Application Guidance Notes
These notes will assist you to complete the application form and help you decide if you can afford a HomeBuy property.
To download the Guidance Notes notes click here (pdf document).
If there is anything further you would like us to explain which will help you to complete the form, please contact us on Freephone 0800 707 6 707 during normal office hours: Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm. You can also contact us by email at info@search4myplace.co.uk.
SECTION A - ARE YOU ELIGIBLE FOR LOW COST HOME OWNERSHIP?
Please answer Questions 1-7 to check whether you are eligible to apply before completing an application form.
Q1. You need to ensure that you can afford the initial costs associated with buying a property. We estimate you will need a minimum of £2,500 to pay these cost which include:
Survey and/or valuation
Gas and electric tests
Solicitors fees
Local authority search
Land registry fee
Bank transfer/other charges
Notice of charge and transfer
Stamp duty
Reservation fee (where applicable)
Q.2. Buying a home means that you will need to have a good record of making regular payments for your mortgage and rent. If you have had problems in keeping up with regular repayments in the past, we will only consider your application in exceptional circumstances – please call us to talk this through.
Q.3. There is a joint household income ceiling of £60,000 for HomeBuy schemes. If your household income is above this level, you are not eligible.
Q.4. See Question 2
Q.5. If you are employed you will be required to supply details of your employment to a mortgage lender. If you are self-employed you will need to be able to supply copies of 2 years accounts to a mortgage lender. If you are not employed or self employed, you will need to have sufficient capital to fund the purchase without further borrowing.
Q.6. You must be 18 years or older to be eligible for HomeBuy schemes.
Q.7 You must be without the resources to buy a suitable home on the open market in the area you wish to live.
What if you cannot tick all the Boxes in Q.1 to Q.7?
If you are unable to tick all the boxes please contact your local authority housing advice centre to discuss alternative options which may be available to you.
Filling in your application form
To complete your application you will need to have the following information available, so you may want to collect it all together before starting to complete the form:
National Insurance number
All address details for places you have lived in the last 3 years
Your employer's address and telephone number
Current and previous employer's details
Details of your gross annual income before tax and deductions, and not including any overtime or bonuses.
Details of any outstanding loans, including credit card and store card debts
Details of your current monthly rent or mortgage payments
Total monthly outgoings, see page 6 for details
If you are on a council housing waiting list, your reference number
SECTION B - WHICH SERVICES ARE YOU APPLYING FOR? (tick one or more)
Tick more than one box if you are interested in more than one scheme.
Q.8. New Build HomeBuy
(formerly known as shared ownership or part rent/part buy).
You usually buy a share in a brand new home using a mortgage, typically 50%. It may be possible to purchase a share between 25% and 75% initially, but it will also depend on what you can afford and whether the housing association or developer is selling different shares. Unlike the Open Market scheme (described below), you will pay a subsidised monthly rent to the housing association or developer on the share you do not own. If you wish you can buy additional shares in your home at any time until you own 100%. (there may be restrictions on full ownership in some rural areas).
Q.9. Open Market HomeBuy
Two new products, which are backed by the Government, have just been launched to help eligible applicants buy their own home.
These two new products are part of the Government's Open Market HomeBuy initiative and offer key workers and other first time buyers access to an equity loan of up to 50% of the property's value.
Ownhome
Ownhome is provided through a partnership between Places for People and The Co-operative Bank. Ownhome gives people the chance to take up to 40% of the value of the property in an equity loan from Places for People.
You will pay nothing for the first five years on the equity loan. After these five years, a low rate would be paid on the sum – starting at a fixed rate of just 1.75% interest per year for the next five years, and then increasing to 3.75% interest per year from year eleven.
The remainder will be funded through a conventional mortgage with The Co-operative Bank. There will be no premium or extra charges on the mortgage and customers can choose from a range of competitive deals including fixed rate and tracker options.
You can apply for Ownhome through MyPlace. You may also wish to obtain further information by contacting Ownhome direct on 0845 607 0110.
My Choice HomeBuy
My Choice HomeBuy enables applicants to apply for a mortgage with any lender they choose. The scheme will provide applicants with up to 50% of the value of the property as an equity loan. The remainder will be funded through a conventional mortgage with a Financial Services Authority regulated lender.
