Roma Finance and Loans Warehouse have partnered to complete a complicated back-to-back auction purchase.

Roma was approached by Loans Warehouse with an application, which had been rejected during the underwriting process by another lender. The property was a three-bedroom terraced house in poor condition which the borrower wished to refurbish and convert into a five-bedroom HMO. Roma was asked to lend £320,000 over the main purchase property and an additional security. This was done to enable them to borrow the amount needed to create the highest quality finish possible to maximise the customer’s opportunity.

The main two issues were the short time scale and the fact that the property in question had been purchased by a vendor day one and sold to the new applicant the next day, leaving no time for the property owner to be registered.

The Loans Warehouse team obtained undertakings from the vendor’s solicitors, to ensure both land registrations were made at the same time. Draft transfers were provided by the original vendors solicitors, to ensure any potential registration issues were mitigated as there was no room for time delays.

The final challenge was around ensuring suitable valuations were provided. The valuations were completed using AVM technology to alleviate some of the time pressures. However, during the transaction the primary security had been subject to a title split. This therefore required the Roma Team to review the application in its entirety to see what the actual risk behind lending was and ensure the project was viable. The teams were able to overcome this final challenge and complete the case on time.

Lorraine Hart, head of credit operations at Roma Finance, said: “This was a highly time sensitive case, coupled with a with series of challenges, some of which were not in our direct control. This is a great example of the need to be agile with strong underwriting experience, from Loans Warehouse which allowed our team to make informed decisions and ultimately benefit the customer.

“This is a great start to our working relationship with Loans Warehouse and we are looking forward to building on this in the future.”

Matt Tristram, co-founder of Loans Warehouse, added: “Roma Finance had just been appointed to our panel and this was our first case with the team. It was certainly a challenge, but we have been seriously impressed with their approach to this application, their process and dedication to find a positive solution. We aim to find the best fit solution for every case and Roma clearly share our values.”