How to chase case documents from enquiry to mortgage offer

A mortgage broker gets a case's documents in by sending one request that says exactly what each document must show, checking every arrival on the day it comes in, and keeping a dated list for each case so that nothing goes stale while the last item is on its way. A case can also stall when a client sends the wrong thing and nobody tells them for a week.

When does the chasing start, and when does it end?

The job starts when an adviser takes on a case and knows roughly what kind it is: employed or self-employed, purchase or remortgage, a gifted deposit or not. It does not end at submission. After the application goes in, the lender's underwriter may ask for more, and the chasing starts again. It ends when the lender issues its offer.

Who does each step today, from list to offer?

1. The list. The adviser or administrator decides what this case needs. Lenders publish their requirements and they differ. One high-street lender asks for the last three months' payslips, with the most recent dated within two months of the application, a recent bank statement showing name, address and running balance, and for the self-employed, SA302s with the tax year overviews for the same period. Another asks for the latest 13 payslips where someone is paid weekly and relies on commission, and requires a gifted deposit letter in every gifted deposit case.

2. The request. The administrator emails the client the list.

3. Reminders. Sent when there is time, which can be only after the adviser asks why the case has not moved.

4. Checking arrivals. Each attachment is opened and compared with what was asked for. One lender's criteria refuse a screenshot of a statement, a filtered statement, and one whose details do not match the application.

5. Submission. The adviser or administrator submits, often keying the application on the lender's own site after a decision in principle.

6. The underwriter's further request. The case goes back to step two.

How to tighten the chase tomorrow

• Write a list for each kind of case. Employed, self-employed, contractor, gifted deposit, remortgage. Then note where the lenders you use most differ.

• Say what each document must show. Not "bank statements" but "your latest full statement as a PDF downloaded from your bank, showing your name, address and balance; not a screenshot".

• Warn the self-employed early. GOV.UK says an SA302 cannot be printed until 72 hours after the tax return is sent, and that the applicant should check the lender accepts a self-printed copy. A client who has not yet filed needs to know that on day one.

• Check on arrival. The right document, the right name, every page, the right dates, readable. If one fails, say which and why the same day.

• Date every item. Record the date on each document, not only the date it arrived. When the last item is three weeks late, you can see at once that the first payslip is now outside the lender's window and ask for the new one in the same message.

• Name only what is missing. A reminder that lists only the items still to come, not the whole list sent again, tells the client exactly what to send.

• Set an escalation day. After the number of reminders you choose, a person telephones.

Which steps can an AI worker take on?

An AI worker can take this on, working inside limits your firm writes down. In this job it can take steps one to four and the watching in between: the list from your written rules, the request, the reminders naming only what is still missing, and the check of each arrival against the request. It can ask again, in wording approved for each kind of fault, when a page is missing or a date is wrong, and show the administrator what every open case is waiting on. The role is set out on the page for chasing clients for documents; the fact-find that comes before it is on fact-find and suitability paperwork.

Because the firm is FCA-regulated, the worker handles paperwork and never advice. Every request and reminder goes out in wording the firm approved beforehand. Anything that rests on one client's own circumstances waits for the adviser, each time.

What waits for a person, and why?

• Whether a document will do. The agent can see that a statement is complete and in date. Whether it is genuine, and good enough for this lender, is the administrator's judgement, and anything that looks altered goes to a person at once.

• Advice. Under the FCA's mortgage rules the advising firm must take reasonable steps to ensure the mortgage is suitable. A client who replies to a document request asking which lender, what rate or how much they can borrow is asking the adviser's question, and it goes to the adviser unanswered.

• Submitting to the lender, and answering the underwriter.

• Phone calls, to clients who have gone quiet and to the lender's broker line.

• A client who says they cannot provide an item.

What to write down before you hand the chasing over

• The document list for each kind of case.

• The lender differences that matter to you.

• The request and reminder wording, approved by whoever signs off client communications in your firm.

• Where documents should land: a reply, your portal or an upload link.

• The reminder interval and the escalation day.

• Who owns each case.

The rest of a brokerage's admin is on our page for mortgage brokers, and why it limits growth is set out in how to scale a mortgage brokerage without hiring more staff.

A brokerage could have every case's documents requested, checked and chased in wording you have approved, with the advice, the submission and the call on whether a document will do left to your people. Which of your cases is waiting on a payslip while the purchase moves on? Talk to our agent.