Mortgage broker document checklist

The document list is where most broker cases lose their first fortnight. Not because the documents are hard to obtain, but because they are requested vaguely, in the wrong order, and after the point at which the client was most motivated to help.

What follows is a working list by client type, plus the handling rules that decide whether a list is useful or just long.

Ask in the first 48 hours, not at submission

Motivation peaks immediately after the appointment. A client who has just spent an hour talking about their future home will dig out a payslip that evening. The same client, three weeks later, will not.

Send the list while the conversation is still warm, and prioritise it. Identity and income first, because those determine whether the case works at all. Property and deposit paperwork can follow.

Employed applicants

• Photographic identity: passport or driving licence, in date, name matching the application.
• Proof of address, of a type and age your lender or network accepts.
• Recent payslips, consecutive, covering the period the lender requires.
• The most recent P60 where annual figures matter.
• Bank statements showing salary credits and general conduct.
• Evidence of bonus, commission or overtime where it is being used, usually across a longer window than basic pay.
• An employment contract where the role is new, fixed term, or probationary.

Self-employed applicants

• Two or three years of accounts prepared by a suitable accountant, or the equivalent tax documents.
• Tax calculations and the corresponding year overviews, matched to each other.
• Business bank statements alongside personal ones.
• Accountant's contact details, and a warning to the client that the lender may write to them.
• For directors, evidence of salary and dividends separately, plus retained profit figures where the lender considers them.
• For contractors, the current contract with rate, dates and any agency details.

The recurring problem here is mismatched documents: a tax calculation for one year presented with a year overview for another, or figures from accounts that do not reconcile to the tax return. Check the pairing before it goes anywhere near a lender.

Deposit and funds

• Statements showing the deposit accumulating, not just sitting there. A large unexplained credit will be queried.
• For gifted deposits: a signed letter from the donor confirming it is a gift with no repayment or interest in the property, donor identification, and evidence of where the donor's funds came from.
• For a sale, the memorandum of sale or equivalent confirmation.
• For inheritance, proceeds of a policy, a bonus or a compensation payment, documentation of the source.
• Evidence of funds for costs beyond the deposit, where the lender asks.

Source of deposit is where cases are most often delayed, and almost always because the paper trail was assembled after submission rather than before.

Property and transaction

• Memorandum of sale or the estate agent's confirmation, with the agreed price and the parties.
• Conveyancer details, including firm, contact and reference.
• For new build, the developer's reservation form and any incentive details in writing.
• For leasehold, the lease length and the service charge and ground rent figures.
• For a remortgage, the existing lender's redemption or current balance statement.
• For buy-to-let, the tenancy agreement or a letting agent's rental assessment.

Situations that add documents

• Any adverse credit: the client's own credit report, and an explanation with dates and current status.
• Existing loans or credit commitments being repaid: statements showing balance and settlement intention.
• Child maintenance, either paid or received: the arrangement in writing where possible.
• Visa or right to reside, where relevant to the lender's criteria.
• Divorce or separation: the relevant order or agreement where property or maintenance is affected.
• Second applicant living overseas, or income in another currency.

Handling rules that matter more than the list

Naming and completeness

Name files properly. A shared convention such as surname, document type and period turns a folder of forty attachments into something a packager can work through without opening each one. "IMG_4471.jpg" costs somebody five minutes.

Insist on complete documents. Statements must include every page, with the client's name and the account number visible. Cropped screenshots are the single most common cause of a resubmission.

Check legibility on receipt, not at submission. A photograph of a payslip taken at an angle in poor light will be rejected, and you would rather know on day two.

Freshness

Watch dates. Documents age. A case that stalls for six weeks may need refreshed statements, and it is better to ask for them proactively than to have the lender do it.

Record what you have seen and when. If a document was checked and found satisfactory, that fact belongs in the file with a date and a name against it.

Storage, retention and consent

You are collecting a large amount of sensitive personal and financial data, often including third parties such as deposit donors, who are not your clients and may not expect you to hold their information.

Store it in the case management system rather than in inboxes, phones or personal drives. Tell clients, in your privacy notice, what you hold and why. Know how you would respond if someone asked for a copy of everything you hold about them, or asked you to delete it. The ICO's guidance is the right reference for this, and it is written to be readable.

Retention periods and the specific evidence you are required to hold for identity and anti-money-laundering purposes are set out in regulation and in your network's or your own compliance policy. Do not take a number from an article. Confirm it with the FCA Handbook, the relevant money laundering rules and your compliance support.

Turning the list into a process

Build the list into the client's first message as a tailored subset, never as the full list. A salaried first-time buyer who receives a list mentioning company accounts and tenancy agreements will assume it does not apply to them and put it aside.

Then track outstanding items as individual tasks rather than as one "documents" status, so that a case waiting on one bank statement is visibly different from a case waiting on everything.