One specialist, one discipline

Jon holds the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP), awarded by The London Institute of Banking & Finance. He works professionally in the mortgage market and established Mortgage Capacity Opinion as a separate practice specialising in capacity assessment for family law proceedings.

That separation is deliberate. A report that carries a commercial interest in the outcome — in the client, in the mortgage, or in the introduction — is worth less to a court and less to the solicitor relying on it. Mortgage Capacity Opinion does not arrange mortgages, does not take introductions, and does not earn anything from what a party does after the report is delivered.

The basis on which the opinion is given

Whichever party instructs us, the methodology is the same and the conclusion is the same. Where we are appointed under Part 25, our duty to the court takes precedence over any duty to the party instructing or paying us, and the report says so on its face.

Where a question falls outside our competence — a valuation, a pension, a tax treatment, a point of law — we say so and decline to answer it rather than reaching beyond the discipline.