Please Note: The information included within these pages is for for use by FCA authorised intermediaries only. If you are a customer please visit our customer web pages.
Residential Intermediary FAQs
Important Information: We are currently only accepting applications from intermediaries located within our branch operating area unless already registered. Click here for more information.
How can we help you?
Select an option below to find out more information.
Registration
To register with us, your Intermediary firm must be located within our core operating area, however once on panel, the property and the customer can be located anywhere in the UK.
The registration process should be completed within 48 hours, so will not cause any delays to your enquiry. If you are an appointed representative of MAB or Sesame, as these networks are on our panel, you only need to complete the Intermediary registration document and we only need one registration document per firm not for each individual advisor.
Please complete as applicable: Mortgage Intermediary Registration Form and/or Mortgage Intermediary Agreement and email to intermediaries@cumberland.co.uk.
Once you have been added to our broker panel, you can register to submit mortgage Dips and Applications via our Broker Portal.
Each Procuration Fee is calculated as a percentage of the mortgage advance and is 0.40% for all New Borrowing and 0.20% for Existing Customer Product Transfers or Rate Switches. These are payable on completion and payments are processed weekly on a Wednesday.
We are currently accepting registration and residential applications from intermediaries located within our branch operating area but once on panel, the customer and the property can be located anywhere in the UK. . Postcodes included in our operating area include:
- Cumbria (CA and LA postcodes)
- South West Scotland (all DG and TD9 postcodes)
- North Lancashire (all PR, FY, LA, BB1-BB3 and BB5-BB7)
- West Northumberland (NE45-49)
Affordability
Yes, please click here to access
Please refer to our How To Guides section.
Policy
The maximum age at the end of the mortgage term is 85 years old if the mortgage is on a repayment basis, and 80 years old for interest only.
Please refer to our Criteria Guide for full details but in summary:
If the term of the loan extends beyond the age of 70 years old for any applicant or their declared retirement age (whichever is soonest) then the loan would be treated as lending ‘into retirement’ and we could offer a maximum loan to value of 80% repayment, 80% Interest Only or 80% Part and Part (Interest only element capped at 50% for sale and downsize).
If there are ‘more than 10 years’ between the time of application and retirement age, we would need to evidence contributions to a pension plan, either from payslips or from the most recent pension statement and match this up to the contributions on the bank statement.
If there are ‘less than 10 years’ between the time of application and retirement age, we would need to obtain pension projections and complete an additional budget planner to evidence that the lending is affordable on pension income alone.
If any of the applicants are over the age of 70 years old or already retired, then the loan would be treated as ‘lending in retirement’ with maximum of 70% loan to value. Customers already in retirement are unable to use ‘sale and downsize’ as their repayment strategy.
Our minimum loan amount is £20,000 for residential applications or £50,000 for our First Time Buyer exclusive products. The minimum term for a mortgage is 2 years.
Our maximum loan amount is £2,000,000 for standard mortgage products and £6,000,000 for bespoke product pricing. Maximum term is 40 years.
Please refer to our Criteria Guide for full details but in summary:
We can lend on a full interest only basis up to 80%, subject to there being a suitable repayment vehicle in place to repay the borrowing at the end of the term. Please note that where ‘sale and downsize’ is the repayment vehicle, we have a maximum LTV of 65%, maximum loan amount of £2m and minimum equity buffer requirement depending on the location of the property:
- Within our operating area is £150,000
- London is £350,000
- South East is £300,000
- Rest of the UK is £200,000
Yes-subject to a review of the terms of the S106 (or equivalent) and only for properties located within our core operating area.
Income
Up to 6 x sole/joint gross income where LTV <= 80%
Up to 6 x where sole/joint gross income is >=£40,000 and LTV >80%
Up to 4.49 x where sole/joint gross income is <£40,000 and LTV >80%
We consider most income types:
- Permanent employed (including shift, unsocial hours, allowances and bonuses
- Fixed term and zero-hours contracts
- Self-employed
- Contract workers
- Pension Income (both state and private)
- Investment Income
- Rental Income
- Benefit income
- Foster Care Income
- Maintenance Income
Please refer to our Criteria Guide to find details on the documents we require to evidence this income. If you have any income type not noted above, then please contact us and we can discuss whether we are able to include this as part of our assessments.
