Own Home Scheme Pros and Cons

haribostarmix

Hello,

I've heard rumours this scheme is ending this year is this true? I live in West Midlands and have been told I missed out on funding this year by about two weeks and that I am on a waiting list to be contacted in the new yr?

beckiemmay1981

we live in sussex, have been told today that we won't be getting an interview as there's no funding left :-(

ozzyozzy

haribostarmix wrote: »

Hello,

I've heard rumours this scheme is ending this year is this true? I live in West Midlands and have been told I missed out on funding this year by about two weeks and that I am on a waiting list to be contacted in the new yr?

the ownhome party is OVER mate ! you got a looooooonggggg wait - the scheme is over once funding finished...

ladybird3

Unfortunately not only has the funding run out but also both Ownhome and my choice homebuy are being discontinued as first time buyers schemes therefore there wont be a renewal of funding next financial year

there is a link a few pages back to an article from the FT confirming that, government are putting the money into new builds and shared ownership I think

rngeena

dont worry i know it is a long wait but at the end everything is going to be good. We had to wait 3 weeks to get the papers sorted from PFP but they ware very accurate in sending the papers when there is this 7 days cooling off perion. You will recieve the final offer exactly at the end of 7 day.

Kiggz66685 wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for their useful insights into the Own Home process. I’ve been reading since early this year and thought that it was about time I shared my experience. My partner and I are in Kent and made our initial contact on the 9th Feb when we were told 8 – 10 weeks but it was actually 16 weeks in the end.

We’d had our eye on a new build for a little while and luckily it was still available when we were ready to act and the bonus of course was no chain. We had an offer accepted on the 10th June and our developer stipulated an exchange for the end of June which everyone knew was a little unrealistic. We put in place our solicitors (we had rung round several local ones and chose the one that had been most helpful to during our initial enquiries).

We had to wait a week for the coop forms, we then corrected the various errors on the form and sent them everything they requested e.g. 3 months pay slips and recent p60s. We used special delivery but hadn’t realised that it doesn’t go direct to them; it went to their sorting office and took a further week to reach them!

There was then a bit more confusion because they couldn’t accept my hand written payslips so we sent them my bank statements which they said would be fine. They then decided that wasn’t enough and they wanted a letter from my employer confirming my salary so that took another couple of days.

Eventually (23rd June) they agreed that they were happy with everything and said they would arrange the survey; we asked them for the number to arrange it ourselves and did so that day. The surveyors contacted the developer on the 24th and came back to us to confirm that they had arranged the survey for the Friday of that week, 26th.

We were obviously going to miss our exchange date but our solicitors had been great and kept the developer and us fully up to date which seems to have kept everybody at bay and it didn’t seem to be a problem for the developer.

The following Monday the surveyor confirmed the valuation report had been sent to co op who had forwarded it to the underwriters and we were told there would be about a 3 day lead time for the mortgage offer to be prepared. On the 1st July I called to see where we were (as I had done every other day throughout the process!) and the coop confirmed that the underwriters had sent the mortgage offer to us and to PfP.

The next day, 2nd July, I called Own home to find out what happens next and was told it is taking 2 – 3 weeks to get the paperwork out to people as there are only 4 people in the office. We have since called every week and were initially told there were 45 people in front of us, we then called the following week and were told there were 47 people in front of us!

Last week we were told it would be another 2 weeks and we called at the beginning of this week and were told it will be another week before they will be working on ours. If that’s true it will have been about 4 weeks since they received it on 2nd July, then we will have the 7 day cooling off.

We have met with the developer twice which has been really useful as we have been able to show them how committed we are to the sale and we have kept on top of everything as much as we can and so far they have seemed happy to wait, which fingers crossed, shouldn’t be for much longer….

The only person making us nervous is the estate agent who rings daily for an update which is rather tiresome!

We both feel really lucky to have come this far and are just itching to exchange now, hopefully the solicitor will be able to set a date once the P4P paperwork comes through! At least then we can sleep a little easier!

ladybird3

Just a quick note on the P4P delay, I had emailed them to see where abouts I was in the queue and have had a somewhat 'curt' reply back!
I have copied it below for everyones amusement. . .

