Lender asking for signed Limted Accounts

gsmyth123

Hello, our lender is saying our Ltd company, official year end accounts (Unaudited Financial Statements) are not enough and they need to be signed by the accountant. This is a service that costs £115 per applicant (2). As there is no more financial information that can be supplied, it is only a signature to confirm they are in fact the people that prepared and filed our accounts. Is there any way around this? Am I able to persuade my broker that what I have sent is enough? And get him to fight for me?

Thank you.

haras_nosirrah

If it is a limited company and they want to see signed accounts then I am afraid it will have to be signed. As a broker we ask for signed accounts before we submit applications

The broker can try and argue however is unlikely to get very far if that is their criteria and it will just lead to a 3 day delay.

With mortgages it is the lenders money and they don't have to lend it. The alternative is to switch lender but there must have been a reason you have gone with that lender in the first place i.e another lender would have cost more.

What I would do is ask the broker to argue the signed accounts but be fully prepared for it to come back as a no and be ready to act if it does.

ACG

You could ask the broker to try an alternative lender.
Not all lenders will need accounts (signed or unsigned).

On a side note - your accountant charging £115 to sign accounts once is bad enough. I would be telling them you are dropping them, unless you have gone with a company that charges a low fee (maybe £500-600) and then charges for any extras.

woofdonkey

We changed accountants last year and the new one wouldn't sign off accounts that the old one prepared. So we had to use a lender that would just use one year's accounts I.e. the ones the nee accountant had done himself. (We didn't have time for him to re-do that previous year himself).

This ended up forcing us to use a much more expensive lender. Our options were very limited. But we got there in the end (with Kensington).

You might find a lender that would accept an accountant's reference alongside the accounts, but your accountant would probably charge you for that as well? Our accountant doesn't charge to sign off accounts, it is part of his standard service. He also doesnt charge for accountants certificates, or to sign letters. I would shop around for another accountant next year if I were you.

dunstonh

Hello, our lender is saying our Ltd company, official year end accounts (Unaudited Financial Statements) are not enough and they need to be signed by the accountant.

That is normal. With modern technology, anyone would create accounts. It varies with lenders though.

Plus, its not just the accounts they are after. Salary, dividends and shareholder funds (retained profit) are also normally required and they are not all in the accounts.

Some lenders dont want to see the accounts but request the accountant complaints their form on income disclosure.

As there is no more financial information that can be supplied, it is only a signature to confirm they are in fact the people that prepared and filed our accounts.

That is not true. They need to verify the figures and that means paying a staff member to look them up. There is also a liability issue as well. Plus, many lenders ask the accountant to fill in their form and this means the accountant is not familiar with the form and has to take longer to read it.

This is a service that costs £115 per applicant (2).

Our accountant didnt charge when mine was needed. Some will. Some wont. Some will package it as an inclusive service.

Am I able to persuade my broker that what I have sent is enough?

It is not your broker that needs all this. It is the lender.