Frequently asked questions

Mustard is a UK based peer-to-peer (P2P) platform where people and companies lend directly to landlords based in the UK. All loans are secured by British property to avoid the risks associated with unsecured lending. Mustard is a trading name of LandlordInvest Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (FRN 660926).

Our platform has two products: buy-to-let mortgages (BTL) and bridge loans. All borrowers are subject to comprehensive due diligence and loan underwriting process prior to making a loan available to lenders. Indeed, we use the same underwriting process as the high street banks and work with leading credit referencing agencies, including Experian and Equifax.

We manage borrower’s interest payments and also act on behalf of lenders in case of a borrower default.

We are able to offer investors’ high returns and borrowers more competitive rates than what is available from banks as we remove the middlemen and are more efficient than the banks.

For more information please see the invest and borrow page.

Mustard, a trading name of LandlordInvest Limited, is a peer-to-peer platform that does the following:

• Performs introductory services on behalf of borrowers and lender, i.e. by operating the platform;
• Providing a stream-lined process for entering into loans including the development of standard form loan agreements, and;
• Facilitating the payment and collection of sums due under or in connection with loans including taking certain actions on behalf of lenders upon a borrower's default.

We have established comprehensive arrangements to ensure that all loan agreements continue to be serviced if Mustard, a trading name of LandlordInvest Limited, were to go out of business. All investors’ unlent funds are kept in a segregated bank account with a Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protected high street bank. FSCS covers deposits up to £85,000 in case of the bank would become insolvent.

You can contact us via email or telephone. Please see our full contact details on the Contact us page.

You have to be over the age of 18 to become a lender.

You have to register a lending account to be able to lend. We will also need to confirm your identity. We can usually do this automatically, but sometimes we will have to confirm details with you directly.

Please click here to register as a lender.

In line with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules, you need to pass an Appropriateness Test to be able to invest through peer-to-peer lending platforms, including Mustard.

The test is designed to demonstrate your knowledge and experience of investing in peer-to-peer lending.

The test consists of 6 questions with three answers of which one answer is correct. All questions must be answered correctly to pass the test. You can take the test as many times as you want until you pass it, but you will have to wait for 24 hours to take the test again if you do not answer all questions correctly.

If you are unsure about any of the questions, you can read the FAQ page and How it works page to help you to answer the questions correctly.

Please keep in mind that you will not be able to deposit any funds or invest until you have passed the test.

Per Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules that came into force 1 February 2023, a 24 hour "cooling off period" must pass between an investor's initial sign up and them being able to view the loan marketplace.

Other necessary parts of the account activation process such as ID verification and the appropriateness test may still take place during the period.

Registered and verified lenders can invest by browsing through available loans on the loan marketplace. The loan marketplace lists all loans that are available for funding. Simply choose a loan, commit the desired amount and press the "Invest" button. At this stage, your investment amount is only reserved and only deducted once a loan is fully funded. Your reserved amount will be returned to your account if a loan does not achieve the required funding on the specified date.

To credit your account please send funds to our segregated client account by bank transfer.

Please note that transfers must be made from an account in your name or a joint account, but the transfer must state your name and not your partner’s name.

To make a bank transfer please login to your Mustard account to retrieve your unique reference number which you will need to quote to transfer funds.

If we receive your funds before 1pm on a business day, they will be credited to your account within three hours. If we receive your funds after 1pm, they will be credited to your account by noon the next business day.

We will send you an email to notify you and you will see the balance reflected in your Mustard account. Please give us a call if you do not see your funds credited into your Mustard account and we will be happy to check with our bank.

We will return any funds that we are not able to verify (no name or account details provided on credit).

To verify your details and allow us to process your account we are required to see certain original documents.

Could you please email one document from List A and another document from List B:

A. Proof of Address a photocopy of any of the following dated within the last three months*

• Utility Bill
• Tax Statement (issued from a local or national government)
• Bank Statement

B. Photo Identification: a photocopy of any of the following documents

• Valid Passport
• Valid Driver's Licence

Each of the two photocopies will need to be certified by an independent professional that

• is not a member of your family, and
• does not live at the same address as you, and
• you are not in a relationship with.

In order to certify the documents, the independent professional will have to:

• Write "Certified to be a true copy of the original seen by me" on the document;
• Sign and date the document,
• Print their name under the signature, and
• Add their occupation, address and telephone number.