We are trying to deal with as many offers as we can but unfortunately are being hindered by a high number of calls and emails from customers chasing their paperwork, therefore we would ask that you refrain from contacting us in the meantime to avoid any further delay in producing your offer.
Kind regards

Couldnt help but giggle to myself when I read it as have a mental image now of the mood of the person writing it!
So I shall indeed refrain from contacting them again and wait a couple more weeks

With regards to hassle from estate agents I have to say so far mine has been fantastic! We have established good comms via the email and in fact I havent spoken to him in person since the offer was accepted almost 5 weeks ago, he has been very quick to reply to all my question I have sent him and on the flip side has kept me regulalry updated about the vendors side of things which is good.

Thinking about it all in all the whole process so far has been remarkably smooth touch wood!

brit1234

ozzyozzy wrote: »

the ownhome party is OVER mate ! you got a looooooonggggg wait - the scheme is over once funding finished...

This is a good thing. It will help prices come down again to affordable levels.

The government who are short of cash have have realised the scheme is a big waste of money. They loan money out for overpriced properties that in reality are falling in value back to traditional levels. It does not make sense when short of money to overpay for things.

Much of the stabalisation in house price figures is due to record low transactions with the homebuy schemes over representing activity as it is the only way to buy these overvalued properties.

With all the other FTB here we just need to keep saving those deposits, avoid these looney schemes and enjoy the rest of the years of price drops

ozzyozzy

brit1234 wrote: »

This is a good thing. It will help prices come down again to affordable levels.

The government who are short of cash have have realised the scheme is a big waste of money. They loan money out for overpriced properties that in reality are falling in value back to traditional levels. It does not make sense when short of money to overpay for things.

Much of the stabalisation in house price figures is due to record low transactions with the homebuy schemes over representing activity as it is the only way to buy these overvalued properties.

With all the other FTB here we just need to keep saving those deposits, avoid these looney schemes and enjoy the rest of the years of price drops

You may think my comments to the other person on here were me being happy the scheme is finishing up BUT thats NOT the case for me. I am in the London area and have applied for the Ownhome scheme, but I know full well by the time my so called application is rec'd - funding will have run out. I understand your point about these schemes proping up the market - and too an extent ownhome does that. But the governement are not abandoning the scheme for financial reasons - as the reality is they will still back shared ownership and other equity loan schemes i.e. homebuy direct.
The reality with ownhome is that you can negotiate the market value with the vendor - as most purchasers are not buying newbuild. But now the government will exclusively back newbuilds - which is crap as they are ALWAYS overpriced to true market value as well as being built out of cardboard and lego!
This is a deliberate sly move by Labour to back the new housebuilders - thats why they are abandoning the Ownhome scheme NOT because they have not got the money. The reality is of course there are not enough newbuilds in london to go round anyway - so now they have abandoned this scheme, there will be even more pressure on house builders - i just do not get it.
But your comment are easy to make but i live in london and need somewhere to live - i NEED that equity loan. Finding 10% of £250k, is not easy. Then all the ingoing costs, and i am self employed i need back up funds.... Then the extortionate interest rates for those with a 10% deposit 6 - 7 % !! :eek:
Dont get me wrong i have not a god given right for the scheme but i pay taxes too - so why not ? As per usual the governemnt has let people down here - but the reality is these schemes carry on BUT in a far less useful format.

Ozzy from London.

parisjordana

brit1234 wrote: »

This is a good thing. It will help prices come down again to affordable levels.

The only reason house prices shot up over the years was because IDIOTS got greedy and bought for investments not buy for it to be a home.......now we are all paying the price.....its got nothing at all to do with these schemes why houses are overpriced .....one loony poster put on one of these threads recently that these schemes are for poor people and low income families....funny that most people have to have a very good income,good stable job etc and pay their taxes....seems to me some people shout to loud about facts they realy have no idea about whatsoever and dont they make themselves looks a numpty:rolleyes::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.:rolleyes:

ozzyozzy

parisjordana wrote: »

The only reason house prices shot up over the years was because IDIOTS got greedy and bought for investments not buy for it to be a home.......now we are all paying the price.....its got nothing at all to do with these schemes why houses are overpriced .....one loony poster put on one of these threads recently that these schemes are for poor people and low income families....funny that most people have to have a very good income,good stable job etc and pay their taxes....seems to me some people shout to loud about facts they realy have no idea about whatsoever and dont they make themselves looks a numpty:rolleyes::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.:rolleyes:

Rock 'n' Roll....you got that spot on ! These schemes are not inflating the market - its lots of other factors. An important one being of course BTL landlords ...