Carer's Allowance
Carer's Allowance is paid to people aged 16 or over spending at least 35 hours per week caring for someone with substantial caring needs. We accept 100% of a Carer’s Allowance.
Cashback
Where a mortgage product includes a cashback feature, it will be paid to the customer’s solicitor with their mortgage funds on the day the customer completes. The customer should agree with their solicitor how they would like to receive the cashback.
Casual employment
Contract/agency workers with income paid through a temp agency should be on a contract of no less than three months and income must be evidenced for the last 12 months. Piece workers must have a history of earnings over the past 12 months evidenced by P60s.
Certification of documents
For brokers submitting applications via intermediary.natwest.com, the declaration you will make when uploading documents now states:
For income/expenditure documents: “I am confirming either that the scanned documentation is a true copy of an original document, or where electronic documentation is being supplied, this is an unaltered document obtained by the client directly from the corresponding business or organisation.”
For Customer Identification/Address: The documents I am submitting are true copies of original documents relating to the party/parties on this application.
The above changes also apply MTE users who should e-mail application packaging to: intermediarydocs@natwest.com
Acceptable documents
For Income/Expenditure:
• Photograph of a hardcopy document
• Scan of a hardcopy document
• ‘Official’ digital version of a document (e.g. e-payslips, online PDF bank statement etc…)
• The Photograph must be:
· taken from above the document
· Free of distortion/effects
· Well-lit in natural light (not taken with a flash)
· Clear text and numbers
· Easy to read throughout
· Whole document visible
· Document must not be cropped or edited
· PDF, GIF, PNG or JPG format
• Each photo must contain one document/page only
Unacceptable documents
• Screenshots from mobile/tablet/PC/laptop etc
• Photographs of a screen
• Manual documents (e.g. Excel spreadsheets instead of bank statements etc…)
• Taken at an angle
• Visible distortions or flash effects
• Very dark
• Unclear/blurry text and numbers
• Difficult to read
• Parts of document missing/cannot be read
• Cropped or edited pictures
• Any other file format
• Multiple documents/pages in each photo
Child Benefit
We can accept up to 100% of working tax credits, Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit. Please note that if an applicant is heavily reliant on these benefits (the ratio of benefits to main income) then please discuss these with your BDM but be aware that the final decision remains with the underwriter. The age of an applicant's children may be a factor so we recommend submitting the awards letter with as part go the application packaging. If the applicant earns more than £50,000, then we will not include Child Benefit.
Childcare costs
We use the actual amount the customer has declared they pay in our affordability calculations for this commitment. Customers with dependants will be asked about the type of childcare they use, how often and how much they spend.
- There is no formal evidence which is required for childcare costs, however if there is a difference between what is on the evidence provided as part of the application and the declared costs, this will be challenged/discussed to ensure the correct figure is used for the customer.
- As part of the affordability discussion, you will need to clarify with the customer whether it’s certain or likely that childcare costs will change over the next 5 years. The highest figure should be used over the 5 year period.
- In some circumstances childcare costs may be unknown, for example if the customer is currently pregnant, on maternity leave or if childcare arrangements are yet to be made. Customers can suggest likely future costs or you can refer to the national average figures here (figures correct as at August 2018)
When should childcare costs not be included?
There are a number of situations where childcare cost should not be captured in the affordability calculations. These include:
- Where customers are using free childcare e.g. a relative to look after their child.
- Where the childcare costs are stopping within the next 6 months.
Commission
We can consider accepting up to 100% of the commission an applicant receives. Evidenced by the last 3 months consecutive payslips and most recent P60. If the most recent P60 is unavailable, or doesn’t support the 3 month annualised figure, we can still consider this income using the last 6 months consecutive payslips.
Committed expenditure
For details of committed expenditure please refer to the ‘Financial Commitments’ section.
Consent to let
The bank may be prepared to allow residential mortgage customers to rent out their current property as a buy-to-let property under a consent-to-let arrangement under the following circumstances (this is not an exhaustive list):
Customer is unable to sell their existing home before buying a new property.
Customer is currently in or moving to tied accommodation linked to their employment (e.g. boarding school teacher, vicar/minster, estate worker, army barracks etc.) The customer may not take occupation of the property until their current employment ceases which may be many years in the future.
