Help to Buy (HTB) Incentive

tobdom

tobdom wrote: »

I think your builder/contractor still needs to be registered for you to claim, but for a self-build the builder/contractor has nothing to do with the claim process, it goes through your solicitor.

Some good info here: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/who-applies-for-help-to-buy-on-self-build-projects-1.3017674

Per the HTB FAQ on the revenue site, "Self-Builds after 1 January 2017 – the tax refund will be paid to the qualifying loan bank account.". So I guess the Solicitor just verifies everything and signs off on it for revenue

What do you do if you are self building and its all individual trades that i have hired ??

Irishgirl2020

From reading the revenue website it says in order to claim you need to submit a copy of the signed contract. This signed contract, I am presuming is with the builder. If that is the case then you can't claim if hiring tradesmen individually. I have queried this with the revenue as I am in the same boat. Awaiting a response from them.

Irishgirl2020

'There is no requirement to use an approved Qualifying Contractor if you are self building' from the revenue website. HTB summary PDF.

ELBAOS

Signed contract is your mortgage contract for a self builder

ustari

For anyone that has received their relief, into what account was it paid? How did you receive it?

I want to be able to access the money when it is paid back then and there as opposed to it coming off the top of my mortgage and not seeing the up front benefit.

From the summary guide:
"If you are claiming for a self-build property the bank account details of the qualifying loan account
must be provided.
This bank account details must be for an Irish bank account held with your mortgage
institution/lender."

RedRag

I'm in a similar boat. Fixed mortgage - the bank say they will penalise me if money goes into the mortgage account. I've paid my deposit, you have to do this in order to draw down the first stage of your self build mortgage. So basically I want this money to fund other aspects of the build.
Revenue will only transfer to the mortgage account. Now I'm waiting confirmation from the bank on how they will transfer the money to me (without penalty). I wonder if anyone has successfully received money from HTB for a self build yet.

ustari

It has been a very frustrating experience and we haven't even submitted our claim yet.

Ambiguous language and instructions from people in the revenue office.

MizMix

PLus one- extremely frustrating process. We couldn't even apply for months as there was an issue with tax clearance- at one point they said we owed them almost 1k in unpaid tax. After back and forth and them admitting something didn't seem right low and behold they owed it to us! Lots of other stuff including my husbands account saying I hadn't 'validated' when I had etc. So frustrating. We finally have everything in and now they say our solicitor has to validate but to instructions as to how he does it.

My understanding is it will go into our solicitor account and then he transfers to ours but being honest I'm so confused by the whole process. This is one my husband thankfully did the hard work on- when he calls revenue they are really nice but admit they don't even fully understand the process! It's like it's been made intentionally difficult to obtain.

RedRag

@MizMix do you know what account/iban your husband supplied to the revenue HTB system? Was it your actual mortgage account or your solicitors account? This is the only detail holding me up at this stage. I hope to be able to submit this application this week. Hopefully it all goes smoothly for you.

m1b2k3

Hi Red Rag, we applied and were approved for the HTB scheme for a self build and we used our own bank account which the revenue paid the payment into. Hope that helps

ustari

m1b2k3 wrote: »

Hi Red Rag, we applied and were approved for the HTB scheme for a self build and we used our own bank account which the revenue paid the payment into. Hope that helps

Did you use your own current account or the mortgage account?

How long did it take from submission of claim to payment into your account?

We have just applied today.

Thank you.

MizMix

@redbag we just got approved today (finally) and were told it would it would take five days to go through. My husband spoke to revenue and even they were confused re 'mortgage account'. It's being paid into our solicitors account and he provided the solictors iban and bic. The solicitor will then transfer to us.

RedRag

Congrats @MizMix, glad to hear someone is making progress with this. Revenue staff are really nice, they just don't have the information required when you call them. I suppose this will get better as people start to get approved. Hopefully they update documentation to reflect what account you should provide for self build.

B-D-P--

MizMix wrote: »

@redbag we just got approved today (finally) and were told it would it would take five days to go through. My husband spoke to revenue and even they were confused re 'mortgage account'. It's being paid into our solicitors account and he provided the solictors iban and bic. The solicitor will then transfer to us.

