Intermediary News

Important changes to requirements to support Home Finance applications

Following a review of our processes and the requirements in the wider marketplace, we are introducing a number of changes for Buy-to-Let and Home Purchase Plan product applications.

These changes are outlined below and are effective from Monday, 23rd December 2019.

All Home Finance applications

  • All identification and proof of residency documents must be provided in colour

All applications from international applicants

  • Customer Contact:
    • Gatehouse will contact the customer via phone prior to completion in order to discuss (in English) their details and welcome them to the Bank
    • We therefore need our broker partners to advise the customer that this will take place and that they are able to hold a conversation in English

In addition, for countries we consider higher risk we are introducing further changes.

Higher risk countries:

  • British Virgin Islands (BVI)
  • China
  • Cyprus
  • Egypt
  • Ghana
  • Hong Kong
  • Israel
  • Kenya
  • Macau
  • Pakistan
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Sri Lanka
  • Taiwan
  • Tanzania
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • Vanuatu
  • Vietnam
  • Zambia

Applications from residents of the above countries will be required to:

  • Documents & Certification:
    • Have their documents certified by a local notary, official, solicitor (or similar as per the Acceptable Identification (ID) and Proof of Residency (POR) guidance available here)
    • In addition, the customer must also provide colour photographic evidence of themselves holding their Proof of Identity document showing the photo page, to ensure that the document provided is a true likeness
    • These documents should be sent by the customer to Gatehouse Bank (casemanagers@gatehousebank.com), stating their customer application number, with the broker being copied in
  • Employer reference:
    • We require this to be provided directly to Gatehouse Bank (casemanagers@gatehousebank.com) by the employer or via the customer and stating the customer application number
    • The broker should be copied in to this email
    • The employer reference should contain the contact details of the employer, with whom Gatehouse Bank can verify the authenticity of the reference provided, if required
  • UK bank account:
    • The customer must have a UK transactional bank account
    • This must be evidenced by providing a UK bank statement dated within the last three months
    • The statement must show the customer’s deposit for their property acquisition being transferred in to their UK bank account from their overseas account
    • The customer’s UK bank account must also be used to pay the valuation fee

Should you have any queries regarding the changes outlined above, please contact your BDM, who will be able to assist you.