Accountant certificate for mortgage - too much hassle?

jungle_jane

Hi all

I get my books done by an IAB member (i.e. a book keeper rather than a chartered accountant) and I am applying for a mortgage through Godiva. They say that they won't accept the accounts unless it is countersigned by a chartered accountant.

I can either switch lenders (although have incurred cost / time so would prefer not to) or i was wondering if its possible to get my book countersigned. It would be 3 years worth for myself and my husband - so 6 lots of book in total. I have also supplied SA302s but it seems this is not enough.

I imagine that would be time consuming and expensive - am i better off switching lender?

ACG

What would you rather do?
Its a bit of a difficult question to answer as its personal preference.

ACG

Just looked on the Coventry site:

• Two years' Tax Assessments (SA302s)
  • Tax Assessments must be official and are not acceptable where they are printed from the HMRC website.
  And/Or
• Latest two years’ HMRC Tax Calculation plus the Tax Overview documentation (this is a new acceptable form of proof of income and our other documentation may not yet refer to it, and will be updated in due course).

Can your book keeper not get you the tax overview documents and SA302s? That would be easier than switching or getting an accountant involved.

jungle_jane

Thanks for the replies. The criteria from Coventry that applies to me is:

Directors with 20% or more share in the Company
Accountant's Certificate covering the most recent one year's accounting period.
Latest financial year should be no older than 12 months at the date of application.
The Accountant's Certificate may show a latest financial year up to 15 months old at the date of application when supported with 6 months personal bank statements.
We will request the Certificate directly from the Accountant.

Turns out they want a Chartered Accountant whereas my guy is a member of the IAB. So my choice is to try and get my books verifiied by a CA or find another lender. Its a shame because its the only thing holding up my application - the rest they are happy with.

Just wondering what is involved in trying to get a CA to countersign my books - whether or not it's common practise..or if I should apply with lenders who are happy to go with SA302s alone. This is not a problem i have encountered in the past - previously I have been able to get a mortgage on SA302s alone!

ACG

Does your book keeper know of any? It may make it easier.

I thought as a Ltd Company you HAD to have an accountant. I thought book keepers were more for sole traders.

amnblog

It depends what you are trying to evidence as regards your income JJ.


If you just need to evidence the funds you have taken out of the business as personal income you can use two years SA302s or Tax Year Overviews.


If you are asking the Lender to consider the business profit you will need Accounts and your bookkeeper does not cut the mustard.


Refer to your broker for clarification.

amnblog

jungle_jane wrote: »

Just wondering what is involved in trying to get a CA to countersign my books

Chartered Accountants will not sign off figures produced by someone else. It's all risk to them. They need to check everything first.


Sounds like the key issue is whether you need your profits or your paye/dividends considered. If the latter - CBS would seem a picky choice of Lender unless your profits have recently increased markedly.

jungle_jane

My thinking was that they wanted to see my income and that is derived from salary and some dividends from my company. They wanted to see the SA302s (income has been steadily rising the past few years but not remarkably so) as proof of my personal income. Their website isn't specific about whether they are looking for company profit however - they are just wanting a CA certificate for the past year.

I think this is one for my mortgage broker - i will need to speak to him about it next week when he is back from holiday to clarify. It its profit then my bookkeeper won't suffice and i will need to seek out another lender. I will be a lot more careful next time to ensure that they are happy with SA302 and bank statements alone....!

I can understand that a CA would not want to look at accounts they did not prepare. I'm a little surprised that they aren't much clearer on this whole thing - however it just means going back to the drawing board to get another lender and a bit more time added to the process.

ACG

Your broker should really have checked what was needed before applying and made sure it was available for the lender on application.

payless

ACG wrote: »

Does your book keeper know of any? It may make it easier.

I thought as a Ltd Company you HAD to have an accountant. I thought book keepers were more for sole traders.

No need to have an accountant for a limited company, but obviously lender can say they need one to be willing to lend.

amnblog

It sounds like your broker is not experienced with the self employed.

Also, why take on a case that you are not around to see through? Poor.