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

tomister · 03-02-2020 11:08pm

joe123 wrote: »

Hey all, Ive one more question regarding the help to buy.

So I have received the application code and access number.

When we go to Claim now it requests the following "Please add the relevant attachments to your claim. First time purchasers must provide signed copies of the contract(s) of sale for the home, and the mortgage contract with their lender."

For the signed copies of the contracts, does this also require the developers signed papers or just the documents I signed?

You’ll need the counter signed contracts to submit the claim.
Just one thing to watch out for when submitting your claim - there’s only one section to upload your files so be sure to upload both the signed contracts and the letter of offer. The instructions online state you are to pick your developer etc but this is no longer the case

tongey89 · 05-02-2020 10:05am

Mossyman wrote: »

Both my wife and myself are unable to apply as we keep getting to the page with the years we want to use and when we click continue it keeps getting the attached error. I last tried it on Monday and tried it again this morning (both my wife and myself) and getting the same error again.

I tries calling Revenue and they told me I can only go through the enquiries route. Is this true? Is there a number I can call? It's getting frustrating now as it's been happening since last week.

We are hoping to close on our house in the next few weeks and are getting anxious.

Did this get fixed from your side? I am getting the same error.

Mossyman · 05-02-2020 10:43am

tongey89 wrote: »

Did this get fixed from your side? I am getting the same error.

Just tried it and still get that error. When I called last week the only way to contact the Help to Buy dept was to send a message though MyEnquiries. I am still waiting for a response.

robinse3 · 05-02-2020 10:53am

Mossyman wrote: »

Just tried it and still get that error. When I called last week the only way to contact the Help to Buy dept was to send a message though MyEnquiries. I am still waiting for a response.

Our application finally went through this morning. We had been getting the error message since January 23rd.

I made 7 calls to the revenue within that time and frankly hounded them. I got through to a lovely girl yesterday who got the help to buy team to contact me through the my enquirers portal. They told me the issue would be resolved shortly and this morning I got an email to say we had been approved.

tongey89 · 05-02-2020 11:07am

robinse3 wrote: »

Our application finally went through this morning. We had been getting the error message since January 23rd.

I made 7 calls to the revenue within that time and frankly hounded them. I got through to a lovely girl yesterday who got the help to buy team to contact me through the my enquirers portal. They told me the issue would be resolved shortly and this morning I got an email to say we had been approved.

Congrats. I sent a message through "My Enquiries" last week and havent heard anything back yet. I will try follow up with a call today. Fingers crossed it gets resolved soon.

Mossyman · 05-02-2020 11:07am

robinse3 wrote: »

Our application finally went through this morning. We had been getting the error message since January 23rd.

I made 7 calls to the revenue within that time and frankly hounded them. I got through to a lovely girl yesterday who got the help to buy team to contact me through the my enquirers portal. They told me the issue would be resolved shortly and this morning I got an email to say we had been approved.

Congrats! Which number did you call and who did you try speak to? The person I spoke to point blank refused to do anything but point me to My Enquiries.

robinse3 · 05-02-2020 11:51am

Mossyman wrote: »

Congrats! Which number did you call and who did you try speak to? The person I spoke to point blank refused to do anything but point me to My Enquiries.

The number I was ringing was 01 738 3636, it can take up to 15 min before you actually get to speak to anyone. When you do get through ask to speak to a supervisor, its the only way you'll actually get a straight answer.

If you are getting the error message make sure you've sent a screenshot of it so they can pull it up when they look at your enquirers

Keep hounding them, I'm convinced that's the only reason they sorted it.

When I went on yesterday it had said that I had been approved but my partner hadn't confirmed membership. Then when he went in this morning to join the group he got passed the stage where he kept getting an error and he straight away got the amount we where entitled to and the access code. It didnt go to the under review stage or anything so we are delighted

Wayne991992 · 06-02-2020 3:48pm

Hi all

My partner and I have cancelled our own application and submitted a new one to include 2019. However while the old application gave us the figure instantly the new application is sitting at under review status for a few days now. Can someone advise if this is normal and the usual turnaround as there is no contact number for HTB that I can find. Worried as we are seeking approval in principle really soon and HTB needs to be confirmed.

