Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support Help to Buy applicants whose new build completion has been delayed.

Brandon Lewis

Current arrangements provide substantial support to Help to Buy purchasers in these circumstances. As with any new build sale, the house builder and purchaser, after exchange of contracts, have a binding contract that will specify arrangements for legal completion. As such, if there are delays to completion, the purchaser should speak to their conveyancer. The Help to Buy scheme specifies that house builders must include a completion date at the point they make a claim to the Homes and Communities Agency for the Help to Buy funding to assist the purchase. If the completion date is subsequently delayed the Agency can seek to reclaim or withhold the funding from the builder if there is very little prospect of ever achieving purchaser legal completion within a reasonable time frame.