Help To Buy Avis 

Help to Buy kept us in limbo for over 10 months, the whole process was utter hell.
Firstly you have to pay for the privilege of filling in a form yourself to the tune of £200, then around £400 to get a RICS valuation (that we ended up paying for THREE TIMES because Help to Buy were so unresponsive that the valuation kept timing out), I was calling them everyday and never getting through, emailing constantly with no response, we had our mortgage broker and lawyer lined up and ready to go but the utter incompetence of this company meant we ultimately paid an upsetting amount of money simply to absorb the HTB loan into our mortgage. Our original 5 year mortgage timed out, even though we started the whole process 6 months in advance to make sure everything was completed on time. We ended up having to apply for 2 mortgages, one for the original mortgage and then a second for the HTB amount. The whole process lasted nearly a year and every step was a complete disaster with unnecessary stress created by the companies incompetence.

Keanu P is an absolute star! He has massively helped me throughout the whole process of a transfer of equity and for removing an ex partner off the account and both mortgage and help to buy being transferred into sole name (myself). He has been very efficient and super helpful throughout and i cannot thank him enough for his support.

My experience with Help to Buy and obtaining a redemption pack has unfortunately been disappointing. Communication has been very limited, and I was left waiting weeks for any update. When I finally did hear back, it was only to be told that a form had been completed incorrectly — something that could have been clarified much earlier and saved a great deal of time and stress.

While the scheme itself is a good idea in principle, the way it is administered feels inefficient and unnecessarily difficult. Clearer communication and more proactive support would make the process far smoother and less stressful for those relying on it.

I hope these issues can be addressed so that future applicants have a smoother and less stressful experience.

Vjay was amazing, he helped me with updates on many clients cases and was very friendly

The HTB service is horrific. We've tried to redeem and they have a terrible habit at running interference when valuations are lower than the purchase price. SPOILER ALERT - valuations of government funded entrapment of desperate renters into over inflated new builds are below their original purchase prices... They either don't respond to emails or they invent brand new things each time which are completely new and differ from official requirements. Fraudulent, illegal and harmful. This needs to be thoroughly investigated and these people held to account.

Vijay P is a star!

Vijay was absolutely amazing in supporting us through the Help to Buy redemption process during sale of our house. Vijay was able to answer all questions immediately, was super professional and allayed concerns. We were nervous about the interruption Help to Buy would pose on the sales process but they have proven to be the easiest and smoothest element - mostly thanks to Vijay's fantastic service.

Thank you again!

Both Veejay and Isa were amazing - I couldn’t have asked for better customer service. So helpful and quick. Best customer service I have received in a very long time. Keep up the good work guys!

Edit: Mollie was also great too!

A bunch of money grabbing con artists. Not only do you raid us for £1000s extra. You charge us £200 for doing all the work. You literally process a form. Greedy con artists. Customer service is horrendous. No one responds to you. When you call up they have the biggest can’t be bothered attitude. You just milk milk milk milk. And as long as you bleed customers dry you don’t care about the service you offer.

I have had bad experiences in the past mainly around huge delays but they have changed something, not sure what but may be higher budget more people , they have amazed with over last couple of week with top class services, waiting time of less than 5 minutes and super quick clear and fast responses. ATC was issued on phone. Whatever changes have been made, they are amazing. Brilliant. Well done and thank you.

IF I COULD LEAVE A SCORE OF -100 I would !
What an absolute joke and disgrace of a company!
Every step of the way they have processed our issues incorrectly ! We spent months on the phone on hold - 100’s emails to be ignored.
A call centre not even owned by help to buy that’s incompetent of listening or even understanding a complaint! You should be utterly ashamed help to buy .
And what type of UK GOVERNMENT decide to outsource a call centre to a company who doesn’t even understand the legalities of the system !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have now waiting 68 days to have our complaint resolved to find out it hasn’t even been allocated yet ! A letter to the financial ombudsman is now being complete !

Thank you to Charlie D who completed the redemption process over the phone and explained clearly the next steps and what was needed by the Solicitors. She followed this up with an email explaining the process and cc in my solicitor
Polite professional and efficient - would highly recommend. She has eased my stress

After maintaining and improving my home for five years, I was shocked by how much Help to Buy drained from the final sale — all while adding little value and charging fees at every stage.

To repay the loan, Help to Buy forces you to pay for a RICS valuation (around £400), but here’s the kicker: they don’t even use the valuation if the sale price ends up higher. So what’s the point? It’s just another hoop to jump through, at your expense.

Then there’s the £200 “admin fee” for a form I filled out myself. No service, no real admin work — just a charge for the sake of it.
Add to that another £500+ to solicitors, mostly to deal with Help to Buy’s own requirements, and suddenly you’re hundreds (if not over a thousand) pounds down just to give back money they loaned you years ago.

Meanwhile, they contributed nothing to the upkeep or value of the home. I handled all the repairs, improvements and maintenance — yet they still take a chunk of the sale price without recognising any of that. It’s a one-sided deal.

A fairer model would be:
• If Help to Buy wants a RICS valuation, they should cover the cost — or
• Ditch the RICS process and take 20% of the sale price with a minimum repayment (e.g. the original loan plus £1,000 or so dependant on the initial loan value. Higher the more etc), so people aren’t forced into selling low just to settle quickly.

Right now, it’s a system built to benefit them, not the homeowner. The fees are excessive, the processes are outdated, and there’s no real support. It might have helped people get on the ladder, but getting off it comes with a price far higher than expected.

Jack JD made the entire process incredibly simple and efficient. He was extremely helpful in completing the HTB redemption process in under 10 minutes during our phone call. He also took the time to clearly explain the next steps and the solicitor process that follows.

Really appreciate your support—thank you!

Keanu on the legal team was fantastic really helpfull dude, !

A shoutout to Alex H, helpful, positive and quick to resolve and correct an error on behalf of HTB. Not all agents are as helpful, he told me he would resolve the issue and update me on the next steps. I also found out something I didn’t know about the 1 month extension desktop valuation extension, all other agents just mention the 3 months extension. I hope all other agents are trained to Alex H’s standard!

I have just made more progress with H2B in one phone call to the absolutely stellar Elise P than I have made in the previous 6 months. This young lady is a credit to the organization and I am deeply grateful for her assistance.

Despite initiating the process to remortgage out of the HTB loan 5 months ago and calling almost weekly in that time, we are no closer to making any progress. The service is shocking and how they are able to get away with this is criminal. We are now on a variable rate because we have been held up by HTB. We will be seeking full compensation. HTB have been unable to “find our account” due to their incompetence and because we apparently don’t have an account we cannot make a formal complaint with them or progress with our remortgage. I don’t understand how they can be allowed to continue to operate given the volume of similarly shocking reviews. They need to be held to account.

As long as HTB have quality people like Ryan N., then I am sure that the rates for HTB's service will go through the roof! I consider myself lucky I had someone like him to deal with my case, since he has helped me in a great and valuable way which all I can say is 'Thank you for your service sir!'. Keep up the good work and hats off on you/(him)!

When remortgaging to pay off help to buy, was quite simple and straightforward, however when emailing information across to them no reply is ever given except an auto reply and I had to chase up via phone, when on the phone everything was confirmed and cleared quickly

Exemplary customer service from Brandon. During a lengthy phone call he was very patient and ensured that everything was explained in a way I could understand whilst actioning my application. He made a very stressful situation much easier and was a pleasure to talk to. Thank you Brandon!