My choice homebuy for thames valley housing surrey

HomeBuy3780

Does anyone know when will the funds be available?
When will they start accepting property approval application?

Is anyone else waiting as well?

Please share your experience...

Thanks

R&C

Hi,
We were approved last year, but at the time the house prices were too high and even with the help we'd have struggled to even get a shoebox. We have decided to go ahead this year though. We have been talking to an IFA since the beginning of March, hoping to get a bit of a head start! It does seem that even after a year not everyone is completely clear on what they should be doing so I'm preparing myself for a long and bumpy ride here!

So far we have been told by one IFA that we can have a mortgage for £142k plus equity of £62k, which only gives us £204k for a 3 bedroom house in the ashford/staines area. Practically impossible!! This particular IFA wouldn't include bonuses or tax credits for the mortgage calculation, but another IFA did include them and gave us £150k mortgage and £70k equity. She did need a bit of push to give us that though!

The first IFA who quoted us said we could ask for more equity from TVH if the £204k wouldn't be enough, but when I rang to ask about this the man I spoke to said they're still in discussions about this and to ring back another time! In other words "I haven;t got a clue, please ring back and I hope someone else answers your call" - atleast that's the impression I got anyway!

Anyway, bottom line is just make sure you shop around with their panel of IFAs, they don't all come out with the same figure!

HomeBuy3780

Hi Thanks for your reply.

I am clear of the eligibility. The only thing is I have already got property selected but dont know when to start this year. Funds will be available from 1st April but TVHA is like wait for their letter from post.

So when will they send letter? Can't we start just after funds are available?
MOAT and catalyst have already started accepting applications!!!

But we are in surrey!!!!

LouB06

Hi there!

I spoke to our FA today, who called Thames Valley Housing this morning and they told him that they are printing out the letters relating to funds at the moment so will be posting them later this week! Woohoo!:D

HomeBuy3780

Very Bad news. The funds are now available but TVHA have changed the affordability criteria. We can only get mortgage 3 times of joint salary. That means I can’t even think of getting 3 bed house in Surrey…

Initially it used to be 4 times of salary.
Any one else got this info from their FA?

LouB06

Still waiting for the pack from TVHA, should be any time this week! We're only trying to buy a 2 bed flat so hopefully we wont have any probs with mortages.... I hope!

Tygermoth

They have also put limitation on rooms - we were agreed on a three bed last year...

Two is all we will be offered now.

Arrgh

geoffky

3x is sensible and long may it continue.......some sense at last.....house prices will have to fall to this if the banks keep to it as they have suggested they are..

R&C

You can have 4x single salary and 3 x joint... I think it has been like that for a while?

The most worrying thing I have discovered this weekend is on the homebuy4u.co.uk website, it states that TVHA are no longer the homebuy agent for Surrey. It seems Catalyst are the new agents for this area.

Hope we don't have to re apply!!!

R&C

I called TVH today and apparently they are still the agents in Surrey for Mychoice homebut ONLY. Spoke to an IFA on their panel who has the new calculators for this year and the goal posts have moved dramatically.

Firstly, he could only give us equity of £52500, which he said was 'generous' as it should be £50000. That equity amount includes £10k for having a child, apparently. Mortgage allowance has changed from 4x single income to 3.5 x single income also.

Our purhcase price therefore is less than £190000, can someone please tell me where I can find a 3 bed house in surrey for that?! We could barely afford a 2 bed flat round here for that!

I know in the past it has been possible to apply for extra funding... I'm wondering how easy this is to do?

Wickedkitten

R&C wrote: »

I called TVH today and apparently they are still the agents in Surrey for Mychoice homebut ONLY. Spoke to an IFA on their panel who has the new calculators for this year and the goal posts have moved dramatically.

Firstly, he could only give us equity of £52500, which he said was 'generous' as it should be £50000. That equity amount includes £10k for having a child, apparently. Mortgage allowance has changed from 4x single income to 3.5 x single income also.

Our purhcase price therefore is less than £190000, can someone please tell me where I can find a 3 bed house in surrey for that?! We could barely afford a 2 bed flat round here for that!

I know in the past it has been possible to apply for extra funding... I'm wondering how easy this is to do?

Which part of Surrey are you looking in? There are loads of 3 bed houses for 190k max n Surrey on Rightmove