Forces help to buy help 27 February 2020 at 10:42AM in UK armed forces MoneySaving 7 replies 1K views

abs95

Hi 
my boyfriend and I have reserved a house with the reservation deadline being 20th March. We have almost collected everything for our mortgage application.
We will be using the forces help to buy towards our deposit.

My boyfriend is currently away in Kenya until the 18th, back for a few days then is on another course for a few weeks. Just wondering what our first step should be in applying for this and how long this usually takes?

any help or guidance would be massively appreciated!

Speedster2

He needs to get in touch with his unit admin staff first thing on Monday. I doubt if they’re deployed to Kenya! Things like this need time to work through the system to be approved. A FHTB application is probably going to take at least a couple of weeks.

cheeky-peach

From my experience with FHTB, it takes ages. My husband was chasing every day too and had someone pull in a favour as so many people have to sign it off. I would ge the ball rolling ASAP.

JustJane101

I was told 6-8 weeks from application. I applied on JPA Thurs 12 March. Workflow notification the next day (But I was on standown). Printed off and actioned monday, got all required signitures by Tuesday morning (Held up by Med Center needing it in internal mail due to Covid-19). Spoke to PSF when I handed it in to them, and she faxed it off that same day to FHTB team down at JPAC (Tuesday 17th). I had a letter through the post on the 19th with my PIN saying I was provisionally accepted subject to further checks, but this allows the mortgage company to continue their checks. Will update you from here when I get anymore news  - if my mortgage is accepted that is!

Moggsie301

Any update? Just about to complete the JPA FHTB App and mindful that things may have slowed a little due to CV19.

Hope all is going well for you!  

abs95

Moggsie301 said:

Any update? Just about to complete the JPA FHTB App and mindful that things may have slowed a little due to CV19.

Hope all is going well for you!  

Boyfriend had applied for it as soon as he got back from Kenya. He received the application form through a couple of days later. He’d gone on leave at this point for 3 weeks and then lockdown happened so was made to work from home for a further 5 weeks and couldn’t go back to camp. Bank threatened to cancel our mortgage application despite it being out of our control. Mortgage broker managed to convince them to put it on hold. Fast forward to last week, boyfriend back at work. Managed to get signature from the med centre, still needs to get RAO and CO. Has passed it to one of his clerk friends to get these signatures and send it off. Is going to check Monday/Tuesday to see if this has been done. No idea how long it’ll take to come back. We are supposed to be completing end of June so everything has now become very pressured and rushed. Mortgage broker said it needs to be back by next week for us to stand any chance of us meeting our completion date...

JustJane101

abs95 said:

Moggsie301 said:

Any update? Just about to complete the JPA FHTB App and mindful that things may have slowed a little due to CV19.

Hope all is going well for you!  

Boyfriend had applied for it as soon as he got back from Kenya. He received the application form through a couple of days later. He’d gone on leave at this point for 3 weeks and then lockdown happened so was made to work from home for a further 5 weeks and couldn’t go back to camp. Bank threatened to cancel our mortgage application despite it being out of our control. Mortgage broker managed to convince them to put it on hold. Fast forward to last week, boyfriend back at work. Managed to get signature from the med centre, still needs to get RAO and CO. Has passed it to one of his clerk friends to get these signatures and send it off. Is going to check Monday/Tuesday to see if this has been done. No idea how long it’ll take to come back. We are supposed to be completing end of June so everything has now become very pressured and rushed. Mortgage broker said it needs to be back by next week for us to stand any chance of us meeting our completion date...

Any news??? How did things go!!!

My application took a turn for the worst and mortgage company reduced what they would lend me so had to pull out the purchase. I've just found a cheaper place, but have to start from scratch!

Getting_greyer

I appreciate there's probably a massive spectrum of experiences with FHTB, but I think it is crazily over complicated with too many hurdles.  The whole point of it to assist us buying a property due to disadvantages to service life. 

Just Jane it is madness that you have to start from step 1 because the property has changed.  It's so backward that you can't apply for the deposit before putting in an offer.

Brilliant scheme,  terrible execution.