Just Mortgages has unveiled a new level of support for its mortgage brokers which is increasing the amount of new business they write.

The firm will now provide dedicated administration support for its brokers. It has established an administration centre in Sheffield which will expand from an initial eight staff to 25 over the next 12 months.

The new administration staff will take care of all cases after submission, chasing any outstanding paperwork required to get a mortgage through to completion. Just Mortgages believes that taking this work off mortgage brokers will provide them with additional time to do what they do best, and spend more time seeing clients rather than looking after administration. It is also expected to help customers to get their mortgages approved more quickly.

In addition, advisers that are writing approximately £20,000 of business per month, with the ability to write more, will be provided with their own administration person in their office. In a pilot, over the past six months, the brokers who received this support wrote an average of 45% more business than they did without it.

With the administration for every mortgage application now taking up to one and a half hours, this is expected to provide brokers with an extra five hours a week to spend with their clients.

John Phillips, group operations director for Just Mortgages and Spicerhaart, said: “While it makes sense that lenders require a lot of detailed information on the person they are about to lend money to, it doesn’t always make sense that the person providing this information is a broker. The broker will of course still do all the initial fact finding and a thorough check on affordability. However, after this point it is possible for an administration person to take it on, submitting the application and providing the lender with any additional information they require.

“Because our administration staff will be dedicated to making sure that everything is correct and every form is filled in correctly, it means less work for lenders. This not only works in the borrower’s favour as they are likely to get their mortgage through more quickly, but it also benefits brokers as it gives them more time to see clients.

“The pilot that we have done to date has proved to be a success with huge gains in business written, so we are now rolling it out to all qualifying brokers throughout the country.”