I have two separate clients wanting Accountant's certificates for mortgages.
Santander says that they will not recognise ATTs for this (although they recognise AATs) I'm a sole practitioner and feeling very frustrated. It makes me look very bad professionally.
I've asked to be called by whoever deals with this at the Association of Technicians , but haven't heard anything yet.
Any thoughts, advice, sympathy...?
Replies (21)
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ATT wrote to many mortgage lenders on this matter and published the outcome last year:
https://www.att.org.uk/sites/default/files/160822%20Financialreferencesl...
Hope this helps
They might accept HMRC sa302 forms in conjunction with the tax year overview. all available on the HMRC website.
I was just intended as a tongue in cheek comment giving the amount of piss_taking about the certificates people have or don't have on their wall on here.
Apologies for any offence.
Frankly I am not sure why you are surprised. If you are an ATT you are a tax technician but as far as accountancy goes you are unqualified. Nothing at all wrong with that if you can do the job your clients pay you for, as I am sure you can.
But, John, the same could be said of a CIOT member. While it might be said that a CIOT member should perhaps have a greater understanding of accounting issues when delivering tax advice I wouldn't say that they are necessarily any more able to prepare a set of 'true and fair view' financial statements than an ATT member is.
From my personal experience providing reference for Santander.
I am ATT student with 8 years practical experience and when Santander asked for accountants reference I just filled this in and enclosed a cover letter with details of client`s income and my accounts/tax experience.
And guess what? Mortgage agreed.
This actually happened just a bit less than a year ago - about this time last year.
Client is a director taking salary below NIC threshold and the rest in dividends. It was pre-abolishing dividend tax credit, so also needed explaining Santander staff how dividend tax credits work.
I put everything in writing to them about my experience, studies towards qualification, how accounts were prepared and why client was on low salary + divs.
Remind the lender that they agreed with the Council of Mortgage Lenders that an SA302 and a tax year overview would be sufficient. Drop the hint that if they are going to go back on that agreement, you'll have no choice but to make a complaint to the CML.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mortgage-providers-and-lender...
https://www.att.org.uk/sites/default/files/160121%20Financialreferencesl...
I would go further, I would maybe lobby ATT for a motion that in light of their behaviour,
" Santander not recognised by ATT"
I have never understood why some larger financial institutions place such obstacles in the way of their doing business, they are, after all, in the business of lending, and they have competition.
Whilst maybe not yet widely apparent, the residential mortgage market is cut throat for the banks, they want the business. When someone like Nationwide departs the commercial property lending market they are not shrinking their overall balance sheet, they are redeploying the assets to be lent elsewhere, the residential market, so there is a lot of money chasing business; remember the maxim, the buyer is always right.
The other point is the banks shot themselves in the foot post 2008, their business clients in a lot of cases got the cold shoulder so revisited their business both re quantum of borrowing (we cut ours by 75%) and who was to be used- Funding Circle et al grew because there was a void.
Now the more mainstream banks are tying to recapture that space they abandoned but a lot of business no longer trusts them, so they are in a slight uphill position re rebuilding lending books.
So, if ATT has any bottle, a polite word to the errant banks threatening that they will circulate their members in practice re a "cooling" relationship and said institutions will likely receive less favoured nation status re referrals from ATT members might bear fruit.
(Caveat -Not a member of anything (except ICPA which does not count in this context) but then as I do not arrange residential mortgage funding, only commercial property/business loans, lack of qualifications has never been a problem- on commercial lending just deal with relationship managers who know you and maybe trust you.)
I have had trouble with santander in the past and they have happily accepted sa302 and tax year overviews together with company letterhead or stamp. Don't waste your time arguing with them.
We only accept UK qualified accountants, accountant’s certificates and accounts produced and signed by a chartered accountant, certified
accountant or an accountant that holds one of the qualifications on the list below
From recent certificate form for mortgage application
As ATT is a tax qualification not an accounts qualification I can see why this would not be accepted.
The same thing has happened to me. One of my clients applied for a Virgin mortgage and they would not accept ATT as a recognised qualification. I received a call from a very shirty pompous IFA telling me that if I could not arrange for a qualified person to sign off the Accountants Certificate that he was going to advise my client to use another accountant. Very frustrating!!
Duck?
Well you have to get your buddy who is an ACA to help and countersign it and buy him a pint...
Otherwise you are out of luck
We have corresponded with Santander on numerous occasions to ask them to accept references from ATT members and have pointed out that our members are well placed to provide the information required as accounts training is, of course, part of the ATT Syllabus. Santander is one of the top 6 mortgage lenders and the other 5 all accept references provided by ATT members so it is not a case that all lenders take the same view and we will be taking up this matter again with Santander to try and get them to reconsider the matter.
Jane Mellor – Professional Standards Officer ATT and CIOT