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Would recent events impact your recommendations?

ended 19. June 2023

Following the sheer volume of short or no-notice mortgage withdrawals over the past month, UK newswire, Newspage, asked brokers if this will have an impact on their recommendations moving forward. Their views can be seen below.

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
It would be inappropriate to disregard the alarming conduct displayed by certain lenders, given their proximity to financial losses, leading them to offer only a few hours' notice when pulling deals. When mortgage brokers make recommendations, they consider multiple factors, including the level of service provided. Regrettably, some lenders have not performed as effectively as their counterparts in recent times. Despite market volatility, lenders can still demonstrate their commitment to improving client outcomes through positive actions.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Given how swift mortgage rates have been pulled from the market, I would ideally favour those lenders that do give us reasonable notice, and in particular use lenders like Nationwide that allow us to reserve mortgage rates before a full application is submitted. That buys us time, allows us to 'hedge' against further increases whilst retaining the flexibility to take a cheaper deal if rates move in the opposite direction. Those who reserved at the beginning of June are about 1% better off than borrowers today. That is a huge potential saving, just by clients using the knowledge and experience brokers have, who advise on the right lender choice and do not necessarily go for the absolute cheapest deal every time.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
No, our role is to provide the right advice for our clients. Just because some lenders have poor processes or do not care about the impact on clients, it doesn't mean we should ignore them from our recommendations. However, when a "short-notice" lender is identified as the most suitable we make clear to the client how this lender operates when we present our recommendation, that this lender has a track record of this behaviour, therefore we can not guarantee that their rate until their full application is submitted. It has led to some interesting conversations so far.
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Jonathan Burridge
Founding Adviser at We Are Money
We can't call on lenders to keep pricing keen and competitive and then berate them for doing so. Mortgage lenders are not directly responsible for the interest rate environment we are in and they are reacting to events. The impact of the last nine months is going to be far-reaching and we should be focusing on the best strategy for our clients rather than moaning that lenders are acting responsibly for their own stablility.
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Joe Stallard
Director and Advisor at House and Holiday Home Mortgages
The recent tidal wave of sudden mortgage withdrawals means we've had to develop new tactics and stress the importance of swift decision-making to help our customers. That's how it is right now. The days of dillydallying are over. Hard as it is, we're letting people know procrastination won't work. And of course, we're never going to advise anyone to skim their research, just that they need to focus on being decisive so they've got more chance of getting the right deal for them before it's washed away.
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Hannah Bashford
Director at Model Financial Solutions
As unfair as it feels for lenders to withdraw rates at short notice, I wouldn’t leave them out of a recommendation for that reason. As an adviser, we are looking for the best deal and most appropriate lender for our clients, so if that is someone that pulls their rates with an hour's notice the only thing you can do is make the client aware of that behaviour. I’m not sure how you could justify not using a lender just because of their commercial decisions if it is the best lender for the client. I think in these scenarios it is the adviser's responsibility to make sure they have everything they need to make a recommendation and application before discussing with the client so that if there is a short-notice withdrawal, they are in a position to act quickly.