Trust Pilot Reviews

It seems to me that if in future Lendy is the subject of some form of class legal action, those involved more recently would have good grounds for claiming that collusion between TP and Lendy was instrumental in preventing them from being warned away from investing and suffering losses as a result. The disparity between the cosy way in which reviews have been so promptly dismissed and TP's published assertion that reviews cannot be tampered with, seems reasonable evidence of that. I hope everyone involved is keeping the evidence of their short lived reviews.

Hazellend - indeed, I got something a little wrong. The "non-performing" loans don't just go back over 600 days - they actually go back 725 days.  I am sure that it makes you happy. Or does it just make the Lendy management happy until they go to court?

So really, if we want our money back, we need them to redouble their efforts and lie better because right now they don't seem to be cutting it?

this can't happen fast enough.it must be before the other directors leave with as much cash as they can carry.

In my view I think they have left it too late. Customer sentiment is against them and so are the finances. It seems that they have also given up pulling things on Trustpilot, that must be quite a demoralising job for whoever does that because I am sure they would understand the customer point of view.

Without an incredible turnaround I don't see profits this year... they have done something like £50m of loans so far but seems a lot of them would be tranches.

Would be fairly funny if they applied to Funding Circle for a loan to prop them up, sadly my prediction is by this time next year they would have run out of cash. If I was being totally unethical and owned Lendy the best exit route now would be to make sure the preferred creditors are aligned to their liking, wait for a big DFL to repay and then shut up shop.

Dear all,

Some of the posts on this forum over the past few months show that as a business, we probably need to do a better job of explaining more clearly some of the work we do. Below, we’ve given some answers to some of the most common questions we’ve seen.

Perhaps even more importantly, we’re keen to communicate directly with investors. If you have questions or concerns and want to discuss them with us, please give us a call on 0800 779 7706, or email us at support@lendy.co.uk. Lendy team members can talk to you about your investments, individual loans, or where we’re up to on recoveries. Whilst me might not be able to answer all your questions to your satisfaction we will try our best.


I have an overdue loan – what are you doing about it?

We have added a lot more personnel and resource to the team dealing with overdue loans in the past 12 months. These new hires mean that the recovery team is working harder than ever to secure repayments on those loans that are overdue.

Nobody wants their money tied up in any overdue loan – we recognise that.

Where we feel that the best chance of recovering investors’ money is by calling in the loan then this a course of action that we are vigorously pursuing. However, the UK court system does not always work at the speed that we would like it to. You can be assured that we make it clear to the law firms that we instruct that investors’ interests are absolutely paramount.

Where appropriate, we will take legal action against borrowers, which may include enforcing personal guarantees, repossessing properties, and bankruptcy proceedings.

We’ve also made a big investment in our due diligence team and processes for new loans, to try to minimise the risk for investors in new loans that come on to the platform.


What is Lendy doing to help us avoid bad loans or to ensure bad loans do not get offered on the Lendy website?

The most important thing is that we have invested substantially in our due diligence process to ensure that we help to identify the best loans.

Whilst investors on the platform have to make their own decisions on loans, we can help by pre-screening out higher risk loans. Our loans now have to through a much more rigorous approval process and many loans we review get rejected long before they reach our platform.

We’ve also narrowed the group of independent valuers that we use as part of our effort to ensure valuations are reliable.


The valuation of the property my loan is secured on has been reduced – why is that?

The valuation reports that investors review are written by independent property valuers. All of these firms are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the valuation reports they produce must comply with the standards set by RICS.

We do not guide the valuers in the drafting of these valuation reports in any way. We want valuers to be impartial and we want them to be accurate in the valuations.

When it comes to selling a property sometimes the price achieved is less than the valuation. This may be because the local market conditions and demand for that kind of property has changed since the valuation was made. Demand for commercial property or development land, for example, can be much more volatile than for a residential property.

If we feel the valuer has no valid reason for the valuation changing then we will exclude them from the panel of valuers that we use.

In cases where we believe a valuer was negligent in valuing the property, we may sue the valuer for professional negligence however this process can take some time.


I want more information in loan updates - sometimes nothing seems to change from one loan update to the next.

We try to give our investors as much information as we can on loans, but often there are periods when there just isn’t any new information to provide. However, you can be assured that we now have a rigorous system in place to inform you of any material changes to a loan, borrower or security.

The only issue that might prevent us from telling you absolutely everything that happens on a loan is if we are forced to take legal proceedings against a borrower. In these cases we sometimes receive advice from external legal advisers to limit what we disclose so as not to risk waiving our legal privilege.


Repayment on some of Lendy’s loans is classed as ‘imminent’, but that has been the case for some weeks?

When this happens, it is almost always because there has been a temporary delay with a borrower – for example when a refinancing takes longer than expected. If there is a material change to the status of the loan, we will always provide this to investors. We are in constant contact with borrowers to try to move the repayment process along as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately progress within the commercial property market and within commercial property development can take much longer than in the residential market.

Refinancing can take some time to negotiate as can sales and planning applications. This means that delays are not unusual.


What due diligence does Lendy do on its loans?

Lendy has introduced had a five-stage due diligence process which we regularly. This consists of:


1. Initial due diligence: Our experienced business development managers carry out an extensive ‘know your customer’ (KYC) process when they first source a loan, including searches into the prospective borrower, credit and anti-money laundering screenings, and, in most cases, interviews with the borrower.


2. Legal panel: After the loan has passed the first stage it is then reviewed by a member of our legal panel. The panel is made up only of Top 100 law firms holding a minimum of £10m professional indemnity (PI) insurance. Our solicitors ensure that a legal charge is properly made against each security property; that each of the security properties has good title; and that guarantees and debentures are properly executed and enforceable.


3. Valuation: For valuations, Lendy uses VAS Panel, which provides a diverse and geographically comprehensive panel of valuers that provide accurate and consistent valuations. All valuers are RICS registered, and carry out full red book valuations. They also have significant PI cover.


4. Credit checks: We put each lending proposition under extensive scrutiny to determine its viability. This includes an analysis of the borrower’s/sponsor’s and/or other principal parties’ experience, credit record, business plan and financial projections.


5. Credit Committee: Once the full process has been completed, our Credit Committee will then consider and approve each lending opportunity before it is put to investors on the platform.


What is Lendy doing to reduce the number of loans that are either in default or suspended?

The most important thing is that we have invested substantially in our due diligence process to ensure that we help to identify the best loans. Whilst investors on the platform have to make their own decisions on loans, we can help by pre-screening out higher risk loans.

If a loan does default, you can be sure that we are doing all we can through the better-resourced recovery and legal teams that we have built. The size and expertise of these groups is much greater than two years ago, which should result in more default loans being cleared from the platform over time with higher levels of recovery.

The work that these groups do will take time, however, as recoveries and legal claims only move at the speed of the legal system and UK courts. We keep investors informed on progress as much as we can through this process.


Why is Lendy's secondary market less active at the moment?

Although the secondary market is relatively slow at the moment, it has bounced back strongly from slow periods in the past. We are still seeing strong demand for loans in the primary market.


Why does Lendy sponsor Lendy Cowes Week?

Lendy Cowes Week helps us raise our profile and build stronger connections with developers and finance brokers. Having access to a wide pool of potential loans through those contacts is important if we are going to be able to source the right kind of loans for Lendy clients – with a good balance between yield and risk.