time improving our application process, making it easier, more efficient, and accessible for brokers to submit applications.
“This includes the ability to submit bespoke and atypical information in support of applicants who might have a unique story we must understand.
“Some applications have been rejected, in our mind a little unnecessarily, because our policies existed for a very different world, especially following the effects of COVID-19.”