2017-21 help to buy scheme - megathread. All help to buy discussion here please

tangled up in blue

Dear Morrga

Thank you for your comforting and informative message!!
Can I just clarify one thing? Is "SE" your local revenue office?As in "South East". Perhaps I should get onto mine in Dublin if so.

morrga

tangled up in blue wrote: »

Dear Morrga

Thank you for your comforting and informative message!!
Can I just clarify one thing? Is "SE" your local revenue office?As in "South East". Perhaps I should get onto mine in Dublin if so.

Yes south east office. I was originally based in that region and am now in Dublin but I still rang them and they helped me along the way. A lot of the golf ups can be just done to Revenue needing to do a few system tweaks on their end. Getting them to make the changes whilst your on the phone to them helps progress the process.

daithilfc

(NOTE: this post doesnt appear correctly on the new site - you need to use the Legacy Site View)

Hey Guys,
I tried to read through all of the thread and search for this but couldn't find it mentioned, apologies if it has been covered.

We are buying a house in a development which is due to be complete in April. We signed our contracts in December so as far as my understanding that makes us a Retrospective application 

We have already paid the deposit to the Developer. 

We are have received our access code and application code and are at the Claim stage where we need to upload the contract before contacting our developer to approve on their side.

However during the process it has 3 steps:

1. Enter the reference number for the contract upload  - No problem
2. Confirm if its a Purchase or Self build - No problem
3. Declaration:

• I confirm that I/we have entered a qualifying loan. - Yes
• I confirm that the property will be my/our main residence. - Yes 
• I consent to the HTB refund being paid to the qualifying contractor.  - NO
  

(Edit - There is no option to actually choose No to this. they are checkboxes which have to be all tickets if I want to proceed.)

This is the issue we face, we do not want the refund to be paid to the contractor as we have paid our deposit and he is not due the full refund. 

I rang the SE office and the girl I was talking to said this doesn't sound correct and will "lodge the issue with IT" but now i reckon its going to be another week or more before i hear anything and I don't even have a reference for the enquiry as she got me to email through the screenshots directly.

Has anyone been in the same scenario as me (Contracts signed before December + Moving in this year) and been through the process?

Did you face the same Declaration?

Any experiences would be helpful so we know what the normal process should be.

kaixbre

I was stuck at awaiting membership because I owed tax from 2015. Contacted numerous times on My Enquiries but it wasn't resolved until I rang.

About 4 hours after speaking with them I had confirmation sent back saying it was ready to progress to Claims stage.

Definitely worth ringing them!

morrga

daithilfc wrote: »

(NOTE: this post doesnt appear correctly on the new site - you need to use the Legacy Site View)

Hey Guys,
I tried to read through all of the thread and search for this but couldn't find it mentioned, apologies if it has been covered.

We are buying a house in a development which is due to be complete in April. We signed our contracts in December so as far as my understanding that makes us a Retrospective application 

We have already paid the deposit to the Developer. 

We are have received our access code and application code and are at the Claim stage where we need to upload the contract before contacting our developer to approve on their side.

However during the process it has 3 steps:

1. Enter the reference number for the contract upload  - No problem
2. Confirm if its a Purchase or Self build - No problem
3. Declaration:

• I confirm that I/we have entered a qualifying loan. - Yes
• I confirm that the property will be my/our main residence. - Yes 
• I consent to the HTB refund being paid to the qualifying contractor.  - NO
  

Did you face the same Declaration?

Any experiences would be helpful so we know what the normal process should be.

I had the same question as a retrospective buyer and selected no. With your bank details on file they will pay it to your account which is what happened us.

daithilfc

morrga wrote: »

I had the same question as a retrospective buyer and selected no. With your bank details on file they will pay it to your account which is what happened us.

The issue is I don't have the option to select no... Its a check box which can't be left blank. It has to be ticked before you can proceed

Wopp

daithilfc wrote: »

The issue is I don't have the option to select no... Its a check box which can't be left blank. It has to be ticked before you can proceed

Me too, couldn't proceed without checking it. Hopefully it doesnt go to the developer as it would be a nightmare to get back!!