Wayne991992 · 06-02-2020 4:28pm

coff66 wrote: »

Currently in the same situation since early in the week. Does anyone know if we should be following this up or if it's part of the process?

Did you get a resolution on this at all. In the same boat here.

lucasfdsv · 06-02-2020 5:39pm

Wayne991992 wrote: »

Hi all

My partner and I have cancelled our own application and submitted a new one to include 2019. However while the old application gave us the figure instantly the new application is sitting at under review status for a few days now. Can someone advise if this is normal and the usual turnaround as there is no contact number for HTB that I can find. Worried as we are seeking approval in principle really soon and HTB needs to be confirmed.

My Wife and I are in the same situation. Last year I submitted an application that got approved immediately. We then submitted a new application last Friday to include 2019 taxes but haven't heard from Revenue yet.

It also says on our both profiles that it's still waiting for the person to confirm membership even though that's done already.
We contacted Revenue twice today. First person said I hadn't submitted my p12 for '16 & '17, which didn't make sense. Second person confirmed they have all the information they need but due to the volume of application, the ETA for our application is End of next week.

Don't know what to think. Revenue doesn't seem very reliable tbh.

FaberX · 06-02-2020 7:10pm

Is there any way to get a list of properties that qualify for HTB. I know some of the property sites have filters but there are a load of properties on smaller estate agents sites that you might miss.

Cutielaide · 06-02-2020 8:02pm

Can someone please help with below question.

Myself and partner were having issue submitting the HTB application as a joint applicant due to the error on revenue site.
Luckily, I was able to push the application through as an individual applicant. I checked with my contractor who said it dhould be okay to claim with individual.

Does anyone know here or had similar issue?... Not sure we can use an individual HTB on a joint mortgage.

fguinan · 06-02-2020 8:19pm

Cutielaide wrote: »

Can someone please help with below question.

Myself and partner were having issue submitting the HTB application as a joint applicant due to the error on revenue site.
Luckily, I was able to push the application through as an individual applicant. I checked with my contractor who said it dhould be okay to claim with individual.

Quote from HTB Summary Guide:
"All the individuals within a
group must be first-time buyers in order for that group to be eligible to apply for HTB. All named
parties on the contract must be part of the HTB application."

Does anyone know here or had similar issue?... Not sure we can use an individual HTB on a joint mortgage.

No... it is in the terms that all names on the mortgage have to be in the HTB application.

If it is reviewed tou will have broken the terms and conditions.

coff66 · 07-02-2020 12:26am

Wayne991992 wrote: »

Did you get a resolution on this at all. In the same boat here.

So we applied on Tuesday the 28th with no update until Monday the 3rd when we were told that our application had been cancelled as I had an outstanding balance owed. I had previously done the p21 balancing statement for 2017 and had small under payment which was not being collected but with the HTB application it now needed to be paid. That has been paid on Monday and we have reapplied and back to the same situation now, both showing as other applicant needing to confirm membership which they have and under review. Hopefully will hear tomorrow or early next week.

af666x · 10-02-2020 11:18am

Hey all,

Just thought I'd post an update here as I received my approved application and confirmation number today after a short call with a very helpful person at revenue

If you end up on the phone to the revenue office in Cork, they have a HTB team on-site and you could try ask them to investigate what is causing the error - you'll have to go on hold, but they can look into it.

The problem was with my partner's tax for 2019, and it required manual review - this is what was causing the error on our application. They changed the years she was being reviewed for to exclude 2019, and the application went through successfully

So, long story short - if you've paid enough tax to exclude 2019, try cancel your application and redo it with 2016/17/18 selected.

Hope this helps!

Cutielaide · 10-02-2020 11:33am

Thank God for this good news. I am in the same boat, please send me the cork number you called.

af666x wrote: »

Hey all,

Just thought I'd post an update here as I received my approved application and confirmation number today after a short call with a very helpful person at revenue

If you end up on the phone to the revenue office in Cork, they have a HTB team on-site and you could try ask them to investigate what is causing the error - you'll have to go on hold, but they can look into it.

