Insight and events

When it comes to specialist cases, having someone to dig into the detail is really valuable. Cases can have intricacies that aren’t visible on the surface, but after a bit of scratching, it can turn a ‘no-go’ into a ‘go ahead’. At Kent Reliance for Intermediaries, our team of experienced manual underwriters are skilled in doing just that.

We spoke to one of our senior underwriters, Tony Grimwood, to find out more…

A bit about me…

I started at Halifax in 1986, straight out of school, and then went into mortgages from 1990 onwards. I actually became an underwriting trainer at Halifax, and some of my trainees now work with me at Kent Reliance for Intermediaries, which is great to see.

When an underwriting job at Kent Reliance for Intermediaries came up, I jumped at the chance to apply. I love underwriting, especially knowing the fact that I get to help real people make their dream home a reality. And I’ve now been here just over 5 years, with my current role being on the Key Relationship Team.

My typical day looks like…

It’s a 9am start for me and I sign straight into the phone system. This means I can be on call for internal support lines for various departments including BDMs or our broker liaison team, or even sometimes transferred to brokers themselves. We have field BDM buddies, mine being Jack Cope and Helen Comben, so we have a direct contact stream if they need anything to speed up answering any questions they or their brokers have.

As part of the Key Relationship Team I look after 2 broker firms specifically, so they have a consistent point of contact to make things easier for them. It also means you get to understand how best to work with each other which can speed things up.

I’ll then look at any AIPs that need further assessing, which can include both buy to let and residential cases as I have authorised mandates for both. Usually this can be the more complex stuff like non-standard properties such as adapted HMOs. These may have been referred due to requests from the BDMs or are flagged by our own system. I’ll also review cases that have been referred for offer or are approaching completion and a query has arisen. Finally, I’ll action any post, valuations and underwrites in my queue.

It's busy, it’s varied and I love it.

My favourite thing about my role is…

I don’t think I could narrow it down to just one thing! I like to know I’m making a difference to someone’s life. My favourite type of case is a first-time buyer as I know if we can accept their application I’ll be part of getting them their first home.

I also really love the complexity of the work. Every case is different so one minute I could be looking at a shared ownership case for a first-time buyer and the next a large buy to let portfolio. At Kent Reliance for Intermediaries we also have the flexibility to look outside of standard criteria, so having the chance to look over the finer details of a case can really make a difference. We can do things that other lenders might not simply because we’re able to look at each case within its own right.

For some cases that are very high in value, I’ll present to our transactional credit committee (TCC), if I truly believe we should consider it. So it’s me who can be the one to secure that yes for them and that’s very empowering.

And finally, I love the people. I’ll be on the phone one minute, speaking to my team the next and I’m actually mentoring someone at the moment, which takes me back to my training days.

Something that surprised me about my role was…

How we really do look to lend. I have the ability to use my discretion within my mandate which provides a level of flexibility for the applications I review. If I think it’s a good case for the bank, I can say so and build rationale as to why we should consider it. This is something some other lenders, especially high street ones, simply can’t offer.

For example, I recently had a case from an applicant whose three small businesses had gone down to one, due to COVID restrictions. This meant their income didn’t quite meet affordability even though the business was ticking over. However, through a discussion with the broker, we managed to find out the applicant was also doing some work for an accountancy firm alongside running their business. I spoke to their accountant directly and managed to get letters to back up their bank statements and we were then able to progress with the case.

My top application tip for brokers is…

Phone your BDM first even if you think it’s a case we wouldn’t consider. It’s easy to assume that we can’t do something if it doesn’t fit our standard criteria limits, however, it’s always worth having a chat as if it’s a strong enough case, we may be able to take a view.

Something people may not know about me is…

I did actually qualify as a hypnotist, although this was a long time ago and I haven’t done it for some time. So whilst I can help with mortgage applications, no I can’t stop you from smoking!

Oh, and I once took a 6-month career break to backpack around India and Nepal.