Help To Buy Completion Deadline Extended To 31 May

Homes England has announced that the completion deadline for the existing Help to Buy equity loan has been extended to 31 May 2021.

The government has already extended the deadline for 31 Match to 30 April but has allowed another month to recognise that delays have been due to factors beyond housebuilders’ control, such as Covid-related absenteeism, delays to supplies materials and weather disruption.

In a statement, Homes England said: “We are extending legal completion to 31 May 2021 due to delays caused by coronavirus. This allows an extra two months for homebuilders to complete the build and for homebuyers to legally complete and get the keys to their home. There will be no more extensions, so we are asking homebuilders to continue to build at pace.”

Industry body the Home Builders Federation has said that the number of transactions affected “would likely have been low” but likely to have affected small housebuilders “disproportionately” as well as upsetting buyers, particularly those that would not be able to take up the new version of the scheme, which is limited to first-time buyers and subject to regional price caps well below the current national threshold.

Applications for the 2013-2021 scheme closed on 15 December 2020 so the extension only applies to those applications already underway.

Homes England has said no further extensions will be granted and emphasised that every effort should be made to complete sales by 31 March. But if a development has been severely delayed and buyers cannot meet the legal completion by 31 May 2021, housebuilders must unconditionally release buyers from their contract and should contact their conveyancer for advice. They are also obliged to refund reservation fees if buyers do not go ahead with buying the home.

If buyers have already received an Authority to Proceed from Homes England to use the Help to Buy scheme, the homebuilder may be entitled to make certain deductions from the buyer’s reservation fee, but they must tell the buyer about this first. Additionally, if buyers have exchanged contracts the homebuilder must also return their deposit.

The new version of the Help to Buy scheme officially launches on Thursday 1 April and is planned to end on 31 March 2023.