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

Dolbhad · 06-11-2019 8:25pm

Dylan94 wrote: »

We just applied for the help to buy scheme, we were approved today for €3500. We claimed for 2016, 2017 & 2018. However, during those years we paid €17,000 in income tax between us. We are looking to buy for €400,000ish, so need everything we can get.

Thats just normal income tax at 20%, excluding PRSI, USC etc. I have sent revenue a message through the online service, but they tend to take a long time to get back.

In the meantime, does anyone have any ideas why it might be so much lower?

I would check that you both applied together and are linked. Also Have you made claims on tax for those years like medical expenses, education expenses etc?

Dylan94 · 06-11-2019 10:06pm

Dolbhad wrote: »

I would check that you both applied together and are linked. Also Have you made claims on tax for those years like medical expenses, education expenses etc?

Yep, we checked that we are linked, we both have our approval and our individual breakdown. We have never applied for any tax relief for anything at all and got the figures from our p21 from the revenue online system.

We are both way down with each of us being approved for about one fifth of what we paid in income tax.

Sponsorgate · 11-11-2019 10:20am

FAO self builders

Revenue got back to me & because my lender has valued the house so high I fall under the 70% LTV. The value they have put on it is signifcantly higher than the amount of money I have budgeted to build it & borrowed from them. I plan on living in the house the rest of my life.Its just really annoying I am unable to claim the HTB .

Anyone have a similar experience?

Sponsorgate

awec · 11-11-2019 10:22am

Sponsorgate wrote: »

FAO self builders

Revenue got back to me & because my lender has valued the house so high I fall under the 70% LTV. The value they have put on it is signifcantly higher than the amount of money I have budgeted to build it & borrowed from them. I plan on living in the house the rest of my life.Its just really annoying I am unable to claim the HTB .

Anyone have a similar experience?

Sponsorgate

Yes, the LTV is based on the value of the house, not the cost to build it.

Your solicitor or whatever should have explained this to you.

pugw · 11-11-2019 9:37pm

Hi could anyone advise is there any harm in applying for the help to buy just to get the approval and see what you would be entitled to claim? Just starting to look at houses now, and want to get approval in principal etc. and don't want to get a surprise at the last minute.
We may not end up buying until late 2020.

tomister · 11-11-2019 10:54pm

pugw wrote: »

Hi could anyone advise is there any harm in applying for the help to buy just to get the approval and see what you would be entitled to claim? Just starting to look at houses now, and want to get approval in principal etc. and don't want to get a surprise at the last minute.
We may not end up buying until late 2020.

If you’re not planning until buying until 2020 I would hold applying until Jan.
If you look at what you’ve paid in tax over the last number of years it should give you a good indicator of what you are entitled to

joe123 · 24-11-2019 11:20pm

Hey all,

Looking for some info on Help To Buy.

So from reading online etc, it mentions the Help to Buy refund which is roughly 5% is put towards the deposit on the house.

So example - Buying a house for €250,000, the deposit would be €25,000

I see on the revenue site that the HTB refund goes directly to the developer so does this mean the deposit I would pay out of my own account would be €12,500 and the remainder of the deposit is paid directly to the Developer via HTB?

If the above is correct, my second question is, do you have to have signed the contracts to avail of the Help to Buy? And if so, doesn't this mean you already have to have paid the deposit?

Thanks in advance for any info. Greatly appreciated.

tomister · 24-11-2019 11:50pm

joe123 wrote: »

Hey all,

Looking for some info on Help To Buy.

So from reading online etc, it mentions the Help to Buy refund which is roughly 5% is put towards the deposit on the house.

So example - Buying a house for €250,000, the deposit would be €25,000

I see on the revenue site that the HTB refund goes directly to the developer so does this mean the deposit I would pay out of my own account would be €12,500 and the remainder of the deposit is paid directly to the Developer via HTB?

If the above is correct, my second question is, do you have to have signed the contracts to avail of the Help to Buy? And if so, doesn't this mean you already have to have paid the deposit?

Thanks in advance for any info. Greatly appreciated.

Provided the developer is registered for the Help to Buy scheme and you are approved for the amount you require then you would pay 12,500 and Revenue will also pay 12,500 upon approving your claim.

In order to avail of Help to Buy you need to first apply for it. To do this your tax needs to be up to date with nothing owed. Then when you are approved, Revenue will outline what is the relief/refund available to you. This is the lower amount of; 5% of the value of the property, your approved relief/refund or €20,000.
Once you’ve approval you will need a counter signed contract and proof of mortgage (letter of offer). You then complete the claim on the website and this is then passed to your developer who verifies it and then Revenue issue the funds to the developer

joe123 · 25-11-2019 12:03pm

tomister wrote: »

Provided the developer is registered for the Help to Buy scheme and you are approved for the amount you require then you would pay 12,500 and Revenue will also pay 12,500 upon approving your claim.

In order to avail of Help to Buy you need to first apply for it. To do this your tax needs to be up to date with nothing owed. Then when you are approved, Revenue will outline what is the relief/refund available to you. This is the lower amount of; 5% of the value of the property, your approved relief/refund or €20,000.
Once you’ve approval you will need a counter signed contract and proof of mortgage (letter of offer). You then complete the claim on the website and this is then passed to your developer who verifies it and then Revenue issue the funds to the developer

Perfect, just the info I needed.

wirelessdude01 · 25-11-2019 8:56pm

Just filling in the help to buy section on revenue and wondering what amount do I put in when it asks for the deposit payable? Is it the full 10% amount of the purchase price?

tolow · 26-11-2019 8:56am

I’m sure these questions have already been asked at some point in this thread but I might be a while looking back for an answer.

My first question is does it matter if one person has paid more tax over the four years when submitting a joint application? I looked back through my taxes for 2015-2018 and as a single application I have paid almost 20k in income tax whereas my partner was still in college in 2015,2016 and in 2017 and she would have paid very little income tax. Does it matter that the majority of the tax paid was by one person?

My second question is whether any social welfare payments affect an application? My partner was in receipt of Back to Education allowance in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Final question is if we apply in January and don’t actually end up buying in 2020 can we then re-apply in 2021?

Thanks in advance!

tomister · 26-11-2019 12:49pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Just filling in the help to buy section on revenue and wondering what amount do I put in when it asks for the deposit payable? Is it the full 10% amount of the purchase price?

Correct. It’s the full deposit that is due on the property. There should also be a section for deposit paid which will be your 5%

Motivator · 26-11-2019 10:20pm

I know this question has been asked a million times but I rang the revenue today and the girl hadn’t a clue what the answer was.

We’ve paid our 10% deposit on our new build, we haven’t applied for our mortgage yet as the move in isn’t for at least another 6 months so we’re going to wait until the new year to apply. We started the HTB application and got the figure that we’re entitled to claim but we couldn’t push it through without the proof of mortgage. Contracts are signed and sealed so we’re all set.

When we get our mortgage approved in the new year, can we claim the figure back direct? Or does it go to the developer who refunds us back the money out of the cash deposit we paid?

Fia11 · 27-11-2019 12:45pm

The end is in sight, just about. Waiting for one part contract in order to get claim reference number in order for developer's solicitor to be able to drawn down H2B funds. Then need to provide proof of this to the bank who can draw down the rest of the mortgage, then need to sign.

Seems like a whole thing, but they are still saying we will have keys this side of Christmas. We'll see.

joe123 · 27-11-2019 4:28pm

Had to wait on a couple of Form 12's being submitted/reviewed.

All complete, now when I go to "continue" the help to buy application Im getting the error:

We're Sorry…
Something went wrong and we are having trouble processing your request at this time.

Please come back later and try again.

Error ID: htb:2065627789717535846

Anyone else get this?

joe123 · 28-11-2019 5:09pm

Apparently the HTB system "is down for the whole country" although I was told on the phone that canceling the Application and starting again might work.

:cool:

GingerLily · 28-11-2019 5:10pm

Motivator wrote: »

I know this question has been asked a million times but I rang the revenue today and the girl hadn’t a clue what the answer was.

We’ve paid our 10% deposit on our new build, we haven’t applied for our mortgage yet as the move in isn’t for at least another 6 months so we’re going to wait until the new year to apply. We started the HTB application and got the figure that we’re entitled to claim but we couldn’t push it through without the proof of mortgage. Contracts are signed and sealed so we’re all set.

When we get our mortgage approved in the new year, can we claim the figure back direct? Or does it go to the developer who refunds us back the money out of the cash deposit we paid?

It's very odd to pay full deposit on a new build without mortgage approval, usually you need this to sign contracts.

wirelessdude01 · 28-11-2019 6:50pm

GingerLily wrote: »

It's very odd to pay full deposit on a new build without mortgage approval, usually you need this to sign contracts.

Thought that odd myself as well. Thought you couldn't sign contracts with full mortgage approval.

tomister · 28-11-2019 6:56pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Thought that odd myself as well. Thought you couldn't sign contracts with full mortgage approval.

Yeah I'd be very surprised if a solicitor has allowed everything to be signed without having all the documents from the bank

Fia11 · 28-11-2019 7:23pm

joe123 wrote: »

Apparently the HTB system "is down for the whole country" although I was told on the phone that canceling the Application and starting again might work.

:cool:

Well that's...delightful. I do hope it goes back 'up' soon.

GingerLily · 28-11-2019 8:17pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Thought that odd myself as well. Thought you couldn't sign contracts with full mortgage approval.

Unless they initially were going to pay in cash but instead choose to get a mortgage and HTB?

Hmmmmmmmmm

Motivator · 29-11-2019 10:56pm

tomister wrote: »

Yeah I'd be very surprised if a solicitor has allowed everything to be signed without having all the documents from the bank

Our contracts are signed by us and back with our solicitor after being signed by the builder’s solicitors with a mortgage in principle clause included. There was never any issue as long as we had the deposit the day we signed the contracts.

Our house won’t be ready until April at the earliest so there was never any problems signing anything without a letter from the bank. Our solicitor just inserted the clause in the contract.

joe123 · 02-12-2019 1:20pm

Fia11 wrote: »

Well that's...delightful. I do hope it goes back 'up' soon.

Yeah its still down. Online Chat/email said cancelling and restarting application wont work. On the phone they said it might work.

Ive a feeling they havent a clue and im wondering if it really is down.

If anyone on this thread is able to successfully apply will you update this thread. Signing the contracts is being held up by this now.

Dolbhad · 02-12-2019 9:45pm

Motivator wrote: »

Our contracts are signed by us and back with our solicitor after being signed by the builder’s solicitors with a mortgage in principle clause included. There was never any issue as long as we had the deposit the day we signed the contracts.

Our house won’t be ready until April at the earliest so there was never any problems signing anything without a letter from the bank. Our solicitor just inserted the clause in the contract.

That’s unusual. Most builders who allow the clause want a loan offer to have issued as it as gone to an underwriter (so if it expires your likely to get another one) rather than approval in principle which isn’t worth the paper it is written on for most banks. But you’ll need it for HTB so get one issued and resubmit for new loan offer if it expires and house isn’t done yet

joe123 · 04-12-2019 3:10pm

Site is back working FYI.

ebayissues · 04-12-2019 9:20pm

Can any one PM a good solictor & Surveyor please?

fungie · 04-12-2019 10:53pm

Dolbhad wrote: »

That’s unusual. Most builders who allow the clause want a loan offer to have issued as it as gone to an underwriter (so if it expires your likely to get another one) rather than approval in principle which isn’t worth the paper it is written on for most banks. But you’ll need it for HTB so get one issued and resubmit for new loan offer if it expires and house isn’t done yet

We had the clause put in and didn't have full mortgage approval. Was no problem.

Fia11 · 05-12-2019 12:19pm

Good to site the site is functional again. We're just waiting for our Help to Buy funds to be issued, as per revenue it will be approximately 5 working days. With any bit of luck it will be sooner, as we're hoping to close next week. Nearly there.

Whodanoob · 08-12-2019 12:11am

This may be a stupid question, but say I am claiming htb this month, can I include January to November in my claim, as I paid more tax than previous years, even though the year isn't finished yet?

tomister · 08-12-2019 2:43am

Whodanoob wrote: »

This may be a stupid question, but say I am claiming htb this month, can I include January to November in my claim, as I paid more tax than previous years, even though the year isn't finished yet?

Afraid not. You can only include complete full years and those years must not have any tax outstanding

dowhatyoulove · 08-12-2019 8:00pm

Can anyone tell me roughly what date in January can you check the HTB scheme to include 2019 taxes? Currently waiting on January to put down a deposit on new build.

Whodanoob · 08-12-2019 10:53pm

tomister wrote: »

Afraid not. You can only include complete full years and those years must not have any tax outstanding

Thanks for the info Tomister

Billythekid19 · 11-12-2019 9:50pm

joe123 wrote: »

Yeah its still down. Online Chat/email said cancelling and restarting application wont work. On the phone they said it might work.

Ive a feeling they havent a clue and im wondering if it really is down.

