Sam and Alex have a joint mortgage. Following their separation, Sam asks the lender to remove Alex and leave Sam as sole borrower. The balance, rate and term will not change and Sam is not borrowing more. Does the lender need to assess affordability?
MCOB 11.6.3R lets a lender skip a full assessment for a variation with no additional borrowing only if there is no change material to affordability. MCOB 11.6.4E lists adding or removing a party as material, so the lender must assess whether Sam alone can afford the payments under MCOB 11.6.2R. The original joint assessment relied on two incomes. The MCOB 11.9 modified assessment concerns remortgages for customers with no recent payment shortfall, not removing a borrower.
Assuming 'no extra borrowing' is enough to avoid an affordability assessment.
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