Help to Buy not answering phone

roeboat

Hello, after an agonising 2 months simply trying to get an Authority to Proceed it was granted, has anyone experienced issues after this milestone? I want to do my best to avoid further problems, legally I have exchanged with a buyer through solicitors and have a fixed completion date, but based on previous administrative cartwheels, I am not feeling very confident this is going to happen, even now?

Sophie_508

Hi All. If anyone has paid off their HTB loan .....has HTB taken the charge off the land registry for you. I see a few facebook comments saying they have the loan money back but haven't removed the charge and its costing them money. I may be missing something but why would this cost them money? Trying to understand the removal of charge.

Thanks in advance. 
Sophie 

Rackclose

2 months !!! my solicitor is having a nervous breakdown, so am I !!
On 6th July we requested completion for 17th July, as all was set awaiting the dreaded Authority To Proceed from target ? Help To Buy ..... its now 26th July !! not only has there been no response to the 6th July request, we have had absolutely NO response to a trail of further emails and unanswered phone calls - the loan funds have been sent back to the new lender awaiting another request to advance them ..... I am now making another high standard variable rate payment to my existing lender, have to make another payment to Help To Buy ....... I am trapped by this brick wall of silence which has now cost me over £1,000 in unnecessary fees .... HOW IS THIS LEGAL ???? Martin Lewis - please help !!

mimhop

Hello - I have contacted my MP and they are looking into this. I directed them to this forum for examples of others having the same issue so fingers crossed! 

budget_blues

Hello, I wondered if anyone has had luck getting through to Lenvi and made progress? I am in a similar position with a transfer of title process which was started back in May to Target and the fee paid.

Have been trying to get through to Lenvi constantly and my solicitors have now been blocked on the process for two months because the required legal pack has not been sent to them. Did have some contact with Homes England saying it would be escalated but that contact seems to have dried up and amounted to nothing. 

This is a problem on a large scale and Homes England appointed Lenvi so should have carried out checks to ensure they had the capacity, knowledge and infrastructure to carry out the administration they are paid for.  

There has been a public review of Homes England launched and they want feedback from individuals to have dealings with any Help to Buy Schemes.

'The review is designed to assess whether Homes England is delivering for government and the taxpayer. It will focus on how effectively Homes England carries out its responsibilities, how efficiently it is run and whether it has appropriate governance in place.'

It certainly does not seem to be carrying out its responsibilities well from what myself and lots of others are experiencing.

I'd encourage people to fill out the survey (annoyingly cannot post it as link as new to forum):
consult.levellingup.gov.uk/housing-markets-and-strategy/public-bodies-review-of-homes-england-call-for-evi/

Might not get us anywhere right now but hopefully our voices will be heard and help with some accountability on these decisions that impact a significant part of the housing market and people's lives.

Casablancas88

We finally completed and paid our HtB loan off 2 days ago, but today they've taken another direct debit interest payment from us.
 
Obviously our settlement figure was based on what we owed so that payment shouldn't have been taken.

Looks like it's time to chase again!

Marz79

Bobsy38 said:

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!! 

Hello, im in the same situation. What can we do????    Its a criminal offense in my opinion I want the compensation!

Sophie_508

I rang them today at just before 5pm , they answered the phone after 11 mins and sorted the authority to complete for me. Very helpful so do have faith maybe call earlier or later in day when quieter and remember to be kind to people on the other end! They are doing their best of a bad situation

NooneyM

Has the contact got any better with customer services recently? 

Quick query that hopefully others can answer that have been through the experience themselves. On getting an extended desktop valuation can you do this before the current RICS valuation expires? 

When I last spoke to them they suggested doing 2 weeks after my current valuation expires to maximise on time but actually I would rather align better to new lender mortgage offer expiry and completion date to optimise on number of working days between valuation and completion date. 

I assume also the solicitor won't need the legal pack again, just the revised redemption quote?

Finally, (apologies for all the questions) my anticipated completion date will be a couple of weeks after my 5 yr HTB period ends. How do they calculate any interest (1.75%) I require paying for that future period? Will it get captured on the redemption quote or the Approval to Complete as the solicitor will include with the letter of undertaking the expected completion date? 

Cheers in advance. 

donniewhatacatch

Anyone still having issues? Because I absolutely am! Started the transfer of equity process back in May and still waiting. Was originally told it would be 4-6 weeks and I’m on week 15 and counting! Was told this week that they forgot to attach a document when sending to their deed sealing team, so now the process is going to reset and they are going to take a further 6-8 weeks. I will lose the property I’m buying and my mortgage offer. This is a criminal level of incompetence and they are messing with peoples lives here.