Please email all documents to [email protected]. Please feel free to contact us if you have any other questions.

Borrowers are required to make interest payments on a monthly basis. Interest can be serviced, retained or a mix of the two. If interest is serviced, we will pay interest into your account once we have received the interest payment from the borrower and deducted the servicing fee. If interest is retained, we will pay interest into your account on the interest due date.

A serviced interest loan means that the borrower is required to make interest payment each month.

A loan with retained interest means that the borrower is not required to make any monthly interest payments. Instead, interest is added to the loan amount at the outset of the loan and paid out to investors at the interest due date by Mustard.

In some cases the retained interest is the full interest amount due over the entire loan term, in others it is part of the interest due throughout the loan term. In the case of the latter, retained interest will be paid to investors until it is exhausted and then the borrower will service the interest.

No. The interest you earn is gross of tax. You are responsible for your own tax affairs. HMRC has published a guidance that you can find here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/peer-to-peer-lending

Enhanced rate is the rate that an investor may earn from a loan if the loan commitment meets the minimum commitment amount set out in the Enhanced rates table, available in the Enhanced rate tab, for the relevant loan.

The purpose of enhanced rates is to enable investors to make larger loan commitments to complete the loan funding process quicker.

The enhanced rates are compensated by reducing the borrower servicing fee due to Mustard from this loan.

Enhanced rates are only available to the investor that made the original commitment and are not transferred to any other investor through a secondary market sale.

We may offer tranched loans. It means that a loan that is secured by a first or a second legal charge over a property(ies) (along with any other loan security), may be offered in two separate tranches to lenders on the lending platform: (1) a senior (tranche) loan and (2) a junior (tranche) loan.

The senior loan will have a lower loan-to-value (LTV) ratio and interest rate payable to lenders than the junior loan. The senior loan could therefore be considered to be less risky than the junior loan.

Further, the loan repayment priorities between the two tranches are as follows (which you unconditionally agree to when making loan investment(s) into either or both tranches): Following the full settlement of the Security Agent’s fees (if any) and as set out in Clause 11.5, all monies received shall first be applied towards discharge of the senior loan principal balance and, second, once the senior loan’s principal balance has been discharged in full, towards discharge of the junior loan’s principal balance. The remaining balance, if any, shall be applied towards the repayment of all accrued and unpaid interest due to the senior loan and second, once all accrued and unpaid interest due to the senior loan has been repaid in full, towards all accrued and unpaid interest due to the junior loan.

Capital is repaid on the agreed loan maturity date. You can choose to re-invest the capital payment interest or withdraw it to your bank account.

We may, in certain circumstances and at our sole discretion, extend a loan where we believe it is in the best interest of the borrower(s) and lenders in that loan.

Common reasons to extend a loan are that refinancing is taking longer time than expected or delays with obtaining planning permission.

Lenders who invested into an extended loan are notified when the loan is extended.

A second charge loan is secured against a property that already has a loan outstanding (a first charge). Furthermore, it is riskier than a first charge loan as the first charge lender gets repaid before the second charge is repaid. Due to the higher risk, second charge loans often carry higher interest rates than first charge loans.

For example:

If a property is worth £100,000 and there is a first charge mortgage of £50,000, the borrowing is 50% of the value of the property – that is 50% LTV.

If in addition to a first charge mortgage, there is a second charge loan of £20,000 then the total borrowing against the property is £70,000 which represents 70% of its value. So, the total LTV for the property is 70% LTV.

With a second charge loan, the LTV is even more important. Because the first charge lender is always repaid first, second charge lenders are taking a greater risk that they might not be repaid if the property value comes down or the amount of either the first charge or second charge loans increase.

This explains why second charge loans carry higher interest rates if the mortgage requires them to lend a higher percentage of the value (lend to a higher LTV).

Our risk ratings are based on a number of factors including data sourced from leading credit agencies, data suppliers and financial information the borrowers supply to us.

Many lenders use this data in their decisions on whether to lend to borrowers.