Since my contracts are signed pre 31St Dec 2016 they should pay it directly into your account as far as I understood.

daithilfc

Wopp wrote: »

Me too, couldn't proceed without checking it. Hopefully it doesnt go to the developer as it would be a nightmare to get back!!

Since my contracts are signed pre 31St Dec 2016 they should pay it directly into your account as far as I understood.

Yea that's the predicament i face now, risk it and check it to proceed or wait for them to get back to me about what I should do next.

Problem is, none of the staff seem to have been told anything about the process so it took 20 minutes the last day and 2 different people to tell me "that doesn't seem right" and a ticket would have to be lodged with IT. That was a week ago now.

Not blaming the staff it's just very frustrating.

Id be interested to see if anyone has faced this and received their refund.

@Wopp - What stage of the process are you at now?

sinella09

Hi,
When trying to claim the HTB grant (not as a retrospective buyer) and i need proof of mortgage, is the formal loan offer that i have sufficient or what should i be uploading for revenue?

sibersha

sinella09 wrote: »

Hi,
When trying to claim the HTB grant (not as a retrospective buyer) and i need proof of mortgage, is the formal loan offer that i have sufficient or what should i be uploading for revenue?

I supplied both the loan offer and the mortgage release letter.

sibersha

Does anyone know how long it takes for the builder/contractor to appear on the qualifying contractors list?
I have been told that their documents were submitted nearly two weeks ago but still no sign of their name appearing on the list.

fret_wimp2

MyAccount on the revenue site has started giving me errors when i try to open my help to buy application and tells me to contact support, but there is no details for who support are!

anyone have advice on who to contact?

phd

sinella09 wrote:

Hi, When trying to claim the HTB grant (not as a retrospective buyer) and i need proof of mortgage, is the formal loan offer that i have sufficient or what should i be uploading for revenue?

I uploaded the loan offer and our contractor received the money today. They verified our claim on monday so it only took two days for them to be paid. We're delighted as it wont delay anything for us.

John.watson

Is it the date you sign the contracts or the date the Developer signs that needs to be on or before 19th July 2016?

Purchaser signs 15th July 2016, developer sign on the 4th of August 2016.

Was anyone in a similar situation successful in getting the rebate?

youcancallmeal

John.watson wrote: »

Is it the date you sign the contracts or the date the Developer signs that needs to be on or before 19th July 2016?

Purchaser signs 15th July 2016, developer sign on the 4th of August 2016.

Was anyone in a similar situation successful in getting the rebate?

Best to ring them, I'd say it works of the date noted on the contract which I'd imagine is 15th July but you never know?

daithilfc

daithilfc wrote: »

(NOTE: this post doesnt appear correctly on the new site - you need to use the Legacy Site View)

Hey Guys,
I tried to read through all of the thread and search for this but couldn't find it mentioned, apologies if it has been covered.

We are buying a house in a development which is due to be complete in April. We signed our contracts in December so as far as my understanding that makes us a Retrospective application 

We have already paid the deposit to the Developer. 

We are have received our access code and application code and are at the Claim stage where we need to upload the contract before contacting our developer to approve on their side.

However during the process it has 3 steps:

1. Enter the reference number for the contract upload  - No problem
2. Confirm if its a Purchase or Self build - No problem
3. Declaration:

• I confirm that I/we have entered a qualifying loan. - Yes
• I confirm that the property will be my/our main residence. - Yes 
• I consent to the HTB refund being paid to the qualifying contractor.  - NO
  

(Edit - There is no option to actually choose No to this. they are checkboxes which have to be all tickets if I want to proceed.)

This is the issue we face, we do not want the refund to be paid to the contractor as we have paid our deposit and he is not due the full refund. 

I rang the SE office and the girl I was talking to said this doesn't sound correct and will "lodge the issue with IT" but now i reckon its going to be another week or more before i hear anything and I don't even have a reference for the enquiry as she got me to email through the screenshots directly.

Has anyone been in the same scenario as me (Contracts signed before December + Moving in this year) and been through the process?

Did you face the same Declaration?

Any experiences would be helpful so we know what the normal process should be.

Wopp wrote: »

Me too, couldn't proceed without checking it. Hopefully it doesnt go to the developer as it would be a nightmare to get back!!

