Yahoo Finance ‘Homes England transferred our house to someone else’s name’
Homeowners have been asked to prove that they own their properties after a government error accidentally transferred them into other people’s names.
Homes England – the Government agency which manages £19bn-worth of Help-to-Buy loans – has admitted a technical failure resulted in homeowners’ names being taken off their accounts.
In some cases, it resulted in properties being transferred to the names of their neighbours.
Felicity Phelan, 38, bought her newbuild home with her partner four and a half years ago in Northstowe, Cambridge. With no portal to check their account, they had assumed everything was fine. That is, until they received a letter a month ago with their address on it under their neighbours’ names.
Immediately, Ms Phelan phoned Homes England. After waiting on hold for over an hour, she was told to send them the property’s title deed in order to prove they owned the house they had been living in since 2019.
The glitch meant their names had been wiped from the system, and that their neighbours – who had also secured their house through Help-to-Buy – now technically held loans on two properties.
Homes England blamed the error on “a technical update” of its supplier’s systems. The housing body said the issue has now been rectified with loans put back in the right names – but not all affected borrowers have been contacted.
It comes just months after The Telegraph revealed Help-to-Buy administrative delays had forced homeowners on to higher mortgage rates. The government agency said at the time that it had introduced “new technology” to deal with them.
‘It cost us £25 – the whole thing felt like a scam’
Ms Phelan said: “The whole thing felt like a scam. How have they [the Government] lent money to us without knowing who we are?”
After speaking with Home England Ms Phelan immediately got the title deed from her conveyancing solicitor and sent it. After that, she heard nothing from the agency and was forced to contact them a second time.
A second person at the government agency told her she also needed to send certified copies of her and her partners’ passports. She was told it would not cost her anything to do this but when she got to the Post Office, she was told she would have to pay £25.50.
Ms Phelan said: “We were being made to pay for their mistake. They have made this whole thing our problem to fix when it’s clearly an issue on their end.
“They were saying they had none of our details. We were really worried they would think we owe a different amount on a different property. There’s no online login, we have received no paperwork, and you can’t check the status of your loan.”
The couple had only used Help-to-Buy to borrow an additional 5pc of their house’s value. The equity loan will soon start bearing interest, but the two have saved the money to pay it off in full before that.
They needed their names put back on their account to do this, as they could not risk paying for a valuation – which can go out of date after just three months.
After the Telegraph got in contact with Homes England, Ms Phelan received confirmation from the customer support team that they have now updated the details of her account with all of the correct information and promised all future documents would have the correct details.
Homes England confirmed a number of people had been affected by the technical failure.
The spokesman said: “We cannot comment on individual cases, however we understand there was an issue relating to a small number of general correspondence letters resulting from a technical update to our supplier’s systems.
“Homes England take this extremely seriously and have been assured by our supplier the error has since been corrected. We will continue to work closely with our supplier to monitor and make improvements to the service.”
‘Help-to-Buy should be managed in the private sector’
Last month, an independent review of Homes England was published for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
Tony Poulter, the government non-executive who led the review, told the Telegraph he questions whether Homes England – an agency meant to help with new housing – should also manage the sixth largest mortgage book in the country.
Mr Poulter said: “If you wanted to transfer it to a private sector organisation, you might need to improve the systems first. There perhaps needs to be a one to two-year plan where responsiveness is improved. Then they could transfer the book to a private institution. Or DLUHC could do it itself.”
The report concluded that the Help-to-Buy loan book was “distracting” the agency from housebuilding.
It said: “Meeting both housing supply and regeneration outcomes will…be more difficult to achieve if the Homes England board and leadership oversee Help-to-Buy and the Building Safety Programme for much longer.
“Help-to-Buy should be managed fully in the private sector or under a contract with the Government.”
But customer service complaints grew when Help-to-Buy transferred to a new third-party company to manage the loan portfolio in mid-2023.
Even as recently as the past month, customers claim on X, formerly Twitter, of “constant misinformation”, delays and lack of response. Others have also made reference to “lost” property documents.
The independent report acknowledged that the transfer from the previous administrator “led to a period of significant disruption” which “risked jeopardising housing transactions or exacerbating customer arrears”.
It added: “There have also been challenges with maintaining up-to-date customer information in the data that does exist, due to the loan terms and specification of the IT platform.”
The Help-to-Buy equity loan scheme was set up in 2013 to stimulate new house building and first-time ownership. It closed to new applicants last October, but allowed buyers to purchase a new build home with a 5pc deposit and a 20pc government-backed equity loan, or 40pc for those buying in London.
This loan was interest-free for the first five years. After that, interest is charged at 1.75pc – a rate which then increases by a measure linked to inflation. In July, this rate was 6.8pc.