The problem was with my partner's tax for 2019, and it required manual review - this is what was causing the error on our application. They changed the years she was being reviewed for to exclude 2019, and the application went through successfully

So, long story short - if you've paid enough tax to exclude 2019, try cancel your application and redo it with 2016/17/18 selected.

Hope this helps!

af666x · 10-02-2020 10:25pm

Cutielaide wrote: »

Thank God for this good news. I am in the same boat, please send me the cork number you called.

It was the regular revenue number - I just got lucky I guess.

Try it and see if you can either get through or ask them to transfer you

coff66 · 11-02-2020 6:31pm

coff66 wrote: »

So we applied on Tuesday the 28th with no update until Monday the 3rd when we were told that our application had been cancelled as I had an outstanding balance owed. I had previously done the p21 balancing statement for 2017 and had small under payment which was not being collected but with the HTB application it now needed to be paid. That has been paid on Monday and we have reapplied and back to the same situation now, both showing as other applicant needing to confirm membership which they have and under review. Hopefully will hear tomorrow or early next week.

Just to update we received our approval today with our access codes too!

kanahavel · 11-02-2020 8:05pm

We applied on 1'st week of Jan but my wife cannot confirm the membership after login to her my account - Getting "Something went wrong please try again after sometime error". She is not working & never worked in Ireland before (she's not paying any tax). I am calling them literally every day and do not see any positive sign though.

My position is, done my snag and waiting for the key and everything has been put on hold bcoz of pending HTB. At this time I DONT KNOW what to do

....

dowhatyoulove · 11-02-2020 8:48pm

kanahavel wrote: »

We applied on 1'st week of Jan but my wife cannot confirm the membership after login to her my account - Getting "Something went wrong please try again after sometime error". She is not working & never worked in Ireland before (she's not paying any tax). I am calling them literally every day and do not see any positive sign though.

My position is, done my snag and waiting for the key and everything has been put on hold bcoz of pending HTB. At this time I DONT KNOW what to do ....

Ask to speak to a HEO or EO and get it escalated. I did and got mine 2 hours before we were due to sign our contracts on our house

Cutielaide · 11-02-2020 9:24pm

coff66 wrote: »

Just to update we received our approval today with our access codes too!

So it took them over a week to reply you?... I applied last friday, mine went through successfully and my partner is under review... I am really hoping I hear from them soon... we have been on this for the last 3 weeks... its such a shame

kanahavel · 11-02-2020 9:51pm

More than 2 weeks just for the reply...I am going through this stress for more than 5 weeks.

coff66 · 11-02-2020 11:26pm

Cutielaide wrote: »

So it took them over a week to reply you?... I applied last friday, mine went through successfully and my partner is under review... I am really hoping I hear from them soon... we have been on this for the last 3 weeks... its such a shame

Yes just over a week, we were stuck in the awaiting confirmation form other group member and under review until today and it all went through fairly quickly once they updated both members as confirmed. Are ye applying separately? As they cancelled ours when I still owed tax for one of the years.

SpaceX · 12-02-2020 12:19am

Hi,

Myself and my wife are applying as group our application is sitting there and it has application number and it says “Awaiting membership confirmation” does this mean when the application is approved I will get confirmed ?

Please just need to know if anyone is on the same boat as me or was and got it sorted.

SpaceX · 12-02-2020 12:20am

Hi,

Myself and my wife are applying as group our application is sitting there and it has application number and it says “Awaiting membership confirmation Your application is currently under review“ does this mean when the application is approved I will get confirmed ?

Please just need to know if anyone is on the same boat as me or was and got it sorted.

Verwolff · 12-02-2020 2:00am

SpaceX wrote: »

Hi,

Myself and my wife are applying as group our application is sitting there and it has application number and it says “Awaiting membership confirmation Your application is currently under review“ does this mean when the application is approved I will get confirmed ?

Please just need to know if anyone is on the same boat as me or was and got it sorted.

I had the same. You probably just filled application in your own account only. Once done, your wife has to login to her account and confirm that she joins your application.

My wife never used her account since I always sent joint taxes, but we sorted out this issue and then application got status accepted.

Cutielaide · 12-02-2020 3:24am

coff66 wrote: »

Yes just over a week, we were stuck in the awaiting confirmation form other group member and under review until today and it all went through fairly quickly once they updated both members as confirmed. Are ye applying separately? As they cancelled ours when I still owed tax for one of the years.

It's a joint application, we found out out he was owing 128 for 2017 , but we quickly cleared that on monday to avoid cancellation, so fingers crossed we hear from them soon. Thanks

Cutielaide · 12-02-2020 7:17pm

Cutielaide wrote: »

It's a joint application, we found out out he was owing 128 for 2017 , but we quickly cleared that on monday to avoid cancellation, so fingers crossed we hear from them soon. Thanks

Just thought I should give an update on this. My access code came in today around 5.13 pm.... after making almost 20 calls within yesterday and today. We spoke to few people and their EO, luckily they managed to escalate our case. I found out the other people we spoke to were just leaving a note on the case and not escalating. Good luck to everyone else waiting... But I will advise to keep disturbing them with phone calls.

Applied friday evening and it came in this evening... roughly 3 working days. We have been on it the last 4 weeks,with lots of cancelling and re-submissions.

kanahavel · 13-02-2020 2:17am

Verwolff wrote: »

I had the same. You probably just filled application in your own account only. Once done, your wife has to login to her account and confirm that she joins your application.

My wife never used her account since I always sent joint taxes, but we sorted out this issue and then application got status accepted.

I am in same situation. Do you know what was the issue ? My wife never worked in Ireland and the HTB team do not know what is the issue.

kanahavel · 14-02-2020 9:07am

Quick update from my end ..

I rang the revenue team yesterday and I told the agent I would like to talk to EO / Supervisor. Then I explained my situation and the EO took my issue and told me will give an update around 12.

When I checked my application around 11, it was approved already and then everything went smooth.

The EO called me exactly at 12 and confirmed looks like your issue got fixed.

Looks like they are handling a large number of HTB issues and they will prioritise according to the situation.

HassanBarak · 15-02-2020 6:06pm

Hi,

I assume someone would have faced this issue. My 2019 return is submitted and have also received refund from revenue for overpaid tax in 2019. When i am trying to generate a help to buy code i am getting the following error:

Something went wrong and we are having trouble processing your request at this time.

Please come back later and try again.

Error ID: htb:6723137742048122821

The error is only appearing when i include Year 2019. If i exclude 2019 i am able to generate a help to buy code. I am facing this issue for last 4 weeks, have raised 3 queries on MyAccount but no one replied back.

I have called revenue help multiple times but of no use. Can somebody please guide if someone was facing the above error and it got resolved.

Thanks a million in advance.

john.Reid · 17-02-2020 12:43pm

Hi everyone,

think this is my first message on boards.ie

Anyway,

I had an approved HTB application last year, full relief was given @20k.

Our new house is ready to go since the first week of Jan, when I went in in early jan out HTB was expired. I had to re-apply (no big deal). Was waiting on my P21 for weeks.

I got that sorted about 2 weeks ago and our joint HTB application was approved on Valetines day - Happy days!

When I went in to add our contract and claim it I realised that now we were only getting 10,500k relief. We did get awarded an incapacitated child tax credit in 2019 and refunded tax for the previous 4 years. so this may have affected things?

does anyone have a similar story. I'm calling them regularly but just anxious to get an answer as all of our budgeting etc was on the basis of full relief.

J

beazee · 17-02-2020 12:47pm

john.Reid wrote: »

Hi everyone,
t now we were only getting 10,500k relief. We did get awarded an incapacitated child tax credit in 2019 and refunded tax for the previous 4 years. so this may have affected things?

HTB is limited to:
5% of the purchase price
full amount of income tax paid in the last 4 years

You were refunded tax for years prior - thus paid less tax in the 4 years before HTB claim - I guess the 10.5K amounts to actual amount of income tax paid after refund.

jimmy86 · 17-02-2020 12:48pm

Hi John,

What's the value of the house? You will only get 5% of the purchase price up to a maximum of 20k, The house would need to be 400k to get the full amount.

jimmy86 · 17-02-2020 12:48pm

Hi John,

What's the value of the house? You will only get 5% of the purchase price up to a maximum of 20k, The house would need to be 400k to get the full amount.

john.Reid · 17-02-2020 12:56pm

beazee wrote: »

HTB is limited to:
5% of the purchase price
full amount of income tax paid in the last 4 years

You were refunded tax for years prior - thus paid less tax in the 4 years before HTB claim - I guess the 10.5K amounts to actual amount of income tax paid after refund.

Hi,

The house is 385k, so was working on the basis of 19,250 relief.

Manically trying to work out how much PAYE I/we have paid over the last 4 years now!

EDIT (again)

Just reviewing my P21's (adjusted for my new credit in aug 2019) it looks like me alone I've paid 22k in tax

Ah i'll just have to wait and see!

tongey89 · 17-02-2020 5:10pm

kanahavel wrote: »

Quick update from my end ..

I rang the revenue team yesterday and I told the agent I would like to talk to EO / Supervisor. Then I explained my situation and the EO took my issue and told me will give an update around 12.

When I checked my application around 11, it was approved already and then everything went smooth.

The EO called me exactly at 12 and confirmed looks like your issue got fixed.

Looks like they are handling a large number of HTB issues and they will prioritise according to the situation.

May be a stupid question but what is an EO? I have had that error for 3 weeks now and haven't heard anything yet.

Renjit · 17-02-2020 5:43pm

Hello everyone

I am applying for HTB as joint application. My spouse needs to approve from her revenue account. But she encounters error when she tries to join the group

"Something went wrong and we are having trouble processing your request at this time.

Please come back later and try again."

What should I do?

Renjit · 17-02-2020 5:50pm

af666x wrote: »

Just a quick question RE individual vs group applicants - we're getting the same HTB error, and we've confirmed the error is on my partner's end (i can create the application and add her, however when she tries to join, or create her own application, she gets an error).

If I were to apply as an individual applicant, would this cause any significant problems?

All applicants mentioned in the mortgage terms should be included as per HTB summary guide.

Cutielaide · 18-02-2020 10:59am

Renjit wrote: »

Hello everyone

I am applying for HTB as joint application. My spouse needs to approve from her revenue account. But she encounters error when she tries to join the group

"Something went wrong and we are having trouble processing your request at this time.

Please come back later and try again."

What should I do?

We experienced this same issue at the beginning. Try excluding 2019 or whichever year that's causing the issue.

Renjit · 18-02-2020 4:47pm

Cutielaide wrote: »

We experienced this same issue at the beginning. Try excluding 2019 or whichever year that's causing the issue.

I need to select one year at least. And 2019 is the only latest year available. Before that she wasn't working. I selected 2018 too and filed an income tax return for the same even though she wasn't earning then.

So it looks like, same years should be selected by both applicants, otherwise it throws error.

Cutielaide · 18-02-2020 6:14pm

Renjit wrote: »

I need to select one year at least. And 2019 is the only latest year available. Before that she wasn't working. I selected 2018 too and filed an income tax return for the same even though she wasn't earning then.

So it looks like, same years should be selected by both applicants, otherwise it throws error.

That wasn't the case for us. I selected 15, 16, 17, 18 and my partner selected 16, 17, 18 , 19.

My partner was getting that error originally but once the 2019 overpayment was paid into his account, we were able to get pass it.

I will suggest you keep on ringing them. Most likely an overpament or underpayment on her side.

Mossyman · 23-02-2020 10:53am

Just would like to update my situation where I couldn't get the application to go through, getting the error message everytime from both my account and my wife's. We were abroad up until last year so were only using 2019 to be assessed.

I had been calling Revenue a few times a week for the past 2/3 weeks and really getting nowhere. Told that my enquiries were on the system and would be looked at. So I decided two weeks ago out of curiosity to try use 2018 and 2019 and the application went through! It told me to submit my 2018 return which was easy to do as we didnt get paid in Ireland for that year. I thought we would get the statement of liability relatively quick.

After a week I didnt get anything back. We are drawing down tomorrow week so there was a bit of urgency to get the application processed. I called Revenue on Thursday and talked to a chap and explained the situation. He said I would have to cancel the application as they couldn't issue the statement of liability for 2018 as we had no income. I said by using 2018 with 2019 it was the only way to successfully submit the application and 2019 would not work on it's own. I said no solution had been offered to me and what was I meant to do. He replied "I dont know". I almost lost it!

