Homebuy Direct HEARTBREAK

biggurs

My FA is off until next week. I cant hang on waiting for him anylonger so in order to avoid suffering a stroke or something similar I have just rang up the halifax and explained that my FA is off untill next week and i really need to know if my application has been approved.

THANKFULLY MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED.The very nice lady I spoke to said it has been approved providing they get the relevent information like my latest payslips etc etc which they have requested off my FA but as he is away their requests have not been answered yet.

So i'm off to fax copies of my wage slips to my FA office!!!
happy days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks for all your support everyone
(lets just hope nothing else gets cocked up)

speedbird1973

"I dont want to break my wifes' heart just yet so I will await until halifax have made a decision."


Has made my day!! I can't stop laughing!!

biggurs

speedbird1973 wrote: »

"I dont want to break my wifes' heart just yet so I will await until halifax have made a decision."


Has made my day!! I can't stop laughing!!

LOL
I didnt want to worry her unecessarily..........probably because she would have blamed me for all our misfortune and stressed me out even more!

biggurs

I've just realised something. Since RBS gave me DIP and accepted me, I paid a valuation fee..... And because someone messed up with the names on the reservation forms differing to the names on the homebuy forms I had to re-apply for the mortgage in the same names as the reservation form (or something silly like that) which should have been a formality.... but because RBS missed my 'marker' the first time AND THEN refused me afterwards because of the internal marker shouldn;t they refund me my valuation fee????

Had they done their checks properly the first time, they wouldn't have missed the 'marker' and would have refused me the mortgage offer and I wouldn't have got to the stage where I had to pay valuation fee.

So they should refund me my valuation fee.

(otherwise, i am going to get a credit license, set my self up as a mortgage company, accept everyones application, charge them valuation fee AND THEN say 'sorry, made mistake you're not eligible for mortgage' and keep their valuation fee!!!! I would be a rich man within a month!)

biggurs

sgh1976 wrote: »

Orbit are quite frankly useless. How do the Government tender these things?

I am due to exchange contracts with Persimmon on Tuesday, so I gave my solicitor a call this morning to see how it is going and got told they are waiting for the authority to exchange from Orbit. I phoned up Orbit and got told they can't send that out because there is an error on the Solicitor One(?) form and they need our solicitor to sort this.
So back on the phone to the solicitor and get told Orbit haven't informed them of this, no letter recieved, no phone call recieved. So they went off to call Orbit to sort this out!

They did this with us as well where they need something but fail to actually tell you. So you are left thinking it is going ok, then get a bit worried, then phone them up and then you get told.

Also been confirmed that the Homebuy scheme is closing and all people on the scheme have to be in there home by 31st March. So come around October time the scheme is effectively over for new applicants where the house is yet to be built.

Orbit are an absolute joke!
When I initially applied for the homebuy scheme they wrote back saying I can get a mortgage for 85% of the value of the house and so they will pay 15%...... ok fine i could live with that.
But my FA said that this cannot be the case because the mortgage lenders will only lend a maximum of 70% for a new build.
Orbit must know this!!!!! come on orbit!!!!
I then had to re-apply and thats when the farce started!
WEEKS later, Orbit were saying they were waiting for certain paper work which my FA had not sent them... but they were sent the first time, and again...and again!!!!! and because I got to a stage where i actually believed Orbit and got a bit arsy with my FA, he e-mailed me a whole list of e-mails between him and orbit where it was clear to see my FA had infact sent all the relevent information, AND orbit had e-mailed him saying everything is fine, but when I would call them enquiring about how long they will take for my authority to proceed I was kept being told that they are still waiting for my FA to send them some information!!!!!!

It was like talking to a brick wall!!!!
I have never ever come across such an incompetent lot in my life.
You shouldn't be given a contract to provide a service if you are incapapble of doing so!!!