If anyone on this thread is able to successfully apply will you update this thread. Signing the contracts is being held up by this now.

site appears to be down tonight, anybody else seeing this?

colly10 · 12-12-2019 9:08pm

Billythekid19 wrote: »

site appears to be down tonight, anybody else seeing this?

Seeing the same tonight

Edit: Tried it a few times & it worked

Verwolff · 18-12-2019 6:35pm

tomister wrote: »

Provided the developer is registered for the Help to Buy scheme and you are approved for the amount you require then you would pay 12,500 and Revenue will also pay 12,500 upon approving your claim.

In order to avail of Help to Buy you need to first apply for it. To do this your tax needs to be up to date with nothing owed. Then when you are approved, Revenue will outline what is the relief/refund available to you. This is the lower amount of; 5% of the value of the property, your approved relief/refund or €20,000.
Once you’ve approval you will need a counter signed contract and proof of mortgage (letter of offer). You then complete the claim on the website and this is then passed to your developer who verifies it and then Revenue issue the funds to the developer

Just to warn all of you.

I was sure that this works like that up today. Tomorrow, I have meeting with solicitor and surprisingly for me I've got an email today where is clearly stated that I need to pay 10 % of deposit and regardless HTB, which will be claimed back later.

Unfortunately I can't secure missing 5% in one evening. This just unfair

Reading this thread it looks like it happens from time to time to some people depends on Developer. Looks like Revenue is also not helpful at all since they have no means to force the developer accept 5 % only, but have any of you got the same problem and could it sorted out eventually?

I can't give up the purchase because my current accommodation (rented property) will be on sale in January.

Any advice appreciated.

sdssarah · 18-12-2019 7:13pm

Hmm that doesn't seem right at all, it's not live revenue give YOU the money, they only deal directly with contractors. It sounds unusual to me, but ask your solicitor about it and point to https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/help-to-buy-incentive/how-do-you-apply-for-help-to-buy-htb.aspx

From starting this process, to getting contracts signed and signed by our contractors solicitor (for a new build) the whole process took about 2 months of back and forth with revenue, our solicitor, their solicitors. It's not a quick process not to mention everything will be shut down for Xmas for the next 2 weeks.

We also had a problem because the code generated is based on the tax years so our code expired on Dec 31st, so we did it all and then the contracts weren't signed by their solicitors in time, so we had to reapply in January for HTB to get new codes, it was very stressful.

Have you applied and gotten your HTB codes yet, if so you may have similar issue with expiry.

Sorry I can't help with the 10% thing, but it doesn't sound right at all. Others may have experienced this.

S

awec · 18-12-2019 7:32pm

There were others back in this thread who had the same issue, their developer insisted on 10% cash and weren't interested in claiming 5% from revenue. Ultimately there is nothing you can do to force the matter except threaten to pull out and hope that they back down.

tomister · 19-12-2019 3:47pm

Verwolff wrote: »

Just to warn all of you.

I was sure that this works like that up today. Tomorrow, I have meeting with solicitor and surprisingly for me I've got an email today where is clearly stated that I need to pay 10 % of deposit and regardless HTB, which will be claimed back later.

Unfortunately I can't secure missing 5% in one evening. This just unfair

Reading this thread it looks like it happens from time to time to some people depends on Developer. Looks like Revenue is also not helpful at all since they have no means to force the developer accept 5 % only, but have any of you got the same problem and could it sorted out eventually?

I can't give up the purchase because my current accommodation (rented property) will be on sale in January.

Any advice appreciated.

I'd ask the question how you are meant to claim back the 5% on the HTB. This gets paid directly to the developer and there is no option for this to be paid into your bank account.
Is the developer going to refund you this upon approval?
I had a clause in my contract that stated if my claim was rejected then I had 10 days to pay the balance. Could you ask that this be included instead?
Hope it all works out!

asscookies · 21-12-2019 8:51am

Hello,

We're actually coming out the other side of this, sold our house that we used the HTB to purchase. Has anybody had to pay the clawback to the revenue? We were hoping to pay it back in increments over a few years as we don't have a lump sum. Didn't make any money from our sale. We weren't happy with what our estate was becoming and we had a long commute that was too much for us. Anyone with any information on paying it back?

