Policy exclusion handler

Second mortgage across two states — VIC and WA security, sitting behind a bank first. Placed.

Most non-bank second-mortgage lenders will not take WA security. Enforcement differs, panel solicitors are interstate, and the file is an exception before it is read.

Package both securities as one request rather than two. Confirm first-mortgagee priority amounts before submission, not during settlement. Instruct the lender's solicitors to prepare a state-compliant deed of priority up front. WA requires wet-ink execution — build the days into the timetable rather than discovering them at the end.

Add three to five days for interstate execution. Assume nothing settles by PEXA alone.

Six-month bridge against an approved development site in a regional centre. As-is value known; the GRV assessment not yet instructed. Placed.

Credit will not size a facility against a number nobody has produced. The standard answer is to wait — by which time the site is gone.

Build the case the valuer would have built. A month-by-month funding table for the full term, local agent evidence and rental analysis supporting the GRV assumption, the planning permit, and a stated exit. Then ask the funder the direct question rather than hoping: would you consider this with the valuation to follow? Commit to instructing the assessment on a named date.

Indicative terms on the package; formal valuation follows rather than blocks.

Refinance where the existing report was commissioned for a different lender, four months ago. Illustrative.

Most lenders reject a report older than roughly three months, and one addressed to another lender outright. The default assumption is a fresh instruction and a fresh fee.

Ask whether the existing report can be reassigned before you order anything. The sponsor pays a reassignment fee, which is a fraction of a new instruction and days rather than weeks. We have had a report addressed to a major bank reassigned to a non-bank lender rather than re-instructed. Always check the addressee and the date before quoting a timeline to your client.

Reassignment: days. Fresh instruction: two to three weeks, plus the quote.

Approved facility where the report lands below the figure the LVR was built on. Illustrative.

The approved LVR no longer works and the deal is treated as a new submission — usually at the point the client has already committed.

Three levers, in order of least damage: restructure the LVR against the new figure and cover the gap with a short second; add security from elsewhere in the group; or move lender to one whose policy sizes differently. Where the lender permits it, commission your own valuer — though note many insist on instructing their own.

Plan for it before it happens. Recovering after settlement is booked is what costs the deal.

Active developer with real income and a live portfolio, whose most recent tax return has not been lodged. Placed.

Bank servicing tests fail on the absence of a document rather than on financial strength. The borrower is not weak; the file is incomplete.

Do not fight the test. Go non-bank or alt-doc for a deliberately short term, then diarise the bank refinance for the month the financials become current. Track the client's lodgement status as a live field, so the refinance is a scheduled opportunity rather than something you rediscover a year later.

Short-term facility now, bank pricing at the next reporting cycle.

Construction facility mid-build with an unused cost-to-complete allowance the borrower needs for the next acquisition. Placed.

The stated position is that check costs are not accessible until practical completion. Most files stop at that sentence.

Show that the lender's risk is covered whether or not the money is released. The evidence pack: latest QS report with cost-to-complete and a forecast completion date, current balance against limit and the undrawn amount, forecast monthly interest, and untouched contingency. Then escalate in order — relationship manager, progress payments manager, executive approval — and state the purpose of funds rather than leaving it to be inferred.

Approved within 48 hours of escalation on a recent file, against stated policy.

Second mortgage where the first mortgagee is a major bank, and consent to the priority deed sits unactioned while the existing facility runs past expiry. Illustrative.

The second-mortgage lender cannot settle without a deed the bank has no urgency to sign. The deal is not declined so much as left to expire.

Escalate directly with the first mortgagee's securities team rather than the branch, and use any bank relationship you have to move it. Register a caveat as an interim protective step while consent is outstanding. Put the commercial urgency in writing — an expired facility accruing penalty interest is a fact the bank can act on, where a chase email is not.

PEXA title nomination has its own lead time. Start it the day terms are accepted.

Group with an existing bank facility secured over several properties, wanting to move or release one asset. Illustrative.

No single asset can move while the facility is crossed, and the bank has no incentive to unpick it.

Map every title, mortgagee and balance into a security schedule before approaching anyone. With that in front of you, negotiate a partial release or substitution of security. Frequently the schedule itself makes the case for refinancing the whole group away rather than negotiating asset by asset.

Longest lead time of any item here. Start the schedule before the client has a deadline.

Development site where a fire triggered a council emergency order requiring demolition and asbestos clearance, with a build-over-easement application also outstanding. Placed.

A security condition changed after acquisition, with a council-enforced clock attached. Most buyers and most lenders walk.

Run it as one coordinated program, not five problems. Deal with the municipal building surveyor directly on scope. Commission the arborist, engineering and remediation reports in parallel rather than in sequence. Keep the easement application moving alongside the remediation so neither becomes the other's blocker — and keep the lender informed as the security condition changes, rather than after.

Build-over-easement applications have a long lead time and are a common cause of late redesign. Lodge early.

Regional development application where the shire issued an RFI covering vegetation, services abolishment and drainage. Placed.

The RFI is the single most common point at which an application stalls for months or lapses entirely — usually because it is treated as correspondence.

Treat it as a project with a schedule. Tender consultant fees before instructing rather than accepting the first quote. Close every item in one consolidated submission instead of trickling documents. Referral authorities — the water authorities in particular — determine timelines more than councils do, so answer them comprehensively and in one package.

Regional applications commonly run six to nine months from lodgement. Complete, well-organised responses measurably shorten that.

Completed project where individual lots need to settle progressively rather than as one line. Illustrative.

The facility was written over one title. Partial discharge is not automatic and lender consents teams work to their own timetable.

Submit a valuation for each lot rather than a single combined figure, provide the plan of subdivision, and agree the payout allocation per lot before the first contract goes unconditional. Coordinate the consents team, the solicitors and the PEXA workspace together — sequentially is how settlements get missed.

Start at title application, not at first sale.