myfirsthome.org.uk Reviews 5

Can you please process my Help to Buy case?

I have chased so many times just to get absolutely nowhere!

It’s been a month!

Disclaimer: Target HCA's customer service team are very polite and lovely people who seem to want to help. My grievance is more with the organisation and how horrible and slow the process is.

Trying to complete a transfer of equity process to buy my ex's share. The Target HCA's very slow and unnecessary bureaucracy has added at least 2 AND HALF MONTHS to the process and it is very stressful. Their waiting time for this is meant to be 4 to 6 weeks but the process has already taken a month an half and they haven't even sent the documents for "sealing" which is the part that takes 4 to 6 weeks.
They first send you on this wild goose chase which is getting a letter from the bank regarding a need for deed of postponement ( super bureaucratic minutiae) which the bank were unfamiliar with and it took me lots of long phone calls to the bank to finally convince them to craft that letter through their bureaucracy. That letter took me about a month to acquire. Now their deed team has wasted two more weeks getting the documents ready to send for "sealing"!
I have no idea why this shouldn't be a day's worth of work and frankly they should be ashamed of such slow service.
A property transfer of equity is already a stressful process and they are giving me a lot more grief with their incompetence and horrible bureaucracy.

Reposting from target group review page that I made as same organisation and I really want people to take caution with this company:
The worst organisation I have ever dealt with. Have put my partners sale in jeopardy. They have been rude, lied and I am set to loose the sale of the property, in turn may loose the property I am set to buy. Have promised to send a complaint form - they still haven’t. The stress of having to deal with their incompetence, the financial impact and worry is making me ill. It’s had a detrimental effect on my mental health - I have spent hours crying. I have now been advised to seek advice from the FOS which I will be doing. I cannot believe the government have contracted this company. Disgraceful.

I spent over three hours on the phone trying to get a redemption statement from Target HCA. The call wait times have been extraordinary. All credit to Camilla Olsen who went out of her way to have the statement authorised while I was on the phone and waited until I had received it and was happy before ending the call. She was so helpful in a stressful situation so please pass on my greatest thanks.

This is the company that took over my help to buy equity loan. I had issues right from the start
No correspondence was given to me when they took over my account. When it got to the end of my 5 years interest free I was supposed to start paying interest. I had no one to contact to set this up. Then out of the blue I got a letter saying I was in arrears and they were asking for payment within 7 days. Got on the phone to advise them of the mix up and that I don't have that amount of spare cash. They wouldn't agree on a payment plan for longer than 3 payments without seeing my bank statements, which I refused to give them.
Finally got on track and then noticed every April and September my payment amount was changing and I was quickly going up by 1% interest each time. Every letter I got stated that I would be paying said amount for 12 months yet that letter came twice a year! Contacted them with a complaint and was given a refund.
Asked them about how to redeem and what I was required to do to keep my home and pay off the equity loan. I was just referred to their website and advised to read the booklet. This booklet only gives you part of the process not all of it.
September 2020 I started the redeem process, got my RICS valuation £350 in October. Emailed them this plus the form to redeem and the fee of £250 (for what I have no clue). Waited for them to confirm all is OK and heard nothing, emails go unanswered so I called them. They had filed the fee and the form but said I had not sent the valuation. It was all on the one email so hard to miss that right? Well they did and they couldn't find my original email because it won't let them search that far back. So we are now in November. They have all they need from me but I still hadn't received confirmation that they accept the valuation and given me the final fee of the equity loan. Phoned again, they then sent it within the hour. One for me and one for the Solicitors. Solicitors won't accept this from me they need Target to post a copy directly to them. Wait a further 10 days. Back and forth with Target and Solicitors was driving me mad.
17 December new mortgage approved hurray all sorted, nope not sorted Solicitors need to complete a DS1 from (not written in the guide) back and forth again, Solicitors said they have sent it Target say they haven't. Finds out Target need two copies one addressed to Target one addressed to the developers. Solicitors have sent this 3 times. Targrt not responding.
I have a new mortgage and own 100% of my house but Target and the Developer are still on the land registry even after I have followed all the process. Nothing I can do stuck in the middle. 9 years of errors, Google them and see how many people have issues. You would have thought after all this time they would have sorted them self out but no same issues now that have happened before. Disappointing experience.