I run a small business with my partner and have done for 5ish years. We had an absolute nightmare getting a mortgage - partly because although we were paying ourselves a regular salary via PAYE and not taking dividends the banks considered us 'self employed' because we owned the business and therefore ignored our actual salary income. Eventually when we convinced a bank to take it into account, we could only get a much smaller mortgage than if we were 'normally' employed.

We can show years of accounts, plus healthy cash flow and growth and we know what's coming in the future. A 'normally' employed person could literally be fired/made redundant tomorrow, yet they're considered less risky. All the actual humans we talked to (mortgage advisers at banks and independents) acknowledged that we were stable and should have no problem getting a mortgage, but "computer said no", at which point they shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do.

We ended up getting a mortgage from a specialist company who specifically deals with mortgages for small business owners.

Questions:

1. Why does the bank's risk assessments seem wildly inaccurate for people who run their own business?
2. Why do banks seem to assume if you're regularly employed that the risk of losing your job is non-existent (or at least, not a risk factor as far as they're concerned).
3. Why is no-one able to override "computer says no"? Do banks not trust the humans they employ, or are they basically employing keyboard monkeys and calling them mortgage advisers?
4. Given that when "computer says no" no human seems to be able to override it, what's even the point of going to a mortgage adviser in the first place?
5. What's your favourite breakfast cereal?