New Builders Ethics

Jimmy2990

Hello All,

Wondering if anyone has any advice; my Girlfriend and I are both buying our first home together and our first home away from our family's. We are buying a new build, at the start when we first said yes to the house the builders said that they couldn't offer us Help to Buy as it would take 9 months to build and we couldn't complete in the time needed for the HTB rules. We are one week away from exchanging now and build has been brought forward and would be in the rules but as we are so close to exchanging the builders have said we can't have help to buy due the new short time frames. The builders website says they can do help to buy and have no problems with, we feel some what lied to and is this right to?

ThePants999

It's not unreasonable to be miffed that they're refusing to allow something that would help you, but I don't understand where "lied to" has come from. They said no HTB right from the start, and guess what, no HTB!

alex_163163

You must be able to afford the property without help to buy or you wouldn't be about to exchange? If you can afford it then not taking the help to buy is the right decision in the long run I think so be thankful you couldn't take it out!
Why would you have preferred to use HTB? To get lower mortgage monthly repayments?

I have used it to buy my first property, as I couldnt have paid the full asking price. But now I'm coming to sell it and move up the property ladder , I've had to pay £250 to have an independent valuation to provide to the HTB company so they agree to the sale and agree the amount I need to repay them.
There is also a £200 admin fee from the HTB company itself to deal with my sale.
There's also fees to pay if you were remortgaging the property, or if you want to staircase the HTB loan down over time.

I believe it's a great tool to use if you NEED to, but if you can afford to buy with out it then that's always the best way to go in my opinion.

Should also add, if you did want to staircase the HTB loan in the future, as well as the fees charged by the HTB company to do this ,you would have to pay for your solicitors fees again as it is a conveyancing/ legal matter I believe (someone please correct me if I'm wrong?) . So in all, HTB loans can add more costs on in the future.