To think that my mortgage advisor is not competent

[Lightdraft]

2 months ago our offer on a house was accepted. We took a highly recommended mortgage advisor to help us get the mortgage. Tbh I did not think about anyone else as she had so many positive reviews.
She also made claims that they have access to the whole of a market and do not charge clients cause they have commission from the bank. We initially wanted an offset mortgage but at her advice ended up applying to halifax for a standard 5 year fix. That should have been the first red light as she claimed without checking with lenders that we would not be accepted for offset.

We have been waiting for the whole month to have our application accepted. Halifax screened us 3 times and took money for valuation. All was well, we heard. Valuation came back ok, letter sent to us from the bank. However, we still don't have a mortgage offer. Our broker kept updating me mostly over an email that the case went to a senior underwriter because it was complex. Today in an email exchange she wanted to know how my dh is paid and whether he is not working as a contractor. This series of questions a month after application submission got me really thinking. I'm sure we talked about it and she seemed to understand our situation. My dh eventually picked up a phone contacted halifax and found out that our application was rejected. I contacted her and she denies it claiming that underwriters took company accounts into consideration rather than my dh self assessments and she is now interveening with Halifax manager on such decision. Now she says that we were accepted but for much lower mortgage than we need.
I asked her to send me original application which she ignored.
I decided to go through a mortgage broker cause my dh has his own company and employs me. We've been running our company for the last 2 years and 9 months and have all the accounts and papers to show income. We also put down 20% deposit. However, we are considered a family run business so it seemed harder for us to get mortgage. I thought that taking someone experienced on board would help.

Now i really dont know what to think. It took us a month with her to even get to the application stage. Every contact with her ended with requests for more paperwork. Now another month spent on this application, where valuation was done and all of a sudden we do not meet income criteria. We have all searches done, waiting for mortgage only, we were planning with vendor to complete end of july. Starting all over again with a different broker and different bank is a no cause i dont really have anyone trusted and very little time left. Any advice?

speak to another broker

Honestly, get another broker, ours sorted everything in about 3 hours.

It could be because you are both self-employed/working in the same business.

We really struggled to get a mortgage when DP was self-employed, despite me having a permanent NHS job. The lender went through our finances with an almost forensic approach, even querying our accountants qualifications. It was a really stressful time.

Yeah get another broker. Ours got accepted within the hour and the offer sent within 3 hours, this was with the Halifax also.

Use London and Country they are excellent.

I work through my own limited company. For Natwest I had to provide the last 3 years company accounts and my last 3 years personal tax returns. It went to underwriters as they told me they all did for directors but it was very quick. It was a remortgage with out 40% equity, based on their very low desktop valuation.

We went through a similar prices as it's coming home. The mortgage company, despite having given a fast decision on mortgage in principal, were asking for more information during the underwriting process.

Their issue was that we had 2.5 years of self-employment accounts & they prefer three. They were asking for quarterly accounts updates as soon as they happened eg April-July at the end of July. And we had a £60K deposit on a £240K mortgage. Plus I was already a property owner with a tiny mortgage on a flat (think less than 20K on a 150K) property. And secure, permanent NHS employment.

So it's more likely to be your lender's underwrites than your IFA that's at "fault". You will be seen as high risk as you are both working for the same self-employed business.

Self employed in the same company with less than 3 years accounts is always going to be difficult.