New choice home buy

wheresmydoshat

i think we have had enough of moat now.

the restrictions they put on the mortgage you can get make the deal almost worthless, and having to prove ourselves to the mortgage lender and moat is very draining, but worst of all is the order of the whole process.

you are left hanging by a thread, and put in a situation of potentially wasting a lot of peoples time if moat then decide to pull the plug after you have an offer accepted. i would be much calmer if we have something 100% agreed with moat BEFORE offering to buy someone's house.

we are left truely wondering how many people really get the help they have applied for.

little_miss_optimist

Hi everyone - this forum has been very useful to me so hopefully someone can help...
My fiance and I have just been 'approved' for the MyChoice HomeBuy Scheme. Originally, I had applied as a single applicant, as my partner is currently at University, and won't be finished for another 2 years, so I would be able to afford a decent mortgage to go with the scheme's loan. Metropolitan Housing got back to me saying that because he is over 18 and will be living with me, he needed to apply as the 2nd applicant, so this we did.
Now, after arranging an appt with a Financial Advisor this Friday, the Advisor said on the phone that it would be better to apply as a single applicant as our mortgage offer will dramatically reduce due to my partner not earning at the moment, and so our maximum property value that we can look at is £166000, which won't get us anything around where we live and work/go to uni. I rang MHO but they said because he is over 18 he has to be the 2nd applicant on scheme and mortgage.
What shall I do?
This seems really silly, as I could be an older applicant with an 18 year old son/daughter in full time education. Surely they wouldn't expect them to be on the mortgage?
I've known other people who have got similar housing schemes and had people move in afterwards. Is this allowed? Then I could say he moved in afterwards... But would this get me into trouble?
Please help!

geoffky

YOU will be paying a high price for a low value product....they are a con.....this housing market is not going up for a lot of years so how long will you be stuck in these places....a very long time and the value will not be going up...think before you leap it might save you tens of thousands of pounds....

BECD_2

BECD wrote: »

I am trying to buy through the Mychoice homebuy scheme with Thames Valley at the moment, so thought I would share what I have experienced so far.

After having an offer accepted and sending all details to thames valley, it took about two weeks for them to get back to me and confirm that the funds were in place for me to proceed. They did advise I need to exchange by 30th June which was tricky as it was July when they sent the letter! Still getting a lot of help from my financial advisor (JDCIFA) as new to the whole buying process and dont know what happens when! They have advised that the deadline date is not too strict anyway as long as things are moving forward.

The delay now seems to be with the Halifax who still havnt produced a full mortgage approval which also needs to be sent to the homebuy team.

Surveys, searches etc are now going on aswell. I havnt experienced any more problems as yet although have not been speaking or trying to speak to thames valley recently :rotfl:

CHARDONNAY_3

Hi Little Miss Optimist, me and bf are in similar situation. His job is permanent but im only on a 12 month contract. I spoke to co-op (for ownhome scheme) and they said they could only take bfs earnings into account for mortgage, so we were just going to apply for the scheme in his name only. However, for the equity loan we have to apply in both names cos we will be living together.

I find it very frustrating that there are so many rules etc and thats before you even get to know if you are eligible/if funds are available etc.

It would have been ok if it had just been in your name, but if you change it now after being approved it might look odd. (Could say you have split up then later get back together - sounds like they're prob too busy to delve too much!)

Good luck, anyway!

I_Feel_Possessed

This thread has proved very informative...BF and I applied a few weeks ago and after trouble with Thames Valley Housing locating the application we submitted online - got an email today saying we'd been accepted and would get a letter and a step by step guide in the post shortly.

Does anyone know whether in that letter it states what percetage they will offer etc? Or does this happen later?

skinflynt

Would either being a trustee for a property held in a (interest in possession) trust or owning half a property that was inherited via a tenant in common will (that i was unable to sell until the death of the other tenant in common) preclude me from applying to a keyworker scheme? In either case there would be no income from the property. The only income is from wages as a nurse in central london.

Thanks!

I_Feel_Possessed

Well we were turned down - after submitting basically the same financial information to an IFA as we did to Thames Valley Housing.

Joint salary: £36,010
3.5 x salary (minus debts) - Mortgage in principle of £117k.
Plus: £55k grant from TVA plus £10k has we have a child.
Max buy price of £182K - which is sort of OK for a 2 bed house (just).

BUT as we have joint debts totalling £11k we fail on the affordability as our net monthly income : debt outgoing ratio would be 54%, and the max set by TVA is 45%. (mortgage/equity loan = £990 p/m)

Absolutely gutted - especially as TVA could have warned us there may be a problem with our application as they had our original financial data.

Apparently Moat are more generous.

We can now only save to clear debts, or save for a deposit and re-try in 6-12 mths. Or go for shared ownership with a new buy, of which there are currently no houses available in the area and apartments do not allow pets (we have cat & dog).

The figures would also indicate that we would struggle to afford to rent privately (been in tied accommodation for 14yrs).

little_miss_optimist

Well, we decided to go ahead and apply as a couple (me earning and boyfriend at uni for next 2 years), as our Independent Financial Adviser said that due to overall income, we would get same loan and mortgage anyway (MHO tell you how much mortgage you can apply for, not necessarily max possible). The only drawback would be that some mortgage companies would be reluctant to lend, but there are plenty that would still lend.

All went well in the interview, got property purchase price given to us of £170,000 max (max £70k loan, £100 mortgage) and found a property within a week.

After some haggling (property being sold at £185,000 but £170,000 our max) we finally got them down to £170,000 and were over the moon!

Then on Friday we get an email from MHO to say 'all funding has been allocated, but thanks anyway for you interest. We'll let you know if/when there's more and you can start looking for a property again ...'

Gutted. Although IFA says that this happens a lot and there's usually funds available again after about a month, so fingers crossed they magically find the funds from somewhere before we lose the whole deal...!

little_miss_optimist

Got a phone call this morning from IFA - no more funding on My Choice scheme for 2nd hand properties til April... Had to call Estate Agents to pull out of our offer on our lovely 2 bed flat.

Now hanging on to last hope of a new build, as there is still funding for those at the moment...