There are many factors taken into account when assigning a risk rating, including:

• Borrower’s income and expense
• Borrower’s financial standing (asset and liabilities)
• Borrower’s credit history
• Borrower’s possibility to service a loan
• Loan purpose
• Security (property)
• Projected income and expenses from the property
• County Court Judgements and bankruptcies (current and historical)

All borrowers are carefully reviewed and assessed before they are allowed to list loan requests on the website. Only borrowers that we determine to be creditworthy are allowed to borrow through us.

The risk ratings range from A to D, where A is lowest risk. Please see the How it works page for more information on how our risk rating is set.

LTV is short for Loan To Value. This is the ratio of all loans on the security property to the value of the security property.

LTGDV is short for Loan To Gross Development Value. This is used for development loans and is the ratio of all loans on the security property to the gross development value of the security property. The gross development value of the security property is the appraised value of the security property once it is fully constructed/complete.

If a borrower misses a payment we will try to work out a payment plan with the borrower to ensure that the borrower meets the missed payment and keep up with all future interest payments. Failing this, we will enforce the borrower’s security to satisfy any unpaid interest and capital.

When a loan is overdue and is ultimately placed in default, Mustard will continue working with the borrower on behalf of investors to resolve the matter through repayment, albeit at a later date than scheduled.

In the event that Mustard believes that a repayment from the borrower is not possible within a reasonable timeframe, we will enforce the security. This means selling the property. An LPA Receiver or Administrator will be appointed to enact the process, which may for example lead to the property being sold at auction. We may also pursue further security if available including Personal Guarantee(s).

We will always ask a borrower to provide a first or second charge over a property and occasionally a personal guarantee.

We do not charge you any fee on your lending. Nor do we charge any fee on any uninvested funds kept in your Mustard account.

To cover our costs of operating the platform, we charge the borrowers a servicing fee. The fee is deducted automatically on a monthly basis when a borrower makes an interest payment. The fee for each loan, a percentage of the loan amount, is described in each loan listing on the platform.

You can find instruction on how to submit a complaint on this page

Yes, depending on which country you reside in or which citizenship you hold. Please contact us directly to verify if you may be eligible to open an account with us. You may find our contact details here.

In any event, we have to verify your identity pursuant to UK regulations if you wish to open an account with us.

We would need the following documents from you to verify your identity:

• Passport or Driving Licence with a photo
• Recent Proof of address (utility bill etc.)

In order to allow as many investors as possible to commit in a loan that is expected to be fully funded quickly, a commitment restriction may be applied by Mustard. This means that each account is limited to a certain maximum commitment amount for a limited time period and as set out on the relevant loan listing. If the loan is not fully funded within that time period, investors may increase their commitment.

Each loan that you have invested in is assigned one of four loan statuses and which mean the following:

• Performing – a healthy loan with no issues. All loan payments are up to date.
• Late – the loan has one or more interest payments which are late.
• Overdue – there has been a delay of more than a day on the scheduled repayment date of the loan.
• Default – the loan has been declared as being in default and a recovery process has been initiated.

Each time there is a change in the loan’s status an update will be posted under the loan’s update tab setting out the reason(s) for the status change.

The secondary market is a marketplace that allows lenders to offer their loan or loan parts for sale to other lenders wishing to purchase them.

However, please keep in mind that only certain loan or loan parts may be made available for sale and that there is no guarantee that there will be a buyer for a listed loan or loan part.

To sell your loan or loan parts you must list them on the secondary market. To list a loan or loan part, go to your “My investments” tab located in your account and click the “Sell” button to add the loan or loan part to the secondary market. The minimum amount that you may list for sale is £100.

Your loan or loan part will be listed for a period of 14 days, starting from the time that you list the loan or loan part.

Other lenders may submit a bid to purchase your loan or loan part, and an admin must approve each bid before the sale is completed.

Please note that the secondary market does not provide a guarantee that loan or parts will be sold as it depends if there are other lenders that wish to purchase the relevant loan or loan part.

Some loans or loan parts may not be listed on the secondary market. These are loan or loan parts that are either:

• Late (in arrears);
• Overdue;
• In default;
• Suspended; or
• Only one interest payment remaining.

In addition, Tranche 2 and all subsequent Tranches of a development loan cannot be listed on the secondary market until the first interest payment for the relevant Tranche is received in full and paid.

Yes, you may at any time cancel your secondary market listing by going to your “My investments” tab, selecting the loan or loan part that has been listed for sale by clicking “Sell”, and then clicking the “Remove” button to remove the listing.

