Tenacity eventually pays off

The Bridging team was approached to provide a short-term facility for an SME developer secured against a recently completed development of 4 houses, as well as two other investment properties owned by the company. The loan was required to repay commercial mortgages and an existing development loan against the new build houses and to release equity to allow them to continue with their next project whilst awaiting sales to come through.

The proposal had been declined by another lender due to the main security properties being of non-standard construction, although they were mortgageable.

During underwriting the team came across a number of planning and title issues which needed to be dealt with before the funds could be released. The most critical of which related to planning conditions for environmental remediation which had not been satisfied, part of the land on which the new homes were built being designated as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) and part of the development extending beyond the boundary of the title plan. All these issues had implications for the value and saleability of the houses and therefore our ability to proceed with the loan.

Bridging’s underwriting team worked with the Bank’s credit team and together liaised with the borrower and their professional team, including lawyers and architect, the valuer and our own legal advisers. As a team they were able to either rectify or mitigate the issues satisfactorily to enable the loan to be drawn down.

Gavin Diamond, Commercial Director – Bridging, commented:

“This application was anything but straight forward with a stumbling block seemingly appearing around every corner, starting with an application that we knew another lender had already turned down. Instead of walking away from it, we worked hard to understand and overcome all the issues involved to make the deal happen and ensured a good outcome for the borrower and the broker.”