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Process of the homebuy scheme?? Please Help!
younglutonmum
Posts: 3 Newbie
Hi,
Im hoping some of you may have some experience of shared ownership and can give me some much needed advice! Well im actually posting on behalf of my mum....
Anyway my mum is a current homeowner and a year ago her ex partner who she seperated from years ago decided he wanted to sell the house she lives in. She went through a solicitors to fight this but sadly she has to sell up. She will however get half the sale proceeds. Once costs etc have been paid she will have around £63000 which is enough to purchase a share on a newbuild property in our area. In order to do this she had to register with the local homebuy agent who had to confirm her eligibility for the scheme. This took a while as obviously she is a homeowner. The local authority however finally agreed that she does indeed have a housing need. Once she was confirmed as eligible she contacted Catalyst housing who are the developers of the new build estate and for a whole day they messed us around. First they told us there were no properties left, then there was 1, then no sorry we wont know until tomorrow, then they said they had 1 but it needed to be offered to an exsisting council tenant and then finally they came back with yes we have 1 left. They emailed my mum over the required forms which she sent back the next day alongside her £200 reservation fee. Catalyst website says the £200 reservation holds the property for you while you undergo finance checks etc. My mum then had to contact That Mortgage Place who emailed a form she had to fill out regarding her income and such. They then phoned her and did a finance assessment. She does not need a mortgage as she is being left with enough to purchase the share outright. When she told them this they said thats great then. As the rent is only £240 a month we can see on your earnings that this property is more than affordable to you. They told her they would contact Catalyst and that was that. The next day we checked the Catalyst website and her future property weas marked as reserved which was great we thought. Checks had gone fine and now it was a matter of tying in the sale of the present property in with the new sale.
After a week of not hearing anything we emailed the sales officer who had been dealing with us to ask what the next step was as we hadnt heard back. And tonight she emailed back a response that has my mum worried sick and it reads as if the property isnt yet hers. The email says that my mum needs an appointment with That Mortgage Place for an affordability assessment but thats what she already had over the phone? She then says once that is done the local authority will then do the nominations? To me that reads as if several people have placed a reservation fee on this property and that they will now choose who can go ahead and live in it? Surely its unfair to take a £200 reservation fee from several people and then only one person gets the property? Its non refundable. That would mean everytime a property comes up a fee would be paid and could be lost several times before a property is gained. Im feeling so stressed. I really thought things were going to be ok now, that my mum had found a home for her and my little brother but now it looks like the house was never reserved for just her
Has anyone been in a similar situation?? Or had dealings with Catalyst or Homebuy schemes? Im phoning them first thing but Im hoping someone can provide some info
Im hoping some of you may have some experience of shared ownership and can give me some much needed advice! Well im actually posting on behalf of my mum....
Anyway my mum is a current homeowner and a year ago her ex partner who she seperated from years ago decided he wanted to sell the house she lives in. She went through a solicitors to fight this but sadly she has to sell up. She will however get half the sale proceeds. Once costs etc have been paid she will have around £63000 which is enough to purchase a share on a newbuild property in our area. In order to do this she had to register with the local homebuy agent who had to confirm her eligibility for the scheme. This took a while as obviously she is a homeowner. The local authority however finally agreed that she does indeed have a housing need. Once she was confirmed as eligible she contacted Catalyst housing who are the developers of the new build estate and for a whole day they messed us around. First they told us there were no properties left, then there was 1, then no sorry we wont know until tomorrow, then they said they had 1 but it needed to be offered to an exsisting council tenant and then finally they came back with yes we have 1 left. They emailed my mum over the required forms which she sent back the next day alongside her £200 reservation fee. Catalyst website says the £200 reservation holds the property for you while you undergo finance checks etc. My mum then had to contact That Mortgage Place who emailed a form she had to fill out regarding her income and such. They then phoned her and did a finance assessment. She does not need a mortgage as she is being left with enough to purchase the share outright. When she told them this they said thats great then. As the rent is only £240 a month we can see on your earnings that this property is more than affordable to you. They told her they would contact Catalyst and that was that. The next day we checked the Catalyst website and her future property weas marked as reserved which was great we thought. Checks had gone fine and now it was a matter of tying in the sale of the present property in with the new sale.
After a week of not hearing anything we emailed the sales officer who had been dealing with us to ask what the next step was as we hadnt heard back. And tonight she emailed back a response that has my mum worried sick and it reads as if the property isnt yet hers. The email says that my mum needs an appointment with That Mortgage Place for an affordability assessment but thats what she already had over the phone? She then says once that is done the local authority will then do the nominations? To me that reads as if several people have placed a reservation fee on this property and that they will now choose who can go ahead and live in it? Surely its unfair to take a £200 reservation fee from several people and then only one person gets the property? Its non refundable. That would mean everytime a property comes up a fee would be paid and could be lost several times before a property is gained. Im feeling so stressed. I really thought things were going to be ok now, that my mum had found a home for her and my little brother but now it looks like the house was never reserved for just her
Has anyone been in a similar situation?? Or had dealings with Catalyst or Homebuy schemes? Im phoning them first thing but Im hoping someone can provide some info
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