Yes, sellers are charged an administration fee of 0.50% on the sale price of the loan or loan part amount that is sold (the Secondary market sale fee). For example, if you sell a loan or loan part for £1,000 on the secondary market, the sale fee will be £5.00 (£1,000 * 0.50%), deducted from the sale proceeds.

To buy a loan or loan part available for sale on the secondary market, go to the “secondary market” on the loan marketplace.

Select the loan or loan part listed for sale and press the “Buy” button.

Your bid will be sent to an administrator that will review the bid and either approve or decline it. Whilst the bid is being reviewed by the administrator, the listing will temporarily be hidden on the secondary market.

If the administrator approves the bid, you will be notified via email and your records will be updated showing the purchased loan or loan part.

Investors wishing to sell a loan or loan part on the secondary market have the option to sell either at par (the amount that the borrower is due to repay at the loan maturity date) or apply a discount of up to 20%.

For example, if you sell a loan or loan part amount of £1,000 on the secondary market at a 5% discount, it will be made available to buyers on the secondary market for £950 (£1,000 * 5%) and you will make a £50 loss on your loan investment if sale goes through. You will keep all interest earned from the loan until the day of the sale.

Note that the example is excluding the Secondary market sale fee, which will be 0.50% of the discounted loan sale amount.

If a loan is listed at a discount, this can be seen on the secondary market under the “Discount” column and is also reflected in the “Sale Price”. You can purchase these loans as any other loans listed on the Secondary Market. The difference to a loan listed at par is that you will have a lower sale price (you pay less) compared to the loan investment that you will hold in the loan.

As an example, if a loan amount of £1,000 is listed with a sale price of £900, this means you will pay £900 for a £1,000 investment in a loan and as such are due to receive £1,000 back from the loan (not including any interest due).

While gains or losses incurred from buying and selling a loan or loan parts at a discount or par on the Secondary Market could be subject to tax, Mustard is unable to provide specific advice or information about tax.

You should seek independent tax advice or speak with HMRC for more details on your specific circumstances.

For general tax enquiries, you can reach HMRC on 0300 200 3300 or visit GOV.UK.

When a secondary market sale occurs prior to a scheduled interest payment, the seller will receive the daily accrued interest until the day that sale is completed, payable to the seller upon the next scheduled interest payment for the relevant loan. The buyer will receive accrued interest from the day after the purchase is completed.

Secondary market listings will only be processed between the hours of 9.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday and 12am to 4pm Saturday.

We may at our sole discretion suspend a loan from the secondary market when we receive, or become aware of, information which we consider could be material and which we think could significantly impact a lender’s decision to purchase the relevant loan or loan part on the secondary market.

If a loan is suspended from the secondary market, we will post a loan update on the lending platform setting out the situation and the reason(s) for the suspension.

If you no longer have access to the device on which you set up Two Factor authentication, you will not be able to login to Mustard.

If you chose to use the Authy app and enabled backups, install the app again on a new device and follow the process for recovering a lost account. If you used Google Authenticator, there is no recovery process.

In the event you cannot regain access to your device, or complete a recovery process, please contact us.

Two factor authentication protects your account by requiring an additional code from a mobile app when you login.

You download an authenticator app such as Authy or Google Authenticator and connect it with your Mustard account by scanning an on-screen QR code picture.

Once connected, Mustard will ask you to enter a temporary code from the app when you login.

App Store Links

Google Authenticator

• Apple
• Android

Authy

• Apple
• Android

The Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) is a tax-free ‘wrapper’ for peer-to-peer lending that became available 6 April 2016.

You can invest up to £20,000 into a Mustard Innovative Finance ISA in the current tax year (2024/25).

The minimum investment for Mustard's Innovative Finance ISA is £1,000.

No. As your ISA Manager, we will report your ISA holdings to HMRC on your behalf. However, there is no tax payable on interest earnt from your Mustard Innovative Finance ISA.

If you deposit over £20,000 into this year’s IFISA, the surplus funds will automatically be deposited into your Mustard Classic account. If Mustard is informed by HMRC that you have over £20,000 across all ISA accounts, we will contact you and find out how you would like to repair your ISA situation.

No. Opening an Innovative Finance ISA account with us is entirely free of charge.

