legends · 4 min read ·
Underwriter's Notes
A mortgage underwriter finds a street paying a monthly tithe to one house, and his own name on its electoral roll.
**Ashgate Building Society — Underwriting File M-26-0912**
**Applicants:** Mr. and Mrs. T. Lowe · **Property:** 6 Rook Lane · **Loan requested:** £220,000 over 25 years · **Underwriter:** D. Pryce
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**Application summary**
- **Item · Applicant 1 · Applicant 2**
- Employer · Hollis Logistics · Self-employed
- Gross income · £41,200 · £19,800
- Credit score · 812 · 790
- Existing debt · £0 · £0
*Total household income £61,000. Affordability test passed. Valuation at 6 Rook Lane: £260,000. LTV 85%.*
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**Underwriter's notes (D. Pryce, 2 October)**
Application routine. Applicants well-presented. No adverse credit. Income verified by payslips and accounts.
One point: on the proof of address, the applicants have given 6 Rook Lane as their current address. They are applying to buy it. I checked the electoral roll. They are registered at that address from 1998.
I rang the applicants. Mrs. Lowe laughed. She said they had lived in the house for twenty-seven years and wanted to own it at last. I asked who their landlord was. She said: "The house."
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**Underwriter's notes (D. Pryce, 4 October)**
I asked for more detail on the income. Mr. Lowe's payslips are in order. Mrs. Lowe's accounts show her income as "consultancy." The main client is listed as *Rook Lane (property)*. The payments come in monthly, £1,650, from an account in the name of 6 Rook Lane.
I asked what the consultancy was. She said: "I advise the house on how to keep us."
I wrote that down. I have decided to treat it as a joke.
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**Underwriter's notes (D. Pryce, 8 October)**
Checked the source of the payments. The account at the bank is a business account held by the property. It has been receiving deposits from a number of sources: six other households in the street, each of whom pays £275 a month, standing order, with the reference *Rook Lane tithe.*
I have asked the residents of Rook Lane about it. All six confirmed. They said they had paid every month since they moved in. They said it was a local arrangement. Nobody knew who had set it up. Nobody knew what it was for. They said you didn't miss a payment.
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**Underwriter's notes (D. Pryce, 12 October)**
I visited the street. Seven houses on Rook Lane, numbers 2 to 14. Six of them pay into the house at Number 6. Number 6 pays nobody. It has no mortgage, no gas bill, no insurance premium. The house has run itself for decades, maintained by the contributions of its neighbours and the labour of its occupiers.
Mr. Lowe showed me round. He said: "We never worry about the roof or the boiler. They get done. The house knows what it needs."
I asked how the house paid its council tax. He said: "It doesn't. The council has stopped asking."
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**Underwriter's notes (D. Pryce, 18 October)**
I have been through the paperwork again and I cannot find a reason to decline. The applicants have an income. The valuation stands. The loan-to-value is acceptable. The affordability is clear.
What I cannot find is the lender. When I ran the application through the system, the field for *Existing charge on property* returned an entry for a charge dated 1998, in the amount of £220,000, over 25 years. The charge was registered by the applicants, Mr. and Mrs. T. Lowe, as borrowers. The lender was Ashgate Building Society.
I looked for the repayment history. It shows 336 monthly payments, all made on time. The loan is due to be fully repaid on 30 October.
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**Underwriter's decision (D. Pryce, 30 October)**
Application approved. Offer issued: £220,000, 25 years, at 4.1%. Completion date 30 October.
*Conditions: (a) Applicants to continue to occupy the property as their main residence. (b) Applicants to maintain payments of £275 per month into the house account, in accordance with local custom. (c) Applicants to renew the application every 25 years.*
*Underwriter's note: I signed the offer. I did not draft the conditions. They appeared on the form, in my handwriting, after I had left the office. I have checked the date on the electoral roll. My own name is on it. I have been registered at 6 Rook Lane since 1998.*