Roma Finance has claimed to have saved a client almost £400,000 in a complex debt forgiveness case.

This followed the client being let down by two other lenders.

During a client meeting on the evening of 27 May, Steve Heaton (pictured), lending manager at Roma Finance, was told how the original mortgage was miss-sold as unbeknown to the client the bank had sold them a £750,000 hedged foreign exchange mortgage product on their two buy-to-let properties. The client needed to pay off the bank who owned this debt and had been to two other lenders who promised much but delivered little and time was running out. The client only had until 4pm Friday to repay the bank £365,000 or else the debt would go back to £750,000.

The valuations on the four properties had already been done and the solicitors were instructed first thing Thursday morning. The bridging lender released the funds on Thursday afternoon in readiness for completion on Friday morning.

Heaton said: “Meeting the customer was critical to this deal and that discussion helped us understand the background & dynamics of the transaction. The client had owned the properties for nearly 10 years and they represented good security, so I was happy to progress the case in order to meet the tight deadline. The client, who had a strong profile, had agreed a debt forgiveness amount with the bank and had a good strategy for exiting our bridge.

“It was then a case of going flat out to meet the deadline, using the slick processes we have and our trusted legal partners who worked incredibly fast, I liaised with the bank to put us in the position of being able to lend and at the same time save the client almost £400,000. This case shows the importance of meeting every client and looking at every case from every angle to get the deal over the line. This is the Roma way.”