Help To Buy advise please

brothermalzone

Our 5 year HTB term ends this September/October. We've had 2 kids since then and life has become more expensive.

Long story short (after speaking with mortgage advisor) it seems like we're unable to remortgage and take on the 20% loan as we won't be able to borrow enough.

I think our best option is to therefore swallow the interest for a couple of years and re-visit it further down the line when we're hopefully in a better position.

Whats the next step we need to take? We're currently with TSB but I'm assuming it's best to speak with other lenders and shop around for the best rate? The mortgage advisor said we can re-visit it 6 months prior but we'll incur a £600 fee if we use them.

Is there a process we need to follow from now to be prepared?

It's quite worrying as I imagine the new mortgage + the 1.75% is going to be far higher than the current fixed rate we're on.

silvercar

The interest on your HTB portion will be less than you pay on your main mortgage, so it makes sense to keep them separate for now.

chanz4

I would keep it going, i did for a few years way cheaper than mortgage for the 20%

shopaholicnumber1

I'm in the process of re-mortgaging with my existing lender (also TSB) to pay off the 20% loan and it has been an utter nightmare with the Help to Buy people since I started the process in January.  I would recommend you have a look on the website (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/manage-your-help-to-buy-equity-loan) as you will still need to contact them even if you do end up staying with your existing lender.  If you want to move your mortgage elsewhere, without repaying the 20%, you will need to make an application to them and pay a fee of £115.  Be warned that any communication from them is painfully slow - after almost 4 weeks of radio silence following my application and payment (it's £200 for the priviledge of paying them back), I spent an hour waiting in a queue on the telephone to them in order to get it sorted, only to have to repeat the process a week later as they hadn't done what they said they would do!   It's all going through now though fortunately - fingers crossed - but isn't an easy or particularly transparent process so don't get caught out with timescales and end up lingering on a variable rate because you are waiting for them to give you authorisation.  I hope this helps when the time comes for you :-)

maveli

shopaholicnumber1 said:

I'm in the process of re-mortgaging with my existing lender (also TSB) to pay off the 20% loan and it has been an utter nightmare with the Help to Buy people since I started the process in January.  I would recommend you have a look on the website (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/manage-your-help-to-buy-equity-loan) as you will still need to contact them even if you do end up staying with your existing lender.  If you want to move your mortgage elsewhere, without repaying the 20%, you will need to make an application to them and pay a fee of £115.  Be warned that any communication from them is painfully slow - after almost 4 weeks of radio silence following my application and payment (it's £200 for the priviledge of paying them back), I spent an hour waiting in a queue on the telephone to them in order to get it sorted, only to have to repeat the process a week later as they hadn't done what they said they would do!   It's all going through now though fortunately - fingers crossed - but isn't an easy or particularly transparent process so don't get caught out with timescales and end up lingering on a variable rate because you are waiting for them to give you authorisation.  I hope this helps when the time comes for you :-)

I did this last week so far it went ok. Had RICS valuation on Thursday, called HTB on next Monday to pay the £200. On the call they asked me whether I want to submit the form and RICS valuation at the same time. I already had the form filled, emailed the form and valuation while on the call. Got the acceptance email and the email went to solicitor. All together around 25 minutes on the call

brothermalzone

shopaholicnumber1 said:

I'm in the process of re-mortgaging with my existing lender (also TSB) to pay off the 20% loan and it has been an utter nightmare with the Help to Buy people since I started the process in January.  I would recommend you have a look on the website (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/manage-your-help-to-buy-equity-loan) as you will still need to contact them even if you do end up staying with your existing lender.  If you want to move your mortgage elsewhere, without repaying the 20%, you will need to make an application to them and pay a fee of £115.  Be warned that any communication from them is painfully slow - after almost 4 weeks of radio silence following my application and payment (it's £200 for the priviledge of paying them back), I spent an hour waiting in a queue on the telephone to them in order to get it sorted, only to have to repeat the process a week later as they hadn't done what they said they would do!   It's all going through now though fortunately - fingers crossed - but isn't an easy or particularly transparent process so don't get caught out with timescales and end up lingering on a variable rate because you are waiting for them to give you authorisation.  I hope this helps when the time comes for you :-)

Thank you. Would you recommend hiring a mortgage advisor (£500-£600) to assist or is it easy enough to sort on your own?