OneFamily has made a series of changes to its service to allow for remote applications for its lifetime mortgage products.

The lender says that advisers can now put applications in without signed forms, and that legal advice can be given to clients remotely, in line with the recent equity release council guidance update.

As well as this, desktop valuations will be used where possible, and OneFamily says that it will use an adjusted credit policy due to the risk of remote valuations not being as robust as a physical process.

It will retain part of the agreed loan and release it once physical valuations are possible and the property’s value is confirmed.

OneFamily head of lending proposition Paul Bridgewater says: “We wanted to find a way to enable people to make applications for our lifetime mortgages, despite the restrictions placed on them during the current crisis.

“We’re all working in a challenging environment right now and, as an industry, the lifetime mortgage market has needed to think differently.

“We wanted to ensure we can keep supporting customers within the framework of the current government guidance. Hopefully this will help them to do that.”