Help to Buy not answering phone

Bobsy38

Hi everyone. I am a newbie to MSE and the reason I am here is because the new company that has taken over the HTB scheme are causing me no end of problems. I am waiting for my authority to complete but they don’t answer me phone or reply to emails. I have spent hours trying to get through and the phone cuts off after an hour. Our solicitor is having the same problem. Has anyone else been able to complete a house sale with the new company? Ours is about to fall through if they don’t get back to us soon it’s so stressful!! 

pickledpots

Sophie_508 said:

Casablancas88 said:

We got our redemption statement through from them last Friday but our solicitor is saying she still needs a legal/sales pack from them in order to produce the Letter of Authority? We spent 16 hours on hold and sent tons of emails last week just to get the redemption statement.

Does anybody have a copy of the legal pack from them as I'm assuming they have a generic one and it isn't bespoke to each house sale?

We do but we got our redemption letter from target on 7th June. I think it's still fine to use buy you have to email it to the new email address rather than the one in the pack. The email they sent me was password protected but I can try and send it to you if I csn extract it ? 

Hi Sophie_508, please can you let us know if you've had an progress? Did the above work or was it rejected for being in the old format? Thanks!

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6455729/help-to-buy-not-answering-phone/p1

Bobsy38

Has anyone got any further with trying to contact them? 

Sophie_508

pickledpots said:

Sophie_508 said:

Casablancas88 said:

We got our redemption statement through from them last Friday but our solicitor is saying she still needs a legal/sales pack from them in order to produce the Letter of Authority? We spent 16 hours on hold and sent tons of emails last week just to get the redemption statement.

Does anybody have a copy of the legal pack from them as I'm assuming they have a generic one and it isn't bespoke to each house sale?

We do but we got our redemption letter from target on 7th June. I think it's still fine to use buy you have to email it to the new email address rather than the one in the pack. The email they sent me was password protected but I can try and send it to you if I csn extract it ? 

Hi Sophie_508, please can you let us know if you've had an progress? Did the above work or was it rejected for being in the old format? Thanks!

Hiya, not sure as we haven't sent it yet. Just waiting to exchange then we will send. My solicitor will be using it. We will just ammend the details and use the same format. 

When I called and asked he said you can use it. They didn't seem to be that worried about it aslong as the details were filled in and the completion date was on there by the sounds of it. He said to me , even if you have sent one before with an old completion date the solicitor can scribble out the old date and write the new one in and send again. 

I'll let you know anything else once we send it/ if we get any news. 

Sophie_508

pickledpots said:

Sophie_508 said:

Casablancas88 said:

We got our redemption statement through from them last Friday but our solicitor is saying she still needs a legal/sales pack from them in order to produce the Letter of Authority? We spent 16 hours on hold and sent tons of emails last week just to get the redemption statement.

Does anybody have a copy of the legal pack from them as I'm assuming they have a generic one and it isn't bespoke to each house sale?

We do but we got our redemption letter from target on 7th June. I think it's still fine to use buy you have to email it to the new email address rather than the one in the pack. The email they sent me was password protected but I can try and send it to you if I csn extract it ? 

Hi Sophie_508, please can you let us know if you've had an progress? Did the above work or was it rejected for being in the old format? Thanks!

Literally as I wrote back I got a message from them on twitter saying it was fine to use the target document 😀

AKAK1992

Hi All, 

I’m also struggling to contact Lenvi but for a different reason but they still aren’t answering the phone, so I hope it won’t be minded too much on this forum. 

I’ve had an arrears email completely out of the blue at the start of July, despite having a direct debit set up with Target and money being taken every month including the increases due to the rise in interest rates. 

I’ve validated it’s a real email, but they are stating I’ve been in arrears pre-May 2023 (but only gave 2 months worth of data on a “quarterly” statement) and as I’ve previously said, I’ve checked every monthly bank statement of mine since the start of the year and payments have gone out via direct debit for the expected amounts. 

