Knowledge Bank adds cladding category

Mortgage criteria search system Knowledge Bank has launched a criteria category to help brokers find banks and building societies who will lend on properties with cladding.

The cladding category – ‘Composite Cladding / EWS1 Form’ – has been introduced to help brokers find lenders that will lend on properties with composite cladding.

Nicola Firth, chief executive of Knowledge Bank, said: “Supporting brokers is our number one focus. When we see a trend of requests or activity in the market, we immediately look to develop new categories to support this demand, and give brokers access to the information they need to help their clients.

“In the past year, more than any other, Knowledge Bank gained the reputation for being immediately responsive, providing brokers with the information they need, when they need it.

“With 52,000 criteria changes last year alone, it is clearly impossible to keep up with lenders’ changing criteria with a traditional spreadsheet. Brokers clearly realise this. The necessity of a criteria search system was demonstrated by the enormous and unprecedented number of searches carried out by brokers last year, which topped 1.35million.

“2021 looks certain to be another year of change. As always, we will ensure that we are on hand to help brokers and will continue to add new criteria, improve our service and support brokers the moment it is necessary.”

Due to issues around potentially unsafe cladding, there is a surge in brokers dealing with clients who are effectively mortgage prisoners.

An estimated 650,000 people are currently living in properties with potentially unsafe cladding, according to The Guardian.

Knowledge Bank has also launched the ‘Local Authority Search Indemnity Insurance’ category.

This is for indemnity insurance, which helps speed up the mortgage process and can lower costs as it means the lender does not have to conduct a search on the property.