Knowledge Bank has announced it is holding a one-off criteria clinic about how Consumer Duty will affect borrowers choosing to build their own homes.

The clinic is being put on in partnership with self-build and custom-build specialist firm, BuildLoan.

Knowledge Bank introduced a specialist Consumer Duty tool in March to help brokers and lenders identify whether a borrower may be vulnerable as early as the criteria search stage.

The specialist criteria search platform said its new clinic will build on this while looking particularly at the area of self-build. Borrowers building their own homes could be categorised as “vulnerable” in a different way to that which brokers are used to hearing about, and the Knowledge Bank clinic will also help to give brokers the skills to tackle that by identifying other potential areas of vulnerability.

The criteria clinic is taking place online on Tuesday 13 June at 10am and will take questions from brokers live on air, helping them to place any challenging cases.

In addition to BuildLoan, four self-build focused lenders from the BuildLoan panel are taking part in the criteria clinic including Chris Blewitt from Darlington Building Society, Julie Bourne from Hinkley & Rugby Building Society, Stu Bryce from Chorley Building Society, and Steve Calvert from Furness Building Society.

“There is only just over a month to go until Consumer Duty regulation comes into force,” said Knowledge Bank CEO, Nicola Firth.

“While much has been said about how to identify areas of vulnerability in mainstream and later life lending, there has been nothing so far about how it will affect those borrowing money in the lesser-known areas of lending such as self-build. This criteria clinic will rectify that by looking at this area in detail and the criteria around it.”

Head of product and lender relationships at BuildLoan, Chris Martin, added: “Building a home is one of the most complex projects many people will undertake, and having the right finance in place to make sure the build can be successfully completed is massively important.

“Knowledge Bank’s specialist Criteria Clinic in conjunction with BuildLoan – the leader in the self-build finance market – will be invaluable in guiding brokers through what they need to think about when finding the right solution for customers and how this links with Consumer Duty.”

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