DOMV house purchase - Halifax delays

sticksta

Hi, I'm a first time buyer using the local council's Golden Share Scheme. It's a scheme which has only been used in the locality I believe. We buy at 80% of OMV but own 100% of freehold. The section 75 agreement States that the council receives 20% of the sale proceeds when we come to sell, and the future buyers must meet the council's criteria.

We were advised by TW to use NHMS brokers as they're experts in New builds and know about the scheme as well... We were told that Halifax were the only lender available to us using this affordable housing scheme with 10% deposit. The other couple of lenders wanted 15-20% deposit which we don't have. 

The mortgage application has been pending for 6 weeks so far. It feels like forever! We passed the affordability and credit criteria, the surveyor has been out and all came back as expected, but now the lender is questioning the golden share scheme. The broker never told us what was questioned but apparently it now needs to go back to the underwriters again 😫 

This is so stressful, as we have been encouraged all the way through by TW, the brokers and the solicitor that it's all fine and everyone is an expert in this. But now I feel like Halifax are going to say no despite apparently they are known to do this sort of scheme. I guess I am just looking for reassurance that what we've asked for is not likely to be a deadset "no" from Halifax. I mean, surely they wouldn't have done the rest of the checks if they weren't happy with the scheme to start with?

We are in Scotland, so not sure if that makes any difference.

Thanks for any/all advice in advance.