AMI has been a long-term supporter of the principles set out in the Mortgage Market Review, which was fundamental in requiring income to be evidenced in all cases. This removed the concept of self-certification of income from the UK mortgage market place. We would not want to see a return to self-certification of income and certainly not to the 2007 levels where over half the loans completed had no verification of income undertaken.
Brokers are continuing to add pressure on lenders to take a more practical approach to the self-employed and to look more widely at what might be acceptable income. Many of the challenger banks and regional building societies are taking a more practical view. Whilst MMR introduced the need for all mortgage applicants to evidence their income, one of the ways that many lenders accepted was the SA302 document from the Inland Revenue. As we move through 2016, the Inland Revenue is going to stop producing these on request for consumers. Any mortgage applicant looking to support their loan application with Inland Revenue documents will have to log into their HMRC online Self Assessment account. They will then be able to print off copies of HMRC online Tax Calculation and Tax Year Overview. The AMI web-site explains more on this and how to access the information.