Since my contracts are signed pre 31St Dec 2016 they should pay it directly into your account as far as I understood.

Quick update on this - Finally got on to someone who seems to have access to check this on their system. :rolleyes:

They couldn't see my application as a retrospective application on their side.

Im nearly sure I did lodge it as a retrospective application but It might have been done wrong as the initial question is very ambiguous

"Did you buy a home or draw down the 1st triage of a qualifying loan between 19th July and the 31st December 2016?"

Even though we haven't completed the purchase and are still due to move in, because we have signed our contracts last year during this time they see this as "Purchasing" the house.

So I had to cancel my application and start again, There was an initial detail on my girlfriends side with them confirming everything but now we are on the Claim stage and got to proceed without any question about the contractor getting the refund.

The only thing which surprised me was that at no point did they let you choose the actual contractor from a list or even put in their VAT number.

It is just upload the contract, details of the house and mortgage and then what amount of the refund goes to each person in the group.

I would have assumed seen as they want contractors to be registered there would be an dropdownlist for them to use.

Now all i can do is pass the access code and the claim number to the contractor to check on their side.

Hopefully this will be one of the last stages and I can get the money soon :cool:

morrga

daithilfc wrote: »

Quick update on this - Finally got on to someone who seems to have access to check this on their system. :rolleyes:

So I had to cancel my application and start again, There was an initial detail on my girlfriends side with them confirming everything but now we are on the Claim stage and got to proceed without any question about the contractor getting the refund.

The only thing which surprised me was that at no point did they let you choose the actual contractor from a list or even put in their VAT number.

It is just upload the contract, details of the house and mortgage and then what amount of the refund goes to each person in the group.

I would have assumed seen as they want contractors to be registered there would be an dropdownlist for them to use.

Now all i can do is pass the access code and the claim number to the contractor to check on their side.

Hopefully this will be one of the last stages and I can get the money soon :cool:

Upload contract and mortgage letter. Contractor must log in themselves and validate your purchase once you give them the various codes.

GDK_11

A question for those who have been paid. We were approved last week and since then have received the money apportioned for my girlfriends tax, however my portion of the tax had not been returned yet. Anyone else have similar issues?

pilly

GDK_11 wrote: »

A question for those who have been paid. We were approved last week and since then have received the money apportioned for my girlfriends tax, however my portion of the tax had not been returned yet. Anyone else have similar issues?

Are you both with different banks maybe?

morrga

GDK_11 wrote: »

A question for those who have been paid. We were approved last week and since then have received the money apportioned for my girlfriends tax, however my portion of the tax had not been returned yet. Anyone else have similar issues?

Yep different banks likely cause. People are as well to just have it paid to one account. It can be divided up then by the recipient.

Wopp

Turns out, even though we clicked the button confirming we bought before Dec 31st....the money STILL went to the developer. It must have been a bug on revenues side that prompted the developer for their bank details (assuming it wasn't a retrospective claim) when confirming our deposit/contract. This was after multiple phone calls confirming we were RETROSPECTIVE and the money was to go to US.

Also, the amount we were given initally as our "Max Rebate" was calculated wrong. VERY WRONG. Make sure you tot up your p21s yourself to verify as it took a while for them to fix it.

Now to try fix this mess....revenue staff multiple times told us they needed to learn about the scheme as they went along and didn't receive any training. To say we are dissapointed is an understatement.

bigpete32

Anyone else out there paid up their full deposit and managed to secure the funds back off the developer. We had to move very quickly to secure the house and the HTB rebate as part of the deposit wasn't an option at the time. We have since been approved for the full rebate.

The only way for me to proceed with the claim is to approve the rebate being paid to the builder, I obviously dont want to do this as I was using those funds to furnish the house.

Was on the phone to revenue today and they told me that i should take it up the my lender, that the funds are issued to the builder through the lender which I find hard to believe. Like some other cases I have a few approval letters and have not decided who to proceed with.

Is it possible to underpay from the mortgage by the 5% and keep that in lieu of the rebate as I dont fancy trying to claim it back off the builder after the fact.

