Accreditations

From 31st October 2004 ACL Property Finance has been directly authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Number 304218 to advise and arrange regulated mortgages and general insurance. This can be verified by reference to the FSA Website www.fsa.gov.uk/register/ which publishes a record of authorised firms. From that date any person or firm who is neither authorised direct with the FSA or an approved adviser operating within an FSA authorised network will be committing a criminal offence giving advice or recommendations to clients on domestic mortgages and life and property protection insurance - described in the Act as "regulated products". The purpose of this new legislation is to provide greater protection to personal customers when applying for a home mortgage.  It sets standards of good practice and aims to ensure that they receive qualified advice and a transparent service which gives all the necessary information in a standard format approved by the FSA - see FSA Information - and which allows clients to easily compare terms from different sources. ACL employs five fully qualified advisers and with our direct authorisation we are permitted to provide independent advice with access to the whole market for mortgages and general insurance.

What is FSA Regulated Business?

FSA regulation applies to all residential mortgages which completed after 31st October 2004 and which are secured on the home.   These new regulations also include Buy to Let properties, which you, as a personal customer own, and which are occupied by close relatives.  The regulations also cover loans on commercial properties which incorporate living accommodation either occupied by you or your close family relatives, provided the floor area of the living accommodation exceeds 40% of that of the whole property. 

From 14th January 2005 the FSA also became responsible for regulating all types of general insurance.

See FSA Information

NACFB Membership

Most Commercial property and Buy to Let mortgages are unregulated by the FSA. You will however be pleased to know that ACL is a long established full Member of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers.  Founded in 1992, it furthers the principles of good practice by seeking to work with kindred associations and interest groups, and by providing education and training for its members and their employees.

Although unregulated by statute, the Code is published within an Office of Fair Trading registered Code of Practice and these standards have been adopted by its members to promote minimum standards of good practice. As a voluntary code, it allows competition and market forces to operate to encourage higher standards for the benefit of customers. It also operates a disciplinary procedure with its members and provides access to an Arbitration service in the event of unresolved complaints.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE