"Yorkshire Building Society is a responsible lender whose prime concern is that its borrowers can manage their mortgage repayments.
One of the surest and safest ways of ensuring this is to check that the applicant’s salary supports the size of their mortgage requirement and that they are able to afford to make the repayments.
We recognise that it can be tempting for some customers to inflate their salary so that they can obtain the mortgage they need to buy the dream home they want. As we realise that this could lead to customers potentially getting themselves into financial difficulties, we always seek proof of their salary. Allowing self-certification would remove this protection.
Some lenders who offer self-certification mortgages depend on the fact that they have the mortgage security to rely upon should the customer get into difficulty. We would of course have this protection, but ultimately we recognise that the customer would suffer the most if they got into financial difficulty.
The Financial Services Authority has also recognised the difficulty self-certification mortgages could cause borrowers and originally proposed that after mortgage regulation was implemented, self-certification mortgages should be limited to self-employed applicants. They have since retreated from this position, but still suggest that self-certification mortgages should be used by lenders with caution."