Yes - please refer to our Criteria Guide for details on the information we need to evidence this income.
Product
We offer a free valuation on all applications up to a loan amount of £750,000. If the loan amount required is in excess of this, please contact and we can advise what fee would be applicable.
We offer a free standard legal service via our nominated solicitor on loan amounts up to £750,000. However, standard legal fees do not cover everything, and we call anything that is not covered non-standard.
Transfer of equity and capital raising on a mortgage free property are a couple of examples of work not included in standard legal fees, but for clarity the best thing to do is to speak to your relationship manager.
Yes, we can offer interest only up to the relevant maximum (see Criteria Guide section 4.8) with the remainder on a capital and repayment basis up to a maximum of 80%. Where any element of the mortgage is on Interest Only basis, the Interest Only product would apply to the whole loan amount.
Yes, all our products allow overpayments of up to 10% of the balance of the loan per financial year without penalty during the initial fixed or variable product terms. Should the overpayment you make exceed this amount, then an early repayment charge (ERC) will be payable for the amount exceeding your allowance and the ERC percentage will vary depending on the product chosen.
Yes, please follow this link to see the product options for existing borrower rate switches.
Yes we do - please follow the links below to find out more.
Yes, if your customer moves home our products can be ported onto the new mortgage and any additional borrowing can be taken on a new rate. If your customers are borrowing less than their current mortgage, please contact us and we can advise if any early repayment charge would be payable and if so, how much that would be, as this would depend on the product terms.
We do not offer mortgage facilities for either of these mortgage types.
This is clarified within our lender/product notes within sourcing but relates to the fact that currently our residential mortgage products are only available to brokers located within our core operating area, however once on panel, the customer and the property can be located anywhere in the UK.
Our brokers need to be located within our core operating area but once on panel, the property can be located anywhere in the UK. For the majority of cases, we can lend up to 95% loan to value, with the exception of London and the South East, which is restricted to 80%
Process
Please refer to our How To Guides section. You will also need to complete the registration form and agreement if you are not already on our broker panel.
You will find details of what documents you need to provide in our How To Guides, however should your enquiry have any areas which are unusual or more complex, please contact us to discuss this further. We will then provide guidance on what (if any) other documents we may require.
Yes, a client can choose their own solicitor to act, who would need to be on our approved panel. You can find our solicitor panel here.
Should the solicitor you wish to use not be on our panel, please contact us and we will advise whether they meet the criteria to be added. Please note that this can add a little extra time to the application process, as we cannot produce a mortgage offer until the solicitor is approved and on our panel.
If the solicitor doesn’t meet our criteria and therefore cannot be added to the panel, the applicants can either choose a solicitor who is on our panel or continue with separate representation where The Cumberland will instruct a solicitor to act on our behalf alongside the applicants solicitor. Please note that the applicants will be responsible for the full legal cost and as two firms are involved this will be more expensive.
Our mortgage offers are valid for 6 months; however you can request an extension for a further 6 months, subject to conditions being met.
For further details, please see ‘What are your offer extension terms?’
You can request an extension for a further 6 months as long as the initial 6 month offer period has not expired. If granted, the 6 month extension will apply from the date in which the request is approved.
- Offer extension requests should typically be submitted within the final month of the initial offer period.
- Our mortgage offer extensions are subject to a successful updated credit search.
- No additional documentation will be required unless there has been a material change in the customers circumstances, for example, changes to income or expenditure.
- Where we require a re-valuation to complete an offer extension, no additional costs will be incurred by the customer.
- The mortgage product from the initial 6 month offer will remain valid.
Please Note: Our mortgage offers can only be extended once, and following this, a new application will need submitted.
For any confidential client information, we have secure messaging, whereby you will receive a notification asking you to login in with your email address and password to access the documentation.
Alternatively, you can send messages via our Broker Portal once registered.