How to Assemble a Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package That Actually Gets Funded
How to Assemble a Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package That Actually Gets Funded
A client called me mid-deal. He'd been chasing the same planning permission document for nine days.
Not because the document didn't exist. It existed.
It was buried in an email thread from three months ago, renamed something unhelpful, attached to a message no one could find.
Nine days. One document. Deal on hold.
That's the real bottleneck in debt advisory due diligence package assembly. Not the documents themselves. The finding, the naming, the sorting, the chasing, the compiling into something a lender will actually act on.
This guide covers how to do it properly. And where the process breaks down for most advisory teams.
What Goes Into a Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package
The short answer: more than you think, and it varies every deal.
For development finance, a lender's due diligence pack typically covers two categories. Documents about the developer and documents about the project.
About the developer (9 documents):
Developer CV and project portfolio
Financial accounts
Director asset and liability statements
Borrowing vehicle details
Credit reference reports
Bank statements (typically 6 months)
Anti-money laundering documentation
Professional team credentials
Collateral warranties
About the project (19 documents):
Development appraisal with GDV and construction cost breakdown
Marketing and sales plan
Comparable GDV evidence from local agents
Construction cost breakdown with supporting QS report
Build and sales program with cash flow
Site plan and scheme drawings
Planning consent (full and valid, all pre-conditions satisfied)
Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy details
Title documents and title report
Construction warranty (NHBC, Premier, BLP, etc.)
Building regulations approval
Party wall agreements
Insurance policies
Ground investigation reports
Structural engineer reports
JCT contracts
GDV and Residual Land Value valuation
Project appraisal
Exit strategy document
That's 28 documents. Minimum. And that's before any lender-specific requests come in.
Sound familiar?
The Part No Checklist Tells You About Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package Assembly
Every guide you'll find online tells you WHAT to include.
None of them talk about the actual problem: getting all 28 documents into one place, correctly named, complete, and formatted in a way that makes a lender trust you.
Here's what the assembly process actually looks like in most debt advisory firms:
Documents arrive via email. Different threads. Different senders. Different file names.
Some arrive as PDFs. Some as Word. Some are photographed pages on a phone.
The project appraisal comes in version 3 but the site plan is still from version 1.
The exit strategy document doesn't exist yet because the borrower hasn't written it.
You chase. You wait. You compile. You realise something's missing. You chase again.
According to research from Qandor Capital, poor submission quality causes applications to be deprioritised. Not rejected, just deprioritised. Which in lending terms often means the same thing.
And a well-structured data room can reduce adviser time by 25-35%, according to deal advisory research from Peony. That's not a small number when you're running four deals at once.
How to Assemble a Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package That Actually Gets Funded
A client called me mid-deal. He'd been chasing the same planning permission document for nine days.
Not because the document didn't exist. It existed.
It was buried in an email thread from three months ago, renamed something unhelpful, attached to a message no one could find.
Nine days. One document. Deal on hold.
That's the real bottleneck in debt advisory due diligence package assembly. Not the documents themselves. The finding, the naming, the sorting, the chasing, the compiling into something a lender will actually act on.
This guide covers how to do it properly. And where the process breaks down for most advisory teams.
What Goes Into a Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package
The short answer: more than you think, and it varies every deal.
For development finance, a lender's due diligence pack typically covers two categories. Documents about the developer and documents about the project.
About the developer (9 documents):
Developer CV and project portfolio
Financial accounts
Director asset and liability statements
Borrowing vehicle details
Credit reference reports
Bank statements (typically 6 months)
Anti-money laundering documentation
Professional team credentials
Collateral warranties
About the project (19 documents):
Development appraisal with GDV and construction cost breakdown
Marketing and sales plan
Comparable GDV evidence from local agents
Construction cost breakdown with supporting QS report
Build and sales program with cash flow
Site plan and scheme drawings
Planning consent (full and valid, all pre-conditions satisfied)
Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy details
Title documents and title report
Construction warranty (NHBC, Premier, BLP, etc.)
Building regulations approval
Party wall agreements
Insurance policies
Ground investigation reports
Structural engineer reports
JCT contracts
GDV and Residual Land Value valuation
Project appraisal
Exit strategy document
That's 28 documents. Minimum. And that's before any lender-specific requests come in.
Sound familiar?
The Part No Checklist Tells You About Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package Assembly
Every guide you'll find online tells you WHAT to include.
None of them talk about the actual problem: getting all 28 documents into one place, correctly named, complete, and formatted in a way that makes a lender trust you.
