Entitled to any sort of compensation from solicitor?

steampowered

The conveyancer was probably getting paid to do the conveyancing, not for giving bespoke HTB advice. 

I don't think you have any real grounds for complaining to the solicitor.

macman

You can claim compo any time you like. Whether you'll get is is a different matter. First you must go through the company's own dispute procedure, which is usually a written complaint to the solicitor in question, then the same to the managing partner. If that fails, you can complain to the regulating authority, which is the Legal Ombudsman, unless there has been an alleged breach of Principle, in which case it would be the SRA.

Tiglet2

adrian0508 said:

Thanks for all your replies, to be honest I wasn't expecting I would be entitled to compensation, I was just angry and wanted to see peoples thoughts on where I stood.

Tiglet2 said:

Sorry to hear this but I have to agree with dungabeagle. 

Our solicitor this whole time leading us to think we were eligible and now telling us we are not. 
You opened the account with the intention of benefiting from the bonus scheme when you came to purchase a property.  You should have read the terms and conditions and understood the limitations of the scheme.  This would have been your responsibility.  As said above, the rules for the scheme would have been readily available and very likely given to you when you opened the account. 

I understand that we probably have some responsibility for checking the Help to Buy scheme rules, however when we initially were starting this process (before solicitor even got involved) our plan was to get a mortgage (so at the point we checked the rules we thought we would be eligible)
So, you did check the rules?  You should have known that you were not eligible without a mortgage being needed.

These are quite interesting points as to be completely honest I don't remember whether I remember reading about needing a mortgage or not (it was over 2 years ago since we opened our Help to Buy ISAs), I definitely would have checked the eligibility criteria at the time and decided that with everything we intended to do we would be eligible, but even when I look at certain websites now (including banks and advice websites), they don't all mention that you need a mortgage to be eligible; many of them them say "you do not have to have a help to buy mortgage to be eligible, any mortgage will do" but that is all they say about a mortgage, so I think that could still be open to interpretation, and many site I see do not mention the mortgage requirement at all.

Regardless, I see that there is probably nothing I can do about the situation and we will just have to proceed as we are, we will just be happy to finally have our own place, we're pretty used to all the roadblocks being put in our way by now and appreciate that all these government schemes exist, they just unfortunately haven't been good enough to fit our unique situation and I feel they could do better if they were more flexible.

I don't think I will bother complaining, I don't want it to affect the progress of the purchase or the solicitors motivation, and it's unlikely anything would come from it anyway.

Thanks to everyone for your help and advice!

You need to look at the "official" government website.  It's pretty clear:
https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/who-is-eligible/

knightstyle

Sorry for you Opp. and can see what happened.  Just a thought about 0 hrs contract. Is it worth asking your employer for a 'normal' contract, perhaps with just 10 hours and then getting a small mortgage?

AdrianC

Tiglet2 said:

You need to look at the "official" government website.  It's pretty clear:
https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/who-is-eligible/

The logic is pretty clear and unarguable.

HtB is intended to help people who cannot afford a property, despite borrowing to their maximum capacity, to get one.

Somebody who does not need a mortgage does not need that help.
Somebody whose income means they cannot get a mortgage needs more help than just HtB.

[Deleted User]

Id just wait till you complete and you are in and then put in a complaint after and see what they say ? You may get a token offering. 

adrian0508

AdrianC said:

Tiglet2 said:

You need to look at the "official" government website.  It's pretty clear:
https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/who-is-eligible/

The logic is pretty clear and unarguable.

HtB is intended to help people who cannot afford a property, despite borrowing to their maximum capacity, to get one.

Somebody who does not need a mortgage does not need that help.
Somebody whose income means they cannot get a mortgage needs more help than just HtB.

We did need a mortgage and we wanted a mortgage, unfortunately due to not fitting into their boxes, we had to go another route suggested to us by financial advisors, we had 2 alternative options presented by them - equity release from parents, or parents take out a loan for us. In both cases we were advised we could apply for a mortgage once we are moved in and I have been working for a year, and should then be classed as "eligible" for their mortgage criteria to pay that loan off.

The shared ownership charity (which helps disabled people on benefits purchase any home suitable for them on the open market rather than being limited to the usual shared ownership only properties), financial adviser and family all cannot see any reason why a mortgage would not be affordable to us. At the mortgage the size we would need with shared ownership, we were looking at payments of about £75-£100 a month.

If you read what I linked to in my original post it explains all our mortgage problems. The relatively small mortgage we would require is easily affordable to us, but our "unique" situation does not fit into mortgage companies rules and despite our attempts to work around the situation and actually talk to a human capable of looking at the situation properly, they were only ever able to fill in boxes and say "computer says no".

adrian0508

knightstyle said:

Sorry for you Opp. and can see what happened.  Just a thought about 0 hrs contract. Is it worth asking your employer for a 'normal' contract, perhaps with just 10 hours and then getting a small mortgage?

Thanks and your input is much appreciated, unfortunately this is something I already tried and the company was not willing to do so.

Thrugelmir

Densol said:

Id just wait till you complete and you are in and then put in a complaint after and see what they say ? You may get a token offering. 

Which raises the cost of doing business fore everyone. Compensation and the time spent in dealing with frivolous complaints has to be paid for. 

AdrianC

adrian0508 said:
If you read what I linked to in my original post it explains all our mortgage problems. The relatively small mortgage we would require is easily affordable to us, but our "unique" situation does not fit into mortgage companies rules and despite our attempts to work around the situation and actually talk to a human capable of looking at the situation properly, they were only ever able to fill in boxes and say "computer says no".

Whether you think a lender should lend to you or not is a separate question from whether any lender is prepared to lend to you. 

I certainly wouldn't be relying on "Well, so long as I can stretch to buy, somebody'll be bound to let me remortgage". That is optimism too far, imho.

I don't tend to get involved over on the mortgage forum, where that thread was - but it sounds like you have input from mortgage brokers who are not optimistic. I would also question whether it's wise for you to be buying shared ownership - you would be liable for all maintenance costs etc, which may well fall outside what is affordable for you - and that's before the risk of repossession. Given your limited incomes and your health situations, I would have thought that a secure HA tenancy may be preferable, but - of course - there is the emotional investment in property ownership to consider.