Lying to get a mortgage 'is useless'

Date:Monday 16th February 2009
Author: Rachel Fletcher

Borrowers seeking mortgages will not succeed in trying to mislead lenders, an expert has said.

Andy Pratt, chief operating officer of Alexander Hall mortgage advisers, explained that restrictions on mortgage lending now are primarily concerned with the size of the deposit buyers have saved up.

As such, he said that telling falsehoods about income levels would not make any significant difference to lenders and also pointed out that valuations will find out the true value of a property.

"There is nothing that you can ultimately do to pull the wool over the eyes of the lender," Mr Pratt warned.

Mr Pratt also observed that people needing to remortgage may be "stuck" as criteria become stricter.

A recent report from KPMG discovered that mortgage fraud in the UK last year was worth £36 million.

The figure for the previous year had been £3.7 million.

Mr Pratt said his firm had been surprised by the increase as it had not experienced such a rise in clients attempting to mislead.