When did you apply?
How long untill you got approved?

m1b2k3

Hi ustari, once our solicitor approved it we had it in our bank account in 4 working days, I think it was approved on a Thursday and hit our account on the Tuesday morning. So its a quick process in the end :-)

ustari

m1b2k3 wrote: »

Hi ustari, once our solicitor approved it we had it in our bank account in 4 working days, I think it was approved on a Thursday and hit our account on the Tuesday morning. So its a quick process in the end :-)

Great to hear thank you.

Did you use your own current account or the mortgage account?

Someone above mentioned using their solicitor's account which was not how I understood the process, we have provided our own current account details.

m1b2k3

Hi Ustari, we used our own current account details not the mortgage account. We are still drawing down the mortgage, have two more drawdowns remaining. I would say as long as your solicitor signs it off with your account details the revenue wont question it. At least that was our experience

ustari

Received our money back also now.

Process for a fixed price contract self build was more straight forward than the website/calls to the office would lead you to believe.

Basically it was as follows:
Apply on revenue site, as a group if needed.
Get approval for your claim after a few days from Revenue
Proceed with claim by uploading your contract with builder, proof of first draw down from bank and proof of value of mortgage.
Send your solicitor the details for them to access and approve it.
Get notification that your claim has be verified by your solicitor from revenue.
Money should be with you in 5 working days in full.

We provide our current account details and it was not a problem despite some text saying your "qualifying loan bank account". Our current account that we provided was with the bank we have the mortgage from but not sure if this makes a difference.

B-D-P--

How long are people generally waiting under this screen?

This means I have completed everything and awaiting yes no decision for receiving the h2b yes??

ustari

Yes you will get notification in a few days if they approve it. Took 4-5 days iirc.

From there then you go through the process I have outlined above.

wynters

Hi,

I'm just wondering if anyone has any knowledge on the best approach for HTB Scheme in terms of the number of years to base our claim upon;

1 year
2 years
3 years
or 4 years

We are obviously looking to maximise the rebate we get and are wondering if there is any practical benefit in selecting one year over 4 years for example...?

It is not explained very well on the Revenue website!

ustari

I think you should pick the years in which you have paid the most tax. You can only get up to 20k combined however over the 4 years in refund.

We just picked all 4 despite not being in the country for half of 2 calendar years (July to July).

I don't know why you would only pick 1 or 2 years to be honest.


For others, get cracking on applying for this, talk is that it will be removed in the next few months.

OnlyGotOneSong

Hoping someone might be able to help me with a quick query.
If for example a new one off house has been built and we are now purchasing from the builder - if they are not registered contractors on the HTB scheme is there anyway we could put through a claim? Could we claim under a self build even though we would be purchasing after build complete ?
Thanks in advance

ustari

I don't think you would as your solicitor would need to verify it and you would need to prove you have drawn down the first stage of your mortgage.

It is quite simple for contractors to register, unless he is trying to avoid someone looking into his tax affairs.

OnlyGotOneSong

ustari wrote:

I don't think you would as your solicitor would need to verify it and you would need to prove you have drawn down the first stage of your mortgage.

ustari wrote:

It is quite simple for contractors to register, unless he is trying to avoid someone looking into his tax affairs.

Thanks for the response.actually found out a little more about the house after posting.Its actually a private individual who has built the house and is selling without ever having lived in it.so technically it wouldn't be a new build .Pity for us as it's probably the difference between us being able to afford or not.

Sponsorgate

Can you qualify for HTB scheme if you go the direct labour route? What do you need to upload in this case ?

tobdom

Sponsorgate wrote: »

Can you qualify for HTB scheme if you go the direct labour route? What do you need to upload in this case ?

Check out post #69 in this thread. I would imagine it should be the same process, but you may have multiple contracts.....

pentium1

ustari wrote: »

Received our money back also now.

Process for a fixed price contract self build was more straight forward than the website/calls to the office would lead you to believe.

Basically it was as follows:
Apply on revenue site, as a group if needed.
Get approval for your claim after a few days from Revenue
Proceed with claim by uploading your contract with builder, proof of first draw down from bank and proof of value of mortgage.
Send your solicitor the details for them to access and approve it.
Get notification that your claim has be verified by your solicitor from revenue.
Money should be with you in 5 working days in full.

