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Delays in Help-To-Buy put the UK housing market at risk

Homeowners who used the government’s help-to-buy loan scheme to buy a property are still reporting delays in getting hold of vital paperwork, weeks after the agency that runs the programme said it was working to put things right.

Borrowers have reported that sales have been put at risk and remortgages delayed by problems at Homes England, resulting in them facing higher losses.

One borrower, who did not want to be named, said he and his wife had been attempting to remortgage their property, a house in southwest England, for several weeks.

Their solicitor requested paperwork on 2 July and then again on 12 July when the first request had been lost. Although the government website says paperwork will be provided within five days, they said they were still trying to get hold of it.

“My new mortgage offer expires on 6 August,” he said. “If the mortgage offer expires, my wife and I will be forced to search the mortgage market again and will not be able to find a mortgage product that will be at a low enough rate to enable us to repay the equity loan.”

“This is going to leave us thousands and thousands of pounds out of pocket – quite probably tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.”

Help-To-Buy was introduced in 2013 to support people getting on the housing ladder and was closed to new applicants in October 2022. More than 380,000 households have used the scheme.

Borrowers must repay the loan if they sell or start paying interest on it after five years. Many of those attempting to remortgage are planning to pay off their help-to-buy loan at the same time.

Problems with the scheme emerged last month after the administration work moved to a new company called Lenvi. But borrowers are still flooding online forums and social media pages with their complaints.

On Twitter, desperate sellers have been contacting the @helptobuy account. Many describe their difficulties in getting through on the phones and getting responses to emails, while others have been pleading for help to obtain documents such as redemption statements.

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