No. There are no other Innovative Finance ISA fees.

Log in to, or register for a Mustard Classic account, click on the Innovative Finance ISA link and complete the ISA application page. Once complete you can deposit funds using a bank transfer and invest in available loans.

When you set up your Mustard Classic account, we conduct full Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti‐Money Laundering (AML) checks to validate your identity and address. In addition to this process, to set up an ISA you will need to provide your National Insurance number which is used by Mustard for HMRC reporting.

You must be at least 18 years old and be a UK resident with a UK bank account to open an Innovative Finance ISA.

If you wish to transfer your cash ISA or stocks and shares ISA to Mustard then you need to complete the Transfer Authority form. You can fill in the form online here. Once the completed Transfer Authority form is received and approved, we will liaise with your previous ISA manager to transfer a Cash or Stocks & Shares ISA to us. In case you change your mind, you will get 14 days cancellation rights. We do not charge you any fee for transferring an ISA to us, but your existing ISA manager may.

If you have multiple years' worth of savings within your ISA you are able to transfer these and continue earning tax free on Mustard.

Yes, Mustard’s property-backed IFISA is flexible. This means that you can replace, in whole or in part, cash you have withdrawn, without the replacement counting towards your subscription limit for a tax year. According to ISA regulations:

• withdrawals are deemed to be firstly of subscriptions for the current tax year and secondly of subscriptions for previous tax years: and
• replacements are deemed to be firstly of subscriptions for previous tax years and secondly of subscriptions for the current tax year.

The rules on flexible ISA are complex and you should take independent advice or consult the HMRC helpline if you are in any doubt as to the extent to which you can withdraw and replace funds across different ISAs.

You may reach HMRC’s helpline on this phone number: 0300 200 3312.

The Helpline is open from 8.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Friday; and 8.00am to 4.00pm on Saturdays and Bank Holidays.

You may also find further ISA guidance on GOV.UK.

The government announced a package of ISA reforms applicable from 6 April 2024, the changes relevant to Mustard’s Innovative Finance ISA are listed below:

• Allow subscriptions to multiple ISAs of the same type, with the exception of Lifetime ISA, within the tax year, removing the limit on subscribing to one ISA of each type per year. All subscriptions must remain within the overall ISA limit of £20,000.
• Remove the requirement for an investor to make a fresh ISA application where an existing ISA account has received no subscription in the previous tax year.
• Allow partial transfers of current year ISA subscriptions between ISA managers.

You can find more information on gov.uk.

A Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is a personal pension (although your employer may contribute) which allows you more flexibility and control of your investment decisions for retirement. A SIPP acts as an individual tax-efficient wrapper offering the flexibility to make a range of investments.

Mustard does not provide financial advice. Please seek independent financial advice before making any changes to your pension arrangements.

A Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS) is a workplace or occupational pension that’s managed independently by a company’s directors and requires a sponsoring employer when establishing the Scheme. The number of members is limited to 11 and they are usually all included as trustees of the scheme. A SSAS acts as a tax-efficient wrapper offering the flexibility to make a range of investments.

Mustard does not provide financial advice. Please seek independent financial advice before making any changes to your pension arrangements.

Our basic borrower criteria are:

• Over the age of 21
• UK resident or UK company
• Have a UK bank account
• Property located in UK

You can become a borrower by registering a borrower account here. You can submit a loan application after you have registered your account.

You can find our borrower criteria here.

We issue a mortgage offer letter within 48 hours after receiving fully completed loan application, subject to that you meet our borrower criteria and credit checks. A loan is usually funded 2-3 weeks after a mortgage offer letter has been issued.

The interest rate you pay is loan specific and will depend on factors such as the LTV ratio, the geographic location of the property held as security, the type of property, and your background and circumstances.

We charge an arrangement fee of up to 2.5% for buy-to-let mortgages and bridging loans. You may also need to cover any valuation and legal fees, and an annual servicing fee of 1.0%. All fees are subject to change and according to our agreement with you.

If borrowers are late in their repayments, we may apply an administration fee and other third party fees as specified in our Terms and Conditions.

Yes, you may prepay your loan without any prepayment penalties. However, please keep in mind that you will need to pay the minimum interest payable (if any) as set out in the Loan Facility Agreement.