I contacted my bank when my July payment wasn’t taken (before I had realised Lenvi had taken over) and they’ve confirmed to me that the same of the Direct Debit (Elderbridge) had cancelled it from their side and not given a reason. 

My partner initially sent an email asking why the direct debit hadn’t been taken and also to ask about the arrears, to which we had a 1 line reply telling us they were aware of a direct debit issue and they would take it in the next 10 working days and not to contact them. 

This time period has now passed, I can’t get in contact with anyone to re-set up a Direct Debit and the bank details I got given on the “arrears” email look suspiciously similar to my own details rather than theirs. 

I’ve kept all of the evidence of me trying to contact them via phone and multiple emails sent with no reply (exactly the same experience as everyone else on this thread - multiple hours and getting cut off etc) but I’m worried about what consequences I could be exposed to due to multiple faults on their end. 

I suppose my question to someone who may know the answer is, can or will I be penalised for none-payment despite me trying everything to rectify this on my end?

Ive never known a company be so hard to contact to sort things out when I’m the one who owes money to them and not the other way around!!

twoLou

I’ve just seen this article and thought it may help some of you, particularly this part:

“In a tweet from the Help to Buy account it is urging customers with urgent enquiries to send a private message with the account number, postcode and completion date which it will pass to the customer service team.”

https://www.yourmoney.com/mortgages/help-to-buy-phone-line-hell-risks-homeowner-sales-falling-through/

Rackclose

Outrageous organisation  - no reply from Target since 6th July when my solicitor requested an Authority To Proceed for completion date on 17th July for a re-mortgage to repay the HTB loan - this according to the Target / HTB website should be forthcoming within five days (11th July) - all further attempts to make contact and confirm the completion date have been ignored - emails sent by solicitor on 7th / 14th / 17th (twice) / 18th (twice) 19th - all ignored plus many many phone calls hung up after an hours wait without explanation. My new mortgage funds have now been sent back to the new lender and I was temporarily in a bridging loan situation (two mortgages), a request has now been made for a new completion date but Target/HTB still not responding to the original !! The documents and mortgage offer are running out, my solicitor is hiking their charge to me for additional time, I am now about to make an unaffordable extra payment of £520 to my existing mortgage lender because I'm now on a very expensive SVR !!! I am exhausted and becoming mentally ill over this, H-E-L-P !!! who the hell presides over these people, how are they authorised to play with the lives of ordinary people under the protection of the UK Government ?? its a modern scandal 

Bobsy38

Rackclose said:

Outrageous organisation  - no reply from Target since 6th July when my solicitor requested an Authority To Proceed for completion date on 17th July for a re-mortgage to repay the HTB loan - this according to the Target / HTB website should be forthcoming within five days (11th July) - all further attempts to make contact and confirm the completion date have been ignored - emails sent by solicitor on 7th / 14th / 17th (twice) / 18th (twice) 19th - all ignored plus many many phone calls hung up after an hours wait without explanation. My new mortgage funds have now been sent back to the new lender and I was temporarily in a bridging loan situation (two mortgages), a request has now been made for a new completion date but Target/HTB still not responding to the original !! The documents and mortgage offer are running out, my solicitor is hiking their charge to me for additional time, I am now about to make an unaffordable extra payment of £520 to my existing mortgage lender because I'm now on a very expensive SVR !!! I am exhausted and becoming mentally ill over this, H-E-L-P !!! who the hell presides over these people, how are they authorised to play with the lives of ordinary people under the protection of the UK Government ?? its a modern scandal 

I feel your pain, we are due to complete next week but still chasing authority to proceed. I have tried every email and telephone number possible no one answers and any that do don’t care. Solicitor has spent hours chasing with no luck.There’s nothing we can do and some how there are allowed to get away with this ..they are getting everyone’s monthly payments and that’s all they seem to care about! It’s the worst thing we ever did… should have known better ..there’s no such thing as a government scheme that helps people!!