Under the new consumer duty, financial companies are required to ensure consumers receive communications they can understand, products and services that meet their needs and offer fair value, and get the customer support they need, when they need it.
Brokers will need to ensure they are accurately recording the client’s needs and circumstances beyond the current status quo.
Purchasing a home is a long-term investment, and as such brokers will need to ensure that conversations with homeowners are both educational and informative to help them understand the risks when owning a property and the future issues that could impact a mortgage application.
Brokers will also need to ensure that conversations go beyond the generic questioning. For example, when a client is planning to raise funds for home improvements, the conversation needs to go a step further to ensure they understand the type of work they plan to carry out, whether the materials used in the property are environmentally friendly and the impact of the work they plan to undertake on the EPC rating.
In addition, the broker needs to question whether the client has considered making sure some of the funds can be used to do retrospective work on the property in order to make it more sustainable moving forward.
Nicholas Mendes is mortgage technical manager at John Charcol
