Accord Mortgages has temporarily withdrawn some residential products after several members of its underwriting team tested positive for Covid-19.
The lender is withdrawing residential products at 75 per cent and 80 per cent loan-to-value at 8pm today (January 25) for the next 10 days.
Accord said its Lynch Wood site, where most of its underwriters are based, had a "small number" of colleagues test positive for Covid-19.
It added that it would be working with a temporarily reduced number of underwriters, with affected colleagues having to self-isolate.
Jeremy Duncombe, managing director at Accord, said: “Our priority has always been the health and wellbeing of our colleagues, so we have taken the decision to withdraw products at 75 per cent and 80 per cent LTV to ensure service levels can be managed with our reduced capacity.
“Whilst we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact to service, in these exceptional circumstances with less underwriters available, there are likely to be some delays, so we advise brokers to check the current turnaround times on our website in order to manage client expectations.
“We expect this to be a very temporary pause on lending at these tiers and are still accepting applications on all other products within our range.”
Accord said full mortgage applications must be received by 8pm today (January 25).
It added that any agreement in principle received before this time and date, that is initially referred, will be honoured on the selected mortgage product if subsequently accepted post product withdrawal.
Aaron Strutt, product and communications director at Trinity Financial, said: “It is surprising that we have not had more notifications from lenders telling us about coronavirus outbreaks. They have done incredibly well to manage this difficult situation.
“Accord is particularly keen to provide as many mortgages as possible but clearly must follow the guidelines and look after its staff. I think brokers will appreciate the lender's honesty.”
chloe.cheung@ft.com
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