Message from Woolwich
Since the introduction of a personal affordability assessment into the Barclays Buy to Let (BTL) application, we have seen a lot of questions and escalations around BTL affordability specifically the SD38 code and the inability to unlock cases. Acting on your feedback, we are providing the ability to request an ‘unlock’ of an SD38 code in certain circumstances as detailed below.
Process
Lending Support are being given the ability to unlock an SD38 code in the following scenarios for both new and existing applications:
- Where an intermediary has missed the background BTL ‘rent received’ payments from the ‘Other Income’ screen.
- Where an intermediary has incorrectly entered the monthly Council Tax figure as a commitment on the ‘Affordability’ screen.
In all instances, before a request is made to Lending Support to unlock an SD38 decline the case must meet affordability by having an ‘affordable’ result on the online calculator. This will ensure cases are not submitted un-necessarily through MSO to Mortgage Services which will not pass affordability.
Lending Support are only being authorised to unlock where BTL background rent or Council Tax have been entered incorrectly. They will add a note onto the case to reflect which reason the case has been unlocked.
When the case is unlocked, it is important to realise that the SD38 code will no longer be triggered on the case, regardless of the actual affordability result. It is therefore critical that requests to unlock are only done after checking the result on the online calculator otherwise the case may still be declined on affordability following underwriter review upon submission.
