John Stewart, director of PMI Independent Financial Advisers, said his client was only informed at the last minute that she would need a revaluation on her property in order for her remortgage to be accepted.
The remortgage case was placed with Platform eight months ago and has only just come close to completion.
Stewart said he was shocked that the lender was insisting on a revaluation. He explained: “Platform has a policy that valuations for the property should be within the last six months.
“My client only wanted £75,000 on a property worth £165,000. There is no increased risk – house prices don’t fluctuate that much. I would understand if the client wanted £150,000. In addition, we were only informed about the revaluation a few days before the case was meant to complete for the second time.”
He added: “This strict six-month policy for valuations needs to be looked at. There will be cases, like this one, where the policy is nothing more than an unnecessary obstacle. It’s bureaucracy gone mad.”
Stewart added that he had asked the lender to waiver the revaluation due to the circumstances of the case but was initially told that this would not be possible.
However, Stewart said the packager involved in the case offered to pay for the revaluation if the lender required it to be done due to the hold-up.
Paul Hunt, head of marketing at Platform, said: “We have spoken to Mr Stewart and the issue has been dealt with. There was a misunderstanding on the broker’s and packager’s part.
“The main issue is that there is a certain length of time that the lender’s offer is available for. After six months, you have to look at the price of the property again for security and risk reasons. It’s the same with every lender.”
