awaiting redemption instructions from Target HCA

mj2014

I'm a FTB and finally close to exchange on a house which was purchased by the seller through Help to Buy. I am not using HTB. My solicitor tells me everything is ready for exchange except that the seller's are 'awaiting redemption instructions from Target HCA' (is this the process of them having to pay back the HTB loan?). They have paid their administration fee and submitted an RICS valuation 7-10 days ago. How long does this usually take? We are getting pretty impatient and I don't want something else holding things up. Do our sellers have to wait for these instructions before they can proceed? We had our offer accepted in January and could have completed in early March, but we agreed to wait until early May for the benefit of the seller so they wouldn't have to pay an early repayment fee on their mortgage. I wish we had just not agreed to wait in the first place..but here we are. We are adamant we want to complete by the end of this month, but I'd just rather know if that is not going to happen...

PJBRFC

I have just sold a house where we had a HtB loan to redeem and pay off. 

Target aren't the best to deal with even when times are "normal". Unfortunately if your sellers have only just sent the RICS survey off and paid the admin fee, there is another step yet. Target will send a redemption statement to the sellers solicitor (as long as they are happy with the valuation), and then the solicitor has to send them an undertaking.  Once this is received target will give authority to complete however, completion usually has to be at least 15 days after the undertaking is received. Also all of this is usually done by post however when we completed our sale on April 17th, they were doing things over email to try and speed things up for people. They may or may not still be doing this now, I don't know. 

Every step can be sped up by your sellers calling Target, as they usually action steps there and then whilst the customer is on the phone, that was all before Covid-19 mind you (except our completion). Even then hold times were 10-20 minutes. 

mj2014

thanks for clarifying that, not great news but at least I am aware now of how the process is supposed to go...All I can do is ask the estate agent to ask the sellers to get on the phone with them I guess. 

PJBRFC

If you read through this link you will see the exact process your sellers are going through.
https://www.myfirsthome.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CUSTINFO-Approved-04May2018.pdf