Self Employed Mortgage Reference Letter

esmith

Hi,

Can anyone offer any help and advice on this one?
I have had a call today asking if I can do a reference for a self employed driving instructor as he is applying for a mortgage and needs a reference from a qualified accounting.
He needs me to look over his books and provide a forecast for the coming year.
He is a new client so I have no prior knowledge of his business.
Can anyone tell me what the bank will be expecting and how much you would expect to charge for such a service?

Thanks

Monsoon

esmith wrote: »

Hi,

Can anyone offer any help and advice on this one?
I have had a call today asking if I can do a reference for a self employed driving instructor as he is applying for a mortgage and needs a reference from a qualified accounting.
He needs me to look over his books and provide a forecast for the coming year.
He is a new client so I have no prior knowledge of his business.
Can anyone tell me what the bank will be expecting and how much you would expect to charge for such a service?

Thanks

You can't reasonably comment without doing his accounts, thus you're looking to charge for a year's accounts production, really. Last one I did, was a new client I'd quoted £300 for accounts and tax return, but 6 months into the year he needed a mtge ref. I quoted £200, and reduced the year end fee to £200 (as I would have done some of the year end work already). If it was a stand-alone, just-want-a-mtge-ref new client without the year end work... I don't know if I'd be happy taking it on from the PII perspective... and I would charge a decent fee for it.

Be very careful of doing a forecast and get some cast-iron disclaimers - the banks shouldn't ask you to 'guarantee' his projected income but a lot of them will get you to try!!

The bank should be expecting a profit figure, and an annual income figure, and possibly a P&L. And a disclaimer that you are simply stating figures based on what the client has told you.:thumbup1:

Dean

Whilst scouring the MiP toolkit within ‘MyAAT’ the is a standard, well a AAT recommended letter, just for this. Should then point you in the right direction.

Regards

Dean