Each week, we round-up the best comments, emails and letters to the site and pick one reader contribution as our Star Letter. This week’s award goes to:
The Help to Buy questions that still need answering – Marketwatch
Let us work to get the practices of the major builders out into the open to make the advice process more accessible to not only the public but also all the other approved mortgage advisers in the market currently being denied access to the scheme for their clients.
For the builders it is all about keeping very tight control of the transaction for their benefit only. Let us not kid ourselves differently. My own experience is that nearly all the major builders over the years have charged a fee to their own panel advisers for the introduction of the client.
With current schemes such as NewBuy, these are set up on a closed shop basis between lenders and builders – the builders have understandable leverage on this scheme to select their own advisers as the builders are partially backing the equity sharing arrangement.
However, the builders should have no such leverage under Help to Buy as there is no commitment on their part to any equity funding. Builders will in order to maintain control try to create leverage by introducing various incentives to the client eg. paying Stamp Duty, providing white goods etc. etc. and then making the purchase and incentives conditional on their own advisers and solicitors being used.
I have personally in the past week lost two clients who I willingly provided considerable assistance with the Help to Buy scheme only to loose them as the builder insisted on their advisers being used. Let there be no doubt, the rules are being flaunted and it is imperative that the HCA get their message out promptly and effectively.
For the Help to Buy scheme to reach its maximum targeted audience, the clients need access to as many good advisers as possible and not just a handful of advisers selected on a self interest basis by the builders.
Jim W
