What happened to the Mortgage Verification Scheme ?

[River Phoenix]

This was given a lot of press back in 2011 and infrequently recognised in subsequent articles but is it simply being ignored to let people forget about it and let it burrow its way into our finances ?

Some said the lenders wouldn't pay but that makes no sense when it was supposed to cost £14 or something and a mortgage is hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Any ideas ?

[PlanB]

Re: What happened to the Mortgage Verification Scheme ?

The scheme is still running. It's a joint initiative between members of the Council of Mortgage Lenders and HMRC to prevent fraud. If the lender suspects that someone has overstated their income on an application form they can cross-check the information on their tax returns with HMRC.

This became necessary after lenders got stung by thousands of mortgage frauds (mainly BLT) at the height of the last property boom with self-certification mortgages. You simply said what you earned without having to provide any evidence of it. In fact some forms I filled in said "what do you estimate your income to be in the next 12 months". You could put anything you liked in there because all you'd have to say is "I didn't meet my expectations"

Things have changed now with every fact on the application form requiring evidence. Self-certification mortgages have vanished. They weren't called Liars Loans for nothing

The negative publicity surrounding the Mortgage Verification Scheme is that it was used (in my view abused) as a two-way street by HMRC who would ask to see mortgage applications to cross-check declared income on the form for discrepancies with tax returns submitted. That was never the intention of the scheme.