Five day finance saves a developers’ property auction purchase

Lender Together has saved a renovation project after completing a £135,800 short-term loan in just five working days.

The customer, a Surrey-based property professional, had bought a large converted house at an auction in Derby. He planned to use his own money to refurbish the building and rent it out to tenants.  The finance had been agreed with another mortgage lender.

However, the customer was left in a difficult situation when the original lender told him that they would be unable to meet his 28-day deadline to complete on the property after he’d exchanged at auction.

The initial lender told him, through the broker Ellie Broadhurst of Baya Financial, that they were unable to meet the deadline after a delay with the valuation report. This would mean the client would lose his 10% deposit. Having heard of its reputation for speed and service, the broker contacted Together.

Ellie explained: “The valuation wasn’t going to come back quickly enough so I spoke to a contact who recommended Together.

I spoke to the underwriting team at Together, who gave me a mobile number for Tanya Elmaz, one of their commercial underwriting specialists. It was after 5pm on a Friday but the team and Tanya were absolutely fantastic.”

Ellie sent over the necessary documents to Together’s team, who carefully considered the case over the weekend, uploading the documents to it’s My Broker Venue (MBV) online portal and carrying out a desktop valuation.

The lender then sent out the application and legal packs, which were reviewed on the Monday morning. Together agreed to provide a six-month £135,800 commercial bridging loan which completed five days later at 70% loan-to-value (LTV) in line with Together’s lending criteria.

Ellie said: “It was so quick. The client had been very disappointed when it looked like he’d been let down but Together stepped in and pulled out all the stops. He was over the moon with the service provided.”

Tanya Elmaz said the client’s solicitors had already carried out the necessary conveyancing work when he bought the house at auction. The online Hometrack valuation “took a matter of seconds” and valued the property higher than the purchase price, so Together was happy to lend at 70% LTV. The client plans to exit the commercial bridging loan by refinancing the property with a specialist lender.

Tanya added: “It was a real team effort to provide the finance so quickly – and over a weekend. It’s cases like this that show how vital short-term funding can be to get the best outcome for the customer.”