Mortgage with gap in employment

sjs13

Morning all,

Looking for some advice from anyone who has experience dealing with this type of situation:

My partner and I are looking to buy a house, we have the MIP with Halifax and the offer accepted on a house.
The mortgage broker is engaged however due to some of my own circumstances has said we will need to apply as an exception as we don't fall into lender's normal criteria.

The reason for not falling into the normal criteria is due to me being contracting then having a break before starting a new job. The new job is a FTC which seems to be the issue as it's seen as moving from contract to contract with a long gap. The broker advised if it was permanent, there would be no issues at all.
High level timeline/background is:
Full time employment from 2011 - 2016
IT Contractor under my own Limited Company - Nov 2016 - Aug 2018
Gap in employment for 13 weeks across Sept 2018 - Dec 2018 (found a new role in early Nov at 9 weeks however had to go through vetting before being able to start which took 4 weeks)
12 month FTC - Dec 2018 - Dec 2019

My current employer does all their recruitment via an initial FTC and so the likelihood of either having the FTC extended for another 12 months or turned into a permanent contract is high however not guaranteed.

I own a property already and all payments made whilst I had the gap of employment.

My partner does not own so this will be his first property. He has been at the same company for 13years so the broker has advised this stability should go in our favour.

The broker advised during her research, Halifax were the only lender who seemed flexible to give us a chance without an immediate no.

Extra information: We are looking to put down 15% deposit on a house with a value of £470,000.

I guess my questions are:
1. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and got the mortgage approved?
2. Is there any supporting material I could request and pass to the broker to send to Halifax in support of the application? (apart from the timeline above and the fact I couldn't start any earlier due to a vetting process)
3. Is it worth speaking to my current mortgage company to see if they would offer a mortgage based on knowing I can pay the fees even though I had the gap?
4. Do lenders ask for copies of contracts / make contact to HR?

Thanks in advance for any help or support you can provide!

Thrugelmir

Why not release the equity in your existing property by selling it. Not just your employment position that is at consideration by the underwriters. Would simplify the situation somewhat.