Home2Own help needed

drusan · 11 April 2016 at 12:08PM

Hi I'm posting in the hopoes that someone here can help point us in the right direction.
8 years ago my partner took out a Home2Own loan to help purcahse her flat. It has now come time to sell up and repay this but the company that provided it no longer exist. Thanks to paperwork we have we know that they were part of West Mercia Housing group but everyone we speak to says its nothing to do with them. We have now been trying to get this sorted for approx 10 weeks and could potentially risk losing the sale and any future prospect of selling if we can't get this sorted.

Has anyone dealt with this before?
worst case scenario is there anyway to get the loan written off? if no one wants to accept responsabilty?

Thanks

Rob & Sarah

MortgageMamma · 11 April 2016 at 12:20PM

Have you contacted a solicitor to see what the legal implications are? usually when a company winds up receivers are called in to collect any money that is still owed to the company and this is then paid on to the companies creditors. I'm surprised something as significant as equity in the property hasn't been looked at - you should at least have had a letter saying they have gone into administration and who the receivers were\

on googling I can see west Murcia house group still exist - what explanation have they given you? surely if it was part of their company they should be able to tell you whats happened and what to do next?

drusan · 11 April 2016 at 12:24PM

No letter, As far as we know they just shut down ( or were folded into another for all we know ) and have no reason to believe they were liquidated. West Mercia housing is obviously still going and this is why its getting frustrating as there name is on every bit of paperwork we have. But they still say its nothing to do with them

MortgageMamma · 11 April 2016 at 1:11PM

Have you made a written complaint? It says on their website you can complain if:

You can complain if you think:
We failed to do something we should have done.
We did something wrong or to a poor standard.
You received poor customer service or discrimination.

You need to do this to get the complaint escalated to someone in authority who can ask the right questions to find out what you need to do. I know a lot of the old open market homebuy schemes were run by agencies set up especially for this purpose, but if yours has disappeared someone needs to tell you what to do

Have you spoken to Citizens advice or perhaps contacted the solicitor that dealt with the legals for the purchase? They may be easier to find and a good starting point

Brock_and_Roll · 11 April 2016 at 1:23PM

Had a quick look into this.....

It appears that West Mercia Housing always did have a brand called "Home2Own" ,however, the now defunct website "Home2Own.org.uk" is actually owned by the WestCountry Housing Association.

Might be worth checking with them.

In any event I doubt "home2own"was a limited liability company that folded - housing associations are Industrial & Provident Societies and it is more likely that the "home2own" product was merely a brand marketed by a HA.

kingstreet · 11 April 2016 at 5:09PM

If you took a shared equity property from WMH, the scheme was HomeBuy Direct or FirstBuy and your first port of contact is the post-sales HTB Agent here;-

http://www.myfirsthome.org.uk/

This organisation has the contract to administer Government-funded shared equity schemes, not the Registered Social Landlords who were responsible for the social/affordable housing.

drusan · 11 April 2016 at 5:40PM

Thanks for the replies so far have tried most of what has been suggested.
Kingstreet, I tried that one just the other day as I beleived it looked like the right people to me too, But get the same answer as everyone I have tried calling " never heard of it, don't know anything about it.. try such and such" I just can't believe it's so hard to give money back to the goverment, usaully quick enough to take it.

MortgageMamma · 11 April 2016 at 5:55PM

Do you have a solicitor acting on the sale of the property? surely it is their job to nail down the right people to be giving the money to they should know what do to particularly if they are local

drusan · 11 April 2016 at 6:26PM

You would have thought so wouldn't you, but she is having as much luck as we are. She has written to everyone we have and either had no reply or same responses as we have.

MortgageMamma · 11 April 2016 at 6:52PM

Have you asked if you can complete the sale and the funds apportioned to the homebuy company stay on account with the solicitor until they are "found"

Are there any local facebook groups where you live - where I live we have one called (town name) talk and people swap information and ask for help on there.

The only other thing I can think is speak to another firm of solicitors, a local firm that have been going a long time, perhaps they might know

kingstreet · 12 April 2016 at 6:50AM

drusan wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far have tried most of what has been suggested.
Kingstreet, I tried that one just the other day as I beleived it looked like the right people to me too, But get the same answer as everyone I have tried calling " never heard of it, don't know anything about it.. try such and such" I just can't believe it's so hard to give money back to the goverment, usaully quick enough to take it.

Have you downloaded the details from the Land Registry charges register to establish exactly who has the second charge over the property?

Home2Own help needed

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