We provide our current account details and it was not a problem despite some text saying your "qualifying loan bank account". Our current account that we provided was with the bank we have the mortgage from but not sure if this makes a difference.

I am at the claim stage of the HTB. We are doing a self build. ustari you mentioned "Proof of value of mortgage" what document did you provide here? I cannot see anything with our LTV Ratio. Thanks

ustari

We had a document showing the mortgage value in total from the bank I believe and the term of the loan.

I think our first draw down proof letter from bank had it also.

Basically anything that shows the amount you are getting in the mortgage from the bank should suffice.

Shaz1234

Have read through most comments but i am still confused as there are so many conflicting opinions on this subject.
Can anyone shed any light on the following:

1. Do i need a 'registered' company to avail of the HTB scheme for a new build?
2. What is the benefit for a builder / company to register for this?
3. Do we pay full amount for the deposit to the building company and then claim back or is it up to the builder claim if we give them 5% less of what the deposit is supposed to be?

Thanks in Advance.

ustari

If it is a "self build" in revenue's eyes the money is between you and revenue.

No money goes through the builder. We are doing a fixed price build but we just had to give builders details, our builder isn't even on the approved contractor list.

Shaz1234

Brilliant. So i don't have to convince a builder to sign up to the incentive if it's a self build. Just out of curiosity, does it benefit the builders / contractors to sign up to the scheme?

kizzyf

Just wondering as there is talk of scheme being varied. At the moment how long is it in place until? Our builder is registered but contracts aren't signed.

368100

kizzyf wrote: »

Just wondering as there is talk of scheme being varied. At the moment how long is it in place until? Our builder is registered but contracts aren't signed.

I would hope that if you're approved by revenue already they will honour that even if they do amend the scheme....maybe wishful thinking

Konka

Hi guys,
Do you know if I can proceed with the purchase and then claim the money back from the revenue? I am facing issues at the last minute with my taxes however I don't want to loose the funds.
Looking forward to hearing from any of you.
Best,
Konka

cfitz86

Hi just looking for some information. we are at the final stages of our self build and just looking into the help to buy scheme. Our bank have advised that LTV is 67, I thought it was less but can anyone confirm? We have mortgage of 165k, site worth 60k which we were gifted and had 30k savings, valuation on completion comes in at 310k.we have to get revaluation completed to get the final 10% and we were advised to ask auctioneer could they help us to get to 70% Any input would be greatly appreciated!

368100

cfitz86 wrote: »

Hi just looking for some information. we are at the final stages of our self build and just looking into the help to buy scheme. Our bank have advised that LTV is 67, I thought it was less but can anyone confirm? We have mortgage of 165k, site worth 60k which we were gifted and had 30k savings, valuation on completion comes in at 310k.we have to get revaluation completed to get the final 10% and we were advised to ask auctioneer could they help us to get to 70% Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Your LTV if based on mortgage + site value + savings is 65%. If based on completion value its 53%.
Have you much to draw on the mortgage to get it higher into the 70%+?
If so then borrow to the limit.
If not then all you can do is try and get the valuer to reduce the value....point out all the work still to be done or slip them a few quid

FinMc

Hi everyone , why is this incentive not open to people buying houses which have already been lived in?

mike_2009

The Government wants to create an incentive for increasing the housing stock rather than just recirculating existing houses....

FinMc

Thanks Mike that makes sense now you say it.

Deiseen

Does anyone know how flexible this scheme is?

Could a group of family members and a partner avail of the scheme?

If a group of three (2 family members and a partner) bought a property but only one of the family members was eligible for the refund, then would the refund only be counted based on their share of the property? All would be FTBs

dellas1979

Whose name(s) is on the mortgage/documents?

Deiseen

dellas1979 wrote: »

Whose name(s) is on the mortgage/documents?

This is all still hypothetical and I'm a total novice when it comes to shared ownership.

Could it be all three? or does it have to be just two?
Can the share be varied, e.g between two people - 50/50, 60/40, 80/20 or between three people - 40/40/20 or 50/40/10?

dellas1979

Was answering your first question about HTB. Second question is a different kettle of fish - I do remember when filling in mortgage forms, they only accommodated a single applicant, or 2 applicants.

Looks like you can only have 1 mortgage on a property. And 1 or 2 applicants.

There is an Accommodation forum--> Mortgage thread there.