Smacs89

So after numerous phone calls over the past 1-2weeks, I finally received a call back from someone in my local office and it turns out there was a glitch in their system which is why it kept saying "Awaiting Membership Confirmation" on both my account and my partners account.

So IT have sorted their glitch, I have made the claim, received the Claim reference number and Application code - so who do I need to send these to to verify the claim, the solicitor or the builder contractor??
We are retrospective applicants (received the keys of the house last week) so we don't want the money going to the builders and have another delay in receiving it!

Advice for anyone stuck in the application stage - call them because we were waiting for weeks "Under Review" but nothing was actually being done because of the glitch!

youcancallmeal

bigpete32 wrote: »

Anyone else out there paid up their full deposit and managed to secure the funds back off the developer. We had to move very quickly to secure the house and the HTB rebate as part of the deposit wasn't an option at the time. We have since been approved for the full rebate.

The only way for me to proceed with the claim is to approve the rebate being paid to the builder, I obviously dont want to do this as I was using those funds to furnish the house.

Was on the phone to revenue today and they told me that i should take it up the my lender, that the funds are issued to the builder through the lender which I find hard to believe. Like some other cases I have a few approval letters and have not decided who to proceed with.

Is it possible to underpay from the mortgage by the 5% and keep that in lieu of the rebate as I dont fancy trying to claim it back off the builder after the fact.

I don't think it'll be possible to underpay because when you apply for a mortgage the bank will have all your financial details and will know that you're asking for more than you need. Maybe it is possible, might be best to talk to a broker? You never know though builder might be sound if you ask them to refund you the money after they get it and you pay the balance of the house price as normal with a mortgage?

notkenny

Send them to solicitor and to builder. Actually when ever builder confirms your purchase then only your claim will be approved,so technically only builder need them, but I guess if you can't contact builder directly send them to solicitor and they cans send them to the builder.

youcancallmeal

Smacs89 wrote: »

So after numerous phone calls over the past 1-2weeks, I finally received a call back from someone in my local office and it turns out there was a glitch in their system which is why it kept saying "Awaiting Membership Confirmation" on both my account and my partners account.

So IT have sorted their glitch, I have made the claim, received the Claim reference number and Application code - so who do I need to send these to to verify the claim, the solicitor or the builder contractor??
We are retrospective applicants (received the keys of the house last week) so we don't want the money going to the builders and have another delay in receiving it!

Advice for anyone stuck in the application stage - call them because we were waiting for weeks "Under Review" but nothing was actually being done because of the glitch!

As per the Revenue documentation did you put in your IBAN and BIC when completing the claim? If so you should get the money to your account. I'm not sure the builder has to confirm the claim for retrospective applicants, could be wrong about that? Maybe someone who has applied as a retrospective applicant recently might be able to help you. If all else fails ring Revenue again

bigpete32

Ive asked my solicitor to ask them to process a refund of my deposit now, will see how it goes if not try and get them to sign something saying they will refund when they get it.

Smacs89

youcancallmeal wrote: »

As per the Revenue documentation did you put in your IBAN and BIC when completing the claim? If so you should get the money to your account. I'm not sure the builder has to confirm the claim for retrospective applicants, could be wrong about that? Maybe someone who has applied as a retrospective applicant recently might be able to help you. If all else fails ring Revenue again

Yes I put our IBAN and BIC in.
I emailed the developers and gave them the codes and they are now verifying the claim.

notkenny wrote: »

Send them to solicitor and to builder. Actually when ever builder confirms your purchase then only your claim will be approved,so technically only builder need them, but I guess if you can't contact builder directly send them to solicitor and they cans send them to the builder.

Thanks for the replies guys!

dmcg90

Hi all,

Have my application for the HTB scheme approved for a new build that's just starting to be built.

When should I commence the 'claim' stage - once I've signed the contracts?

Iluvjazzmasters

This thread has been a great source of information. I am at the first stage of the application with my other half.

We both recieved our p21s and in fact we both over paid on taxes so got a small refund. Then we processed our htb application as a group, her part went through fine but when I accepted the group application it led me to the message that my tax clearance certificate not been issued?? We cannot progress our application any further

Has anyone come across this? I assume that this is an error from the revenues behalf? Does anyone have any advice?