Almost every delay in a mortgage case comes from a document that was asked for and not yet sent. The underwriter stops, the case joins the back of the queue, and three days disappear for the sake of one PDF.
Collect the lot before you start. It takes an evening, and it saves more time later than anything else on this list.
The checklist
Everybody needs these
- Photo identificationA passport or a photocard driving licence, in date. If your name has changed, the marriage certificate or deed poll as well.
- Proof of addressUsually a utility bill, council tax bill or bank statement from the last three months. A mobile phone bill is often not accepted.
- Three months of bank statementsFor every current account the income lands in or the direct debits leave from. Full statements, not screenshots, and not a filtered view of the transactions.
- Proof of the depositStatements showing the money and, if it moved between accounts, the trail. If any of it is a gift, the giver’s written confirmation and their own evidence of where it came from.
If you are employed
- Your last three payslips. The most recent should be no more than about six weeks old at the point of application.
- Your latest P60.
- If bonus, commission or overtime matter to the figures: payslips going back twelve or twenty-four months, or an employer’s letter setting out the pattern.
- If you have just started, or are about to: the signed contract or offer letter, with the start date and the salary on it.
If you are self-employed or a company director
- Two years of finalised accounts, or two years of SA302 tax calculations with the matching tax year overviews from HMRC.
- Three months of business bank statements as well as personal ones.
- If you draw salary and dividends, the split for each year — some lenders use salary plus dividends, others use your share of net profit, and the two can give very different answers.
- Your accountant’s details. Some lenders go straight to them.
For the property itself
- The estate agent’s details and the memorandum of sale.
- Your conveyancer’s name, firm and reference.
- On a new build: the reservation form, the warranty provider and the expected build completion date.
- On a leasehold flat: the lease length, the ground rent, the service charge and any known major works. Ask early; it takes longer to get than you would think.
- On a remortgage: your current lender, the account number and a redemption statement.
One that catches people: if rental income, child benefit, maintenance, a pension or benefits are being taken into account, each one needs evidencing separately — and lenders differ on which of them they will count at all.
How to send it
Clear, complete, and one file per document. A photograph taken at an angle with a thumb across the sort code gets sent back, and sending it back costs a day. Where a document runs to several pages, send every page, including the ones that look blank — underwriters check the page numbering.
Send documents through the secure route your adviser gives you rather than ordinary email. These are exactly the papers that are worth stealing.