Finally he put me on to his supervisor, who was absolutely lovely and helpful. She said she would directly contact the help to buy team as a matter of urgency and if they didnt update me, she would keep an eye and get back to me.

Thankfully we got approved on Friday morning! I got two missed calls and voicemails to update me so the supervisor was true to her word. The encouragement from this thread to hound Revenue to get it through is what I would echo to anyone who is in a similar situation.

Devil08 · 24-02-2020 11:27am

What's peoples thought on Sinn Feins plans to scrap the HTB scheme? I think a lot of people are unaware of it...

The_Conductor · 24-02-2020 11:33am

Devil08 wrote: »

What's peoples thought on Sinn Feins plans to scrap the HTB scheme? I think a lot of people are unaware of it...

I brought it up on my twitter feed and got roasted for my trouble.
I also updated a few Quora threads highlighting this- to the disbelief of almost all readers.

Its one of SF's manifesto items.
Seriously- people need to read what they're voting for- the old Hewbrew proverb comes to mind- 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it...….'

Devil08 · 24-02-2020 11:39am

The_Conductor wrote: »

I brought it up on my twitter feed and got roasted for my trouble.
I also updated a few Quora threads highlighting this- to the disbelief of almost all readers.

Its one of SF's manifesto items.
Seriously- people need to read what they're voting for- the old Hewbrew proverb comes to mind- 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it...….'

Spot on. People voting for Sinn fein in the hope theyll get a house easier when in fact they will make it close to impossible. Even if the house does cost 50k less it will still take years longer to get a deposit together without the HTB.

Verwolff · 25-02-2020 8:13am

Do you have any contact to Revenue branch dealing with HTB? My builder claims that can't draw down money while I have status approved on my side. I have no clue how to find out where the problem is. I am going to ring Revenue today but any direct contact would save me some time for sure.

beefyor1983 · 25-02-2020 12:42pm

Devil08 wrote: »

Spot on. People voting for Sinn fein in the hope theyll get a house easier when in fact they will make it close to impossible. Even if the house does cost 50k less it will still take years longer to get a deposit together without the HTB.

Didnt know they planned to scrap .... BUT
Cant understand your logic. 50k less of a house. Plus say it takes 3 years to save for deposit. Your rent now not being 1500 its 1000 your saving 18000 over the 3 years EXTRA. Now add what you would have saved over the 3 on top say another 12 000. You've now got 30 000 for a deposit plus your deposit is now 5000 less because house is 50k cheaper.
Then on top your house is 50k cheaper less interest to pay back less time to pay back and monthly repayments lower.

tomister · 25-02-2020 10:52pm

Verwolff wrote: »

Do you have any contact to Revenue branch dealing with HTB? My builder claims that can't draw down money while I have status approved on my side. I have no clue how to find out where the problem is. I am going to ring Revenue today but any direct contact would save me some time for sure.

Do you have an application number or a claims number? Based on what you’ve said it sounds like you have only gotten to approval. If you had submitted a claim it would state Awaiting for verification from builder/solicitor

Devil08 · 26-02-2020 9:02am

beefyor1983 wrote: »

Didnt know they planned to scrap .... BUT
Cant understand your logic. 50k less of a house. Plus say it takes 3 years to save for deposit. Your rent now not being 1500 its 1000 your saving 18000 over the 3 years EXTRA. Now add what you would have saved over the 3 on top say another 12 000. You've now got 30 000 for a deposit plus your deposit is now 5000 less because house is 50k cheaper.
Then on top your house is 50k cheaper less interest to pay back less time to pay back and monthly repayments lower.

Not sure how you think my rent is going to drop by 500 quid a month. No chance.
I'm pretty much a couple of months off having my deposit now. If Sinn Fein had their way and got into power now I'd be pushed back a couple years as they're gonna take 20k away from me. They're nothing but spoofers. I'd pay the extra premium on the house if I'm getting money from the HTB. You get nothing for nothing.

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

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