Specialist lender LiveMore has expanded its acceptance criteria as part of a raft of changes to improve access for underserved borrowers.
Borrowers with historic arrears who have since demonstrated stable financial behaviour are no longer locked out for extended periods.
This marks a significant step for customers who have experienced past financial hardship but are now in a position to sustain homeownership or refinance responsibly.
LiveMore, which recently reduced its minimum age to 40 to help combat the midlife mortgage crisis, is shortening how long it looks back at arrears, reducing the initial period of assessment for CCJs and credit defaults from three years to 18 months. Its assessment period for IVAs has also been reduced from three years to just 18 months.
CEO of LiveMore Mortgages Leon Diamond says: “Our purpose at LiveMore is to find solutions for people with more complex needs, and to say yes where others say no. By changing our lending criteria, we are assessing borrowers on their more recent financial behaviour, rather than leaving them stuck where they were previously in a time of crisis.
“We are reducing the number of automatic declines and increasing the extent of our manual underwriting, which means we can look at the individual and their personal circumstances, rather than just their credit history and provide the most appropriate products for their situation.”
Supported by the LiveMore Mortgage Matcher®, brokers can build a more holistic picture of their customers, including how pensions, savings, investments, inheritance and other income sources feed into affordability.
This is particularly important as the complexities traditionally seen in later life borrowing no longer only affect those in their 60s and 70s. Complex financial situations are causing difficulties for borrowers much earlier in life as working ages extend, while self-employment and divorce rates peak in the 40s.
LiveMore decided to lower its minimum borrowing age to 40 to reflect the changing financial needs of these borrowers, enabling the lender to use its experience and knowledge of complex lending to assist more borrowers in midlife.
It also recently announced the launch of its LiveMore Underwriting Hero Hotline, designed to give brokers direct, one-to-one access to a LiveMore underwriter so they can get help with complex and hard-to-place cases before a full application is submitted.
The changes form part of LiveMore’s wider commitment to improving access to lending for underserved borrowers, giving brokers greater flexibility to support customers with more complex financial backgrounds and evolving affordability needs.
