Help to Buy not answering phone

sunny_money

marmitesocks said:

sunny_money said:

marmitesocks said:

catdad said:

I'm on hour three of calling today.

We got an email from our solicitors earlier this month that because of their rules around valuations we had to get a new or extended valuation. Target hadn't sent us anything, obviously. Our surveyors were absolutely great and did this for us free of charge, but took a couple of weeks so I had it on Friday. I emailed it to what I thought was the right address, the one that I'd been told to in the communication from the solicitor.

I spent two hours on the phone on Tuesday only to find out they'd changed their email address without informing anyone and without even an auto-reply put on directing to the new address. I sent the new valuation and got a callback Wednesday morning by a really lovely advisor who sent it while I was on the phone with him.

I've received it but my solicitor hasn't, he's spent hours on the phone yesterday and today, I've spent hours on the phone today. Our remortgage completion date is on Monday, all we're waiting for is this, and we're looking at the barrel of a variable rate there's no way we can afford to be on. This has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life, far worse than anything I had buying our first home, it's affecting the health and sleep of me and my partner now. This company is just incompetent and if there's any way to make complaints definitely let me know - I'll do every one!

As a starter try:

Homes England

enquiries@homesengland.gov.uk

My Help to Buy

complaints@myhelptobuyloan.co.uk

Equiniti Gateway Service

eqcs-complaints@equiniti.com

I’m viewing the @helptobuy tweets but not a Twitter user. This would be a super useful post for everyone if it’s not already been done, can someone post it? :-) 

@sunny_money how do you mean?

It's a post by Help to Buy in which they set out their new contact details. About 50 people so far have replied to this tweet complaining and explaining the issues they are having. 

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I thought it would be useful if someone could post on Twitter the below email address you suggested to spread the word about how to make a direct complaint, that’s all :-) 

Your Homes England

enquiries@homesengland.gov.uk

My Help to Buy

complaints@myhelptobuyloan.co.uk

Equiniti Gateway Service

eqcs-complaints@equiniti.com

marmitesocks

sunny_money said:

marmitesocks said:

sunny_money said:

marmitesocks said:

catdad said:

I'm on hour three of calling today.

We got an email from our solicitors earlier this month that because of their rules around valuations we had to get a new or extended valuation. Target hadn't sent us anything, obviously. Our surveyors were absolutely great and did this for us free of charge, but took a couple of weeks so I had it on Friday. I emailed it to what I thought was the right address, the one that I'd been told to in the communication from the solicitor.

I spent two hours on the phone on Tuesday only to find out they'd changed their email address without informing anyone and without even an auto-reply put on directing to the new address. I sent the new valuation and got a callback Wednesday morning by a really lovely advisor who sent it while I was on the phone with him.

I've received it but my solicitor hasn't, he's spent hours on the phone yesterday and today, I've spent hours on the phone today. Our remortgage completion date is on Monday, all we're waiting for is this, and we're looking at the barrel of a variable rate there's no way we can afford to be on. This has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life, far worse than anything I had buying our first home, it's affecting the health and sleep of me and my partner now. This company is just incompetent and if there's any way to make complaints definitely let me know - I'll do every one!

As a starter try:

Homes England

enquiries@homesengland.gov.uk

My Help to Buy

complaints@myhelptobuyloan.co.uk

Equiniti Gateway Service

eqcs-complaints@equiniti.com

I’m viewing the @helptobuy tweets but not a Twitter user. This would be a super useful post for everyone if it’s not already been done, can someone post it? :-) 

@sunny_money how do you mean?

It's a post by Help to Buy in which they set out their new contact details. About 50 people so far have replied to this tweet complaining and explaining the issues they are having. 

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I thought it would be useful if someone could post on Twitter the below email address you suggested to spread the word about how to make a direct complaint, that’s all :-) 

Your Homes England

enquiries@homesengland.gov.uk

My Help to Buy

complaints@myhelptobuyloan.co.uk

Equiniti Gateway Service

eqcs-complaints@equiniti.com

Ah I get you you! Sorry was very tired last night when I read that! 

Yes I had already made a sub-thread on their tweet with suggestions on things you can do:

https://twitter.com/marmitesocks/status/1674133314486128648

But I like your idea of having them all on a single post, I'm going to have a play with it. 

Please let me know if there's anything else you think I should add - the above were all drawn from things everyone has helpfully shared. 

MihaB

Maybe this is a naive thought - but Martin Lewis has a great deal of influence and could maybe help make this widely known and hence taken seriously. Is there a way to ask him to tweet or speak about this? I'm thinking that maybe then the media will actually take a note as well and something can be done before hundreds of other sale chains or remortgages collapse...

hannah11111

MihaB said:

Maybe this is a naive thought - but Martin Lewis has a great deal of influence and could maybe help make this widely known and hence taken seriously. Is there a way to ask him to tweet or speak about this? I'm thinking that maybe then the media will actually take a note as well and something can be done before hundreds of other sale chains or remortgages collapse...

I’ve already tweeted so you’re welcome to do it yourself.

everyone needs to be contacting their MPs!

MihaB

hannah11111 said:

MihaB said:

Maybe this is a naive thought - but Martin Lewis has a great deal of influence and could maybe help make this widely known and hence taken seriously. Is there a way to ask him to tweet or speak about this? I'm thinking that maybe then the media will actually take a note as well and something can be done before hundreds of other sale chains or remortgages collapse...

I’ve already tweeted so you’re welcome to do it yourself.

everyone needs to be contacting their MPs!

