Halifax Mortgage wait

LMon1

Hi all I'm wondering if someone can advise on our situation. Me and my husband sold our property & my parents have sold theirs. We are purchasing a property together with a 45% LTV mortgage. My husband and my mum are the 2 applicants that applied for the mortgage as my income is through my Ltd company and my dad is retired. My husband has been an employee of my company since 2018 and is paid through PAYE weekly. Before covid he worked an average of 15 hours a week ish on an hourly rate and he helped look after our children. I worked full time. I went part time in January and hired a manager full time to run my business on a salary and my husband was going full time in February 2020 on a salary however lockdown happened and all of our staff were furloughed. We resumed back to work in May and my husband went straight in at full time on a salary. We found a house and The full Halifax mortgage application was completed and accepted on 7th August 2020. The valuation was completed 18th August and in the mean time we submitted all documents. We had told them he works for me and all was fine. When it came to verifying income they requested further information and asked us to get an employment history letter from HMRC to prove we hadn't just put him on the books for the sake of a mortgage, the letter came and it shows be has been paid since 2018. Uploaded the documents and then the MA said it doesnt verify income and had us jumping through hoops for 2 weeks chasing the impossible and literally not sleeping with stress as we provided everything even information from the company PAYE system. MA then asked for the employment history letter again on 27th Aug and said 'oh yeah thats what we need as it proves income' - clearly didn't look at it beforehand. So..  this has been sent to the income verification team on the 27th Aug and we heard nothing back as MA went on holiday and its Bank Holiday. 
My question is (I'm sorry its so long winded) - the fact my husband works for my company has been a bit of a show stopper to begin with but is this generally an issue with getting a mortgage? Also - they said once income is verified it will go to the final assessor and then an offer will be generated,  is the final assessor a human or a computer? as ive read conflicting articles and does anyone know how long it takes from verifying income to receiving an offer? Or is it not that simple to estimate? 
Thank you for reading and any advice, stories or guidance is much appreciated 

LMon1

just to add, we are not FTB we have sold our house that we already own. Thanks

haras_n0sirrah

In a situation like this I would get a letter from the accountant to confirm he is on the books and what his income is, the hours he works and to confirm that the business can support his income
from the lenders point of view they want to make sure you aren't increasing his income temporarily to get the mortgage which will then reduce back down again. It is obviously easier for you to do this as a family business than it would be employed elsewhere.
Family businesses are always looked at closely and that his income has only just recently increased with you not being on the mortgage will raise additional questions

LMon1

Thank you very much for this i will get on to that tomorrow as additional evidence incase they question it further. To be honest my mum wanted to go on the mortgage and the deeds because she will own 50% of the property and we didn't want to go down the route of 'gifting her half to us' as they will want their funds if we was ever to sell the property. Thank you 

car0404

Sorry I do not have any advice to offer but was just wondering if you have an update regarding your situation? 

My husband and I are in a similar situation in that he is a self employed company director of a family business and I am employed there. We have just applied for a Halifax mortgage after Nationwide downvalued the property we are buying by 25k. Everything else is done and ready so we (and everyone else in the chain) are just waiting for this application to go through and come back.

I have seen some positive stories from Halifax applications but they are full time employed which I understand is much simpler than self employed applicants and family businesses. Hopefully the whole process won't take too long but it would be great to hear how your case has gone?

LMon1

Good morning.
The underwriter got back to us 11th September asking for my husbands return to work letter from furlough and thats it apparently we are back in a queue again. Its crazy, our seller is really anxious now incase its declined as all chains apart from us are ready to complete. We have moved into temporary accommodation to shrink the chain and let my house go first. (Hopefully 21st September). I will keep you updated. MA  stated it should be 3 days so estimation is Wednesday/Thursday this week for a decision 

car0404

LMon1 said:

Good morning.
The underwriter got back to us 11th September asking for my husbands return to work letter from furlough and thats it apparently we are back in a queue again. Its crazy, our seller is really anxious now incase its declined as all chains apart from us are ready to complete. We have moved into temporary accommodation to shrink the chain and let my house go first. (Hopefully 21st September). I will keep you updated. MA  stated it should be 3 days so estimation is Wednesday/Thursday this week for a decision 

Any news? 😁

LMon1

car0404 said:

LMon1 said:

Good morning.
The underwriter got back to us 11th September asking for my husbands return to work letter from furlough and thats it apparently we are back in a queue again. Its crazy, our seller is really anxious now incase its declined as all chains apart from us are ready to complete. We have moved into temporary accommodation to shrink the chain and let my house go first. (Hopefully 21st September). I will keep you updated. MA  stated it should be 3 days so estimation is Wednesday/Thursday this week for a decision 

Any news? 😁

Yep we got our mortgage offer this week - 8 weeks from AIP to an offer on the phone just waiting for the paper copy thank god they have sent a copy to our solicitor too. How are you getting on? 

car0404

LMon1 said:

car0404 said:

LMon1 said:

Good morning.
The underwriter got back to us 11th September asking for my husbands return to work letter from furlough and thats it apparently we are back in a queue again. Its crazy, our seller is really anxious now incase its declined as all chains apart from us are ready to complete. We have moved into temporary accommodation to shrink the chain and let my house go first. (Hopefully 21st September). I will keep you updated. MA  stated it should be 3 days so estimation is Wednesday/Thursday this week for a decision 

Any news? 😁

Yep we got our mortgage offer this week - 8 weeks from AIP to an offer on the phone just waiting for the paper copy thank god they have sent a copy to our solicitor too. How are you getting on? 

Oh fantastic news, congratulations. I bet that's a weight off your shoulders. 

We were passed onto the underwriters on Monday with an "up to 8 day" timeframe. Valuation to be booked after that. The top of our chain are threatening to pull out as of today however as it has been taking so long. 😤 Fingers crossed for a happy ending on all parts but I am very much fed up now! 

LMon1

It really is its been a nightmare. You know we emailed the mortgage advisor at Halifax and when said he still hadn't heard anything i emailed and asked "is everyone's mortgage application taking this long" when his reply came through I screen shot it and sent it to the agents and asked them to forward it to our seller as evidence that if he pulls out he will be facing the same long haul with someone else. Good luck I hope it comes back for you. They asked us about covid etc and if we took holidays on our mortgage / bills then it was another 8 day wait after that for us. It was a nightmare.