Having just gone through the process of my first two HMO refinances, I’ve been caught out by the amount of paperwork the lenders have needed. So many things I wish I’d known I would need so I could have gathered them along the way. Instead, I’ve ended up chasing down builders and suppliers to provide guarantees, approval certificates and insurances for projects they can’t remember. Quite frankly, it’s been a right pain, and not just for me.

Now, I love paperwork as much as the next overly-analytical control freak, but if you don’t know what you’re going to need, you simply don’t collect it all. Or I didn’t, anyway.

So I thought “I know – I’ll share what I’ve learned so that everyone else out there in my boat of refinancing for the first time can take my learnings rather than learning the hard way like I did”. Hopefully you can use this as a bit of a check list to be gathering the necessary documents as you go through the process of your refurb and tenanting.

Now, I must say that of course every lender will have different criteria and differing levels of detail they want to go into, so this may or may not be relevant every time. But this is the list of documentation my lender – Kent Reliance – wanted to see (some obvious, some not so):

Document checklist

Building documentation

Land Registry title number and plan. We had to go into more detail on this on one of them because of a flying freehold, but I’m sure this is one document everyone has easily to hand
Planning permission
Building Regulations certificate of completion
Insurances and guarantees. These are for any major works, including roof, damp work, electricals, 3rd party walls, etc. or anything to do with NHBC
FENSA certification. My builder (a non-FENSA certified builder) fitted my windows – perfectly well, I might add – and therefore didn’t have any FENSA certification. The manufacturer could only provide the guarantee for the standard of the product
EPC
Electrical Safety Certificate
Gas Safety Certificate
HMO licence (applicable only to licensable HMOs, of course)
Details of works undertaken (I used before and after floorplans and my scope of works document)
Change of use documentation

Insurance for the new value and reinstatement value, also, and understandably, with their name on the insurance

Tenancy documentation

ASTs
Proof of Deposits
Deposit Guarantee Certificates
Confirmation of which deposit scheme I used
Confirmation of whether rent books are provided to tenants
Proof of various standard legal tenant documentation

Apart from the volume of information required, the most frustrating thing was that this information was not requested in one go; the lender seemed to get one set of information back and then realise they needed the next lot. This meant going back to builders more than once – which I’m sure cost me minus brownie points with them! It also meant I’ve had much longer delays in gathering information which has protracted the whole process. Let that be a warning to you if you are counting on releasing equity by a certain date!

So, overall, my top 3 tips would be:

1. Know what documentation you will need (by reading articles like this 😊)

2. Make sure your team knows the job isn’t complete until the documentation is complete, too

3. Gather as you go

And then just keep everything in a Google drive or Dropbox folder so it’s always on hand to share.

Let me know how you get on – drop me a line or tag me on Instagram so I can see how you’re getting on!