Thank you. 
I have tweeted too ( joined Tweeter just for this) and I will also contact our MP this morning. I'm hoping people will start getting a response soon before more of them find themselves in impossible situations. 

catdad

hannah11111 said:

MihaB said:

Maybe this is a naive thought - but Martin Lewis has a great deal of influence and could maybe help make this widely known and hence taken seriously. Is there a way to ask him to tweet or speak about this? I'm thinking that maybe then the media will actually take a note as well and something can be done before hundreds of other sale chains or remortgages collapse...

I’ve already tweeted so you’re welcome to do it yourself.

everyone needs to be contacting their MPs!

Unfortunately I'm currently without representation as our MP recently decided to stand down. I've emailed parliamentary enquiries to see if there's any other route of complaint available to me this side of the by-election 🤷

We were considering setting up a parliamentary petition tomorrow, obviously that's an extremely long lead time and won't be looked at this summer but I don't mind doing it if it's something people would be interested in supporting. This obviously has the potential to become a national scandal the longer it goes on so it might be good to get these mechanisms and campaigns started early.

marmitesocks

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

I have gleaned all the advice shared by others into the below. Note I am not an expert, and everyone should do their own research on these. Please let me know if there are any further ideas to add! #helptobuy

Also shared to Twitter (Removed by Forum Team)

1) Make a formal complaint directly to the company

Help To Buy are administered by Lenvi; Lenvi is a trading name of Equiniti Gateway Limited.

Help To Buy (Lenvi): complaints@myhelptobuyloan.co.uk
Equiniti: eqcs-complaints@equiniti.com

2) Complain to Homes England

The non-departmental public body for new affordable housing in England, Homes England appointed Lenvi to replace Target HCA as the new HTB equity loan administrator.

https://gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england
Email: enquiries@homesengland.gov.uk
Phone: 0300 1234 500

Homes England Press Office

Email: media@homesengland.gov.uk and media_helptobuy@homesengland.gov.uk
Phone: 0207 874 8262.

3) Report them to the regulators

Unclear picture here: conflicting information on who they fall under for regulation. Note, in most cases to raise a formal complaint you will need to evidence that you have first submitted complaint to Lenvi/ Equiniti. 

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Phone: 0800 111 6768 (freephone), 0300 500 8082

The Financial Services Ombudsman

Phone: 0800 023 4567

The Property Ombudsman

Phone: 01722 333306

UPDATE
@sunny_money spoke with the financial ombudsman and property ombudsman but they are not the appropriate bodies to complain to because Homes England is ultimately responsible, so we need to contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

4) Contact your MP

Make your local MP aware of this situation and ask that they raise this with the Minister of State (Housing and Planning).

Find your MP: https://theyworkforyou.com/mps/

Simple online letter generator: https://writetothem.com

5) Leave a public review

Google: https://goo.gl/maps/tcoCFphM9S4GUKnh9 and https://goo.gl/maps/1Gz5X2pkcqM3rbQRA

TrustPilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/lenvi.com and https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/equiniti.com

6) Address them on their public platforms

Lenvi: https://twitter.com/Lenvi_Tech and https://linkedin.com/company/lenvi 

Equiniti: https://twitter.com/equiniti, https://twitter.com/AskEquiniti and https://linkedin.com/company/equiniti

Homes England: https://twitter.com/HomesEngland and https://linkedin.com/company/homes-england

sunny_money

catdad said:

hannah11111 said:

MihaB said:

Maybe this is a naive thought - but Martin Lewis has a great deal of influence and could maybe help make this widely known and hence taken seriously. Is there a way to ask him to tweet or speak about this? I'm thinking that maybe then the media will actually take a note as well and something can be done before hundreds of other sale chains or remortgages collapse...

I’ve already tweeted so you’re welcome to do it yourself.

everyone needs to be contacting their MPs!

Unfortunately I'm currently without representation as our MP recently decided to stand down. I've emailed parliamentary enquiries to see if there's any other route of complaint available to me this side of the by-election 🤷

We were considering setting up a parliamentary petition tomorrow, obviously that's an extremely long lead time and won't be looked at this summer but I don't mind doing it if it's something people would be interested in supporting. This obviously has the potential to become a national scandal the longer it goes on so it might be good to get these mechanisms and campaigns started early.

Considering the impact on people starting a Parliamentary petition sounds reasonable. 

sunny_money

I tried phoning the Homes England media line to ask why they have not made a statement on this crisis, but it’s cuts out after fives minutes on hold. These details may be useful for people to cc into emails if contacting the media.

Media enquiries

The Homes England press office is contactable between 9am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.

Please direct all media enquiries to media@homesengland.gov.uk or call 0207 874 8262.

Help to Buy

For enquiries on Help to Buy please contact media_helptobuy@homesengland.gov.uk.

marmitesocks

MihaB said:

hannah11111 said:

MihaB said:

Maybe this is a naive thought - but Martin Lewis has a great deal of influence and could maybe help make this widely known and hence taken seriously. Is there a way to ask him to tweet or speak about this? I'm thinking that maybe then the media will actually take a note as well and something can be done before hundreds of other sale chains or remortgages collapse...

I’ve already tweeted so you’re welcome to do it yourself.

everyone needs to be contacting their MPs!

Thank you. 
I have tweeted too ( joined Tweeter just for this) and I will also contact our MP this morning. I'm hoping people will start getting a response soon before more of them find themselves in impossible situations. 

Second the starting of a petition. I did a quick search and can't see that one exists yet...

We need some form of collective action. Would anyone be happy to set this up?