Customer is a member of the Armed Forces currently serving elsewhere in the UK or overseas and property has previously been used as or is intended to be their main residence in the future (we will require confirmation via a Service Number or other suitable identification).
Customers must have had their mortgage with us for a period of no less than 6 months (unless they are in Tied Accommodation or in the Armed Forces) – this is relevant for both existing and new customers.
Customers must not have a Consent To Let on any other properties mortgaged with us.
The fee is £120 initial payment and £120 per annum payable on the anniversary of our agreement to Consent to Let. The fees are waived for (1) customers in the armed forces (2) Customers in Tied Accommodation and (3) customers working abroad for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
There are no fees payable for UBNI customers.
Construction types
See 'Property Types'.
Consumer buy-to-let
Consumer buy-to-let is a type of regulated business introduced by the MCD to provide enhanced protections where buy-to-let customers are not acting for business purposes.
Our approach to identifying these customers is based on how they view their buy-to-let activity. We anticipate consumer buy-to-let will only apply to customers remortgaging a buy-to-let property where their objective is not to benefit from house price growth or rental income.
We include this question on our application: Will the property be let out for investment purposes?
By ‘investment’, we mean that you are looking to benefit from rental income or future house price growth.
If the answer to this question is ‘No’, the following message is displayed: Your selection has indicated consumer buy-to-let status. At present we do not offer this type of lending. In this case, the application will not progress.
We do not offer consumer buy-to-let mortgages.
Consumer buy-to-let will not apply to purchase transactions, customers with existing buy-to-let properties or any properties with current or future family occupancy. We will continue to apply a consent-to-let for existing NatWest mortgage customers looking to let out a property on a residential mortgage, as long as no rent is being paid by a family member as this would be a regulated BTL.
We include a disclosure on the new buy-to-let sales and offer Mortgage Illustrations to make customers aware that their loan is unregulated. We expect customer demand for this type of mortgage to be low and will monitor the emerging market to ensure we are aligned to market forces.
Contractors
For PAYE contract workers, we require one year's evidence (for example, two six-month contracts or four three-month contracts) and a contract in place for minimum of a further three to six months.
For self-employed contractors who earn more than £75,000 pa we’ll calculate their income as their average weekly contract income multiplied by 46, provided they can confirm evidence of:
- their latest 3 months’ consecutive personal bank statements for their main account (not required if their main account is with NatWest or RBS)
- where significant business expenses are identified on the application, 3 months’ consecutive bank statements (personal or business) detailing these
- a copy of contract(s) to encompass a 12-month period, with a minimum of 6 months’ contract(s) already completed immediately preceding the date of application.
- they have taken no more than a six week break between contracts in the 12-month period
- the tax position is paid and up to date.
Many self-employed contractors may also trade via a Limited Company because it may be tax efficient for them to do so and subject to the criteria below we can help them under this policy . There is some additional information that you need to be aware of when submitting an application for a customer who meets these criteria:
- When using the NWIS web site or MTE to submit an application, you must key the applicant as ‘Self-employed’ NOT ‘Employed’.
- Operating via a limited company. The applicant(s) must meet one of the following circumstances:
o Single applicant owning 100% of the company
o Joint application where one applicant owns 100% of the company
o Joint application where the company is jointly owned
o Joint application where one applicant owns 100% of the company and the other applicant is employed by the company (in this instance the employed applicant’s income should be excluded to avoid double-counting).
- Significant business expenses not reimbursed as part of an applicant’s contract. Significant business expenses as detailed below, must be fully understood, evidenced and accounted for in the affordability calculation. Significant business expenses may be, though not limited to:
o Car/finance loans
o Extended travel and accommodation costs
o Training courses
o Professional indemnity insurance
o Partner/spouse/employee salaries
- Umbrella arrangements. We cannot use the high earning contractors’ criteria to consider applications from customers using an umbrella company arrangement. Under these circumstances we would consider an application under our PAYE contract worker policy.
Credit scoring
Credit scoring is a statistical tool used to assess an applicant for credit facilities and ranks applicants by probability of default. All applicants will be assessed using credit score and credit reference information obtained from Equifax in addition to one or more of the following:
- Information supplied as part of the application process.
- Internal data relating to existing account(s) with the group.