FARCE FROM BEGINNING TO END (and i'm nowhere near the end yet!)

sgh1976

Looks like my issue is sorted. Called Orbit back on Friday and they told me the Authority to Exchange was given on Thursday afternoon. So fingers crossed on exchanging thins week.

My worries don't end there though. Persimmon haven't even started to build the house yet and we are now at the point where it is likely that mortgage offer will expire before it is complete!!

The issue is, Persimmon changed the original building plan when HBD started. They put more 2 and 3 bed houses on. The site is an old industrial one and the original plan had 2 blocks of apartments sitting on some old footings from the original site. When they did the replan they took away an apartment block and replaced it with 3 x 2 bed house. That was given the thumbs up. However they need approval to build the houses on these footings or they have to dig them up. They are still waiting for whoever it is to say "yes" or "no". 3 months wait so far. They won't start building the last part of the site until this is resolved.

biggurs

muhasib wrote: »

sgh1976 - where did you get the news that Homebuy Direct is closing?

I've had a look around the web for news or announcements but can't see anything.

Has anyone had any dealings with Catalyst for Homebuy Direct - my application has been with them a month now but still waiting for authority to proceed.

Thanks

Only a month???
Early days yet...... positively premature! give it until say x-mas, thats when you will get your intial response which will probably have some errors, like your name! and then thats when the farce really begins! Probably by x-mas 2010 you may have come to a conclusion but we may have another government by then (hopefully), maybe a military coup the way the country is going, who may have abolished the scheme by then! Thats my opinion from the experience I have had so far from ORBIT.

By the way... the word CATALYST and HOMEBUY do not go together..... catalyst is something that SPEEDS up a process....... the word speed is not usually associated with homebuy!!!!!1 LOL

biggurs

sgh1976....... this is like a DE JA VU!!!!!
When I read your posts it seems like its one of mine!!!lol
You seem to be having the same experiences as me!
My new build is by persimmon too.
Hope everything turns out well for us all and one day in years to come we can all get together for a drink and a good laugh.
In the past when people were sold dodgy timeshares, dodgy endowement mortgages etc etc...... lets hope the Homebuy scheme doesn't turn out to be one of those!
All the best

sgh1976

What area are you buying in?

Its really annoying seeing 2/3 of the site all built up and the final bit just empty ground. The site manager has now had to send all his brickies out to other sites as he waits for the thumbs up. At least this issue isn't their or orbits fault. Its whoever makes the decisions for the planning dept ( i think) and their impressive speed.

At least when the go ahead is given all the brickies will be working on on the same bit together, rather than spread over the site and thankfuly our property was in the 1st release of the new plan so it goes up with the first 5 houses (4 of which are now about to or have had contract exchanged).

jamesd

biggurs wrote: »

Since RBS gave me DIP and accepted me, I paid a valuation fee..... And because someone messed up with the names on the reservation forms differing to the names on the homebuy forms I had to re-apply for the mortgage in the same names as the reservation form (or something silly like that) which should have been a formality.... but because RBS missed my 'marker' the first time AND THEN refused me afterwards because of the internal marker shouldn;t they refund me my valuation fee????

You took their money. You didn't pay it back. They are perfectly within their rights to:

1. Keep any commission they made on the valuation fee. And the valuer gets to keep their fee because they did the work you asked them to do. Sad that it turned out to be pointless.
2. If you have any current or savings accounts with them, take the amount owed from those accounts at any time. They may lose track but that won't prevent them from acting when they notice you again.

If you ever want to do business with RBS in the future, wait until the purchase is complete. Then apologise for any role you had in the two of you losing touch back then, explain that you've already cleared all the debts that you were aware of from that time, and offer to settle for the value at the time you lost touch with each other, provided they don't add any marker of any sort to your credit record. Write off the valuation fee as some cost to you that offsets in some way the interest they have lost over the years.

I'm happy that you're getting progress from the other lender so your family life can stay on track - really - but you aren't the party that's been wronged here. That's the RBS.