Guides
Practical preparation, written by the people who read the files.
Preparing for an underwriting conversation
Gather these before you speak to anyone: two years of filed accounts, the most recent management accounts, three months of bank statements for every trading account, and a short written explanation of anything unusual in them.
The explanation matters more than people expect. An underwriter who finds a loss year in the accounts has to guess at the cause. An underwriter who reads your account of it does not.
What an underwriter is actually looking for
Not perfection. Consistency between what you said and what the documents show, a credible account of how the debt gets repaid, and evidence that you understand your own numbers.
How to explain an awkward year
Say what happened, say what you did about it, and say what is different now. Do not minimise it and do not bury it on page fourteen. A well-explained bad year is far easier to lend against than an unexplained flat one.
Common reasons applications stall
- Incomplete document packs — by far the most common
- Figures in the application that do not match the statements
- No clear exit on a bridging or development facility
- Ownership structures that were not disclosed at the outset