Here's what the assembly process actually looks like in most debt advisory firms:
Documents arrive via email. Different threads. Different senders. Different file names.
Some arrive as PDFs. Some as Word. Some are photographed pages on a phone.
The project appraisal comes in version 3 but the site plan is still from version 1.
The exit strategy document doesn't exist yet because the borrower hasn't written it.
You chase. You wait. You compile. You realise something's missing. You chase again.
According to research from Qandor Capital, poor submission quality causes applications to be deprioritised. Not rejected, just deprioritised. Which in lending terms often means the same thing.
And a well-structured data room can reduce adviser time by 25-35%, according to deal advisory research from Peony. That's not a small number when you're running four deals at once.
How to Actually Assemble the Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package
Here's the process that works:
Step 1: Build a master document register before you chase anything
Don't start collecting documents and then figure out what you need. Start with the full list. Every document, every category, every source.
Know which documents come from the borrower. Which come from their solicitors. Which come from the professional team. Which you need to commission (like the QS report or the structural engineer report).
Map the sources. Then chase.
Step 2: Set naming conventions on day one
Every document needs a naming convention that makes it findable in six months.
Not "Planning Permission.pdf." Try "ProjectName_PlanningConsent_GrantedDate_v1.pdf."
This sounds pedantic. It isn't. When you're compiling the investor information memorandum at 11pm before a submission deadline, the difference between a named file and a mystery attachment is thirty minutes of your life you don't get back.
Step 3: Classify as you receive, not at the end
Don't dump everything in a folder and sort later. Sort as things arrive.
Category folders: Developer Background, Financial Projections, Planning and Legal, Construction Documents, Valuations and Appraisals, Exit Documentation.
Every incoming document goes into a category the day it arrives.
Step 4: Track completeness in one place
A simple tracker. Document name. Status. Source. Date received. Version.
Not a mental model. Not a running email thread. One document, one place, updated in real time.
When a lender asks "have you got the ground investigation report?" you should be able to answer in ten seconds.
Step 5: Build the investor information memorandum last
The investor information memorandum is a synthesis, not a first step. You can't write it until the underlying documents are complete.
Don't start drafting it while documents are still outstanding. Complete the package first. Then write the narrative that ties it together.
Why Debt Advisory Due Diligence Package Assembly Breaks Down
Most debt advisory teams don't have a document problem.
They have a PROCESS problem.
Documents exist. They're just scattered. In email. In WhatsApp threads. In someone's desktop folder. In a Dropbox link that expired.
The fix isn't a better checklist. It's a system that does the collecting, classifying, and chasing automatically, so the advisor's job is to verify and submit, not to hunt.
We build those systems at Oloxa. Automated document collection from clients, classification when files arrive, version tracking, and a searchable record of every document in every deal. What used to take a senior advisor a full day of admin before a submission can run in the background, leaving them time to actually advise.
The document isn't lost. It never was. The process just didn't know where to look.
If you're building that kind of system yourself, see how we approach automated document collection and what a proper data room checklist for commercial finance looks like in practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What documents are required in a development finance due diligence pack?
Development finance lenders typically require 28 documents across two categories: developer background (CV, financial accounts, AML documentation, bank statements) and project documentation (planning consent, development appraisal, QS report, JCT contracts, exit strategy document, site plans, GDV valuation, and structural reports). Requirements vary by lender.
How long does assembling a debt advisory due diligence package take?
Manual assembly of a full due diligence package typically takes several days of advisor time. Chasing documents, classifying incoming files, resolving version conflicts, and compiling the investor information memorandum can stretch across two to three weeks on a complex deal. Poor submission quality causes applications to be deprioritised by lenders.
What is the difference between a due diligence package and an investor information memorandum?
The due diligence package is the full collection of underlying documents a lender reviews: financial statements, planning permissions, appraisals, legal documents, construction contracts. The investor information memorandum is the narrative summary that presents the deal to the lender. The memorandum is written last, once the full package is assembled.
What causes delays in debt advisory due diligence document assembly?
The most common causes are documents arriving in wrong formats, version conflicts between appraisals and site plans, missing documents from third-party professional teams (QS, structural engineers, solicitors), poor file naming, and no central system tracking what has arrived versus what is outstanding.
Can debt advisory document collection be automated?
Yes. Document collection from borrowers and their teams can be automated using workflows that send structured requests, classify incoming files by document type, track version history, and flag missing items. This removes the chase-and-sort admin from the advisor's plate and keeps the deal moving.