Dolbhad · 22-12-2019 8:36pm

asscookies wrote: »

Hello,

We're actually coming out the other side of this, sold our house that we used the HTB to purchase. Has anybody had to pay the clawback to the revenue? We were hoping to pay it back in increments over a few years as we don't have a lump sum. Didn't make any money from our sale. We weren't happy with what our estate was becoming and we had a long commute that was too much for us. Anyone with any information on paying it back?

Revenue website says you have to notify Revenue that you have ceased to live in the property and you have three months from when you cease living there to pay it back. I presume once stamp duty is paid by the purchasers it notifies revenue of change of ownership.

druss · 31-12-2019 12:00pm

We moved into our house a few months ago and the HTB scheme helped us over the line.

I had a really dumb moment a few days ago though. I found a stack of invoices in a box from our house moves including health expenses for 2016 and 2017, totted them up and submitted on ROS.

Completely forgot that the cupboard is now completely bare for those years.

tolow · 03-01-2020 12:53pm

tolow wrote: »

I’m sure these questions have already been asked at some point in this thread but I might be a while looking back for an answer.

My first question is does it matter if one person has paid more tax over the four years when submitting a joint application? I looked back through my taxes for 2015-2018 and as a single application I have paid almost 20k in income tax whereas my partner was still in college in 2015,2016 and in 2017 and she would have paid very little income tax. Does it matter that the majority of the tax paid was by one person?

My second question is whether any social welfare payments affect an application? My partner was in receipt of Back to Education allowance in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Final question is if we apply in January and don’t actually end up buying in 2020 can we then re-apply in 2021?

Thanks in advance!

Anyone able to help with these questions? Thanks in advance

fifth · 03-01-2020 1:51pm

I applied late last year and ended up not using it, so reapplying now for 2020.

As long as the government continue the scheme, you should be able to apply again next year provided you haven't bought yet.

Speaking of, has anyone tried applying for 2020 on revenue online service? I need to submit my tax for 2019 but it's giving me a system error.

colly10 · 06-01-2020 3:08pm

tolow wrote: »

Anyone able to help with these questions? Thanks in advance

First question - it doesn’t matter
Third question - you can reapply

Don’t know the affect of the second

Tasfasdf · 20-01-2020 1:50pm

When making an offer on a house do you have to tell them that it includes HTB or does that come into it when making offers at all till offer accepted.

sdssarah · 20-01-2020 2:16pm

Tasfasdf wrote: »

When making an offer on a house do you have to tell them that it includes HTB or does that come into it when making offers at all till offer accepted.

HTB scheme only works on New Builds so there are no "offers" you just sign a contract to pay the full price that the house is listed for.

Tasfasdf · 20-01-2020 2:28pm

sdssarah wrote: »

HTB scheme only works on New Builds so there are no "offers" you just sign a contract to pay the full price that the house is listed for.

I understood that, you can of course negotiate on price.

sdssarah · 20-01-2020 2:36pm

Tasfasdf wrote: »

I understood that, you can of course negotiate on price.

I don't really understand - there is no negotiating on prices of new build houses. The only situation where there might be is if you're buying one of the decorated show houses after all of the units are sold.

You either buy the house or don't buy the house at the list price by the developer. There's usually a lot of competiton too so you would want to get your deposit in straight away. Deposit is typically 5k or 10k on the day you choose your unit from the plans. Then you pay the actual deposit after signing the contracts 21 days later (half HTB / half from your pocket).

It isn't like a house with a single seller who is choosing to sell it and can negotiate the price.

Tasfasdf · 20-01-2020 3:22pm

sdssarah wrote: »

I don't really understand - there is no negotiating on prices of new build houses. The only situation where there might be is if you're buying one of the decorated show houses after all of the units are sold.

You either buy the house or don't buy the house at the list price by the developer. There's usually a lot of competiton too so you would want to get your deposit in straight away. Deposit is typically 5k or 10k on the day you choose your unit from the plans. Then you pay the actual deposit after signing the contracts 21 days later (half HTB / half from your pocket).

It isn't like a house with a single seller who is choosing to sell it and can negotiate the price.

The new builds that I was looking at sold 15k under asking including vat so maybe some do sell under the asking price. does the asking price include HTB if not then you may be right.

awec · 20-01-2020 3:31pm

Tasfasdf wrote: »

The new builds that I was looking at sold 15k under asking including vat so maybe some do sell under the asking price. does the asking price include HTB if not then you may be right.

How do you know they sold 15 under asking?

Anyway, the price includes HTB money. Generally with new builds unless they have been sitting for a while unsold there will be no negotiation on price.

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

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