The purchasers will pay a low rate of 1.75% per annum on the equity loan funded by The Swaythling Housing Society. The rate paid on the standard mortgage will depend on the deal selected through the mortgage providers.
You can apply for My Choice HomeBuy through MyPlace. Please click here to read the My Choice HomeBuy leaflet.
With both products no deposit is required, but is allowed. When the property is sold, the equity loan provider will be entitled to a share of any increase in the value of the property.
The Government currently intends that we use a multiplier of 3 x joint income and 3.5 x single income when deciding if you can afford Open Market HomeBuy.
Q.10 Resales
It is also possible for you to buy a second-hand HomeBuy property. When a HomeBuy purchaser chooses to sell, they must initially market the home through their original housing association or developer landlord for a short period, so the landlord has the chance to sell the home on to someone else looking for affordable home ownership.
We will provide housing associations with a list of qualifying buyers from the register who may be interested in purchasing a property, based on for example, local authority area of choice, price and in some cases, local connection.
Housing Association's will hold details of properties for re-sale and may also advertise properties on the MyPlace website.
Q.11 First Time Buyer Initiative
This is a new initiative from the Government's regeneration agency English Partnerships to help people into affordable home ownership. The government will build homes with developers on a number of publicly owned sites and some of these homes will be offered to first time buyers on a shared equity
basis. Normally you will purchase a 50% equity share and in the first few years there are no other charges to pay. However, after three years a charge on the property will be introduced.
You may buy more shares when you can afford it or redeem your equity loan at any time. The first homes will probably not be available in the South West until 2007, and half of the homes provided under this Initiative will be specifically for key workers.
Q.12. Intermediate Rent
In a few places we may be able to offer homes for rent at below the private rented sector price but above what you would normally pay if you were a council or housing association tenant. This is a relatively new scheme and not many homes are being developed on this basis in the South West at the moment.
SECTION C - ABOUT YOUR HOUSEHOLD
Q.20 Your National Insurance number is required to provide a unique reference number for your application
Q.21 We need current and under Q.24 previous address information in order to carry out the necessary finance credit checks on all applicants.
Q.28 Our preference is to contact you by email. If you provide your email address we will normally correspond with you in this way.
SECTION D - LOCAL CONNECTIONS
Q.33 In some parts of the South West, particularly rural areas the local council to may have a requirement that buyers must have a local connection with an area.
Q.39 Answers to these questions will help to assess your connection.
SECTION E - PROPERTY REQUIREMENT
Q.40 If you wish to be considered for a property outside the local authority areas listed please give details of where you want to live e.g. local authority or town. We will then pass your application to the HomeBuy agent for that area who will contact you. However, keyworkers should apply to the HomeBuy agent in the area where you currently work.
Q.41 As a general guide, you will be matched to properties which meet your household size requirements. However, developers may be willing to offer you a property which has one extra bedroom than your household requires, depending on price and availability.
Q.42 If you have a disability, it is important for us to know because this could mean that certain developments are more suitable to your particular circumstances.
Q.44 Those on the register who require wheelchair adapted properties may also be sent details of properties not adapted, for their consideration.
SECTION F - EMPLOYMENT DETAILS – KEY WORKERS ONLY
Q.45 Key workers have been defined in the South West as “any public sector to employee delivering an essential public service”. If your occupation is not included on the list in the application form please go to Section H.
SECTION G SUPPLEMENTARY KEY WORKER QUESTIONS
Q.52 This information is required for government statistical reporting purposes and to if required by government may be used in the assessment of your application.
SECTION H - EMPLOYMENT DETAILS (All to complete)
Q.57 All applicants in employment, (including key workers) including self employed to should complete this section of the application form.
Q.61. If you are self employed please state the nature of your self employment under Q.58 and provide details of your business name and address under Q.59. You will only be considered for an offer of a property if you can supply, when asked, two full years of annual accounts produced by an accountant. (Please do not send with your application form).
Q.62 If you are not in permanent employment you will need to be on at least a 12 month fixed term contract with reasonable prospects of future contracts.
SECTION I - MONTHLY INCOME/SAVINGS
This information will be used to make an initial assessment of how much you can afford to pay towards your new home. In doing this, we will take into account your gross income as well as any outstanding loans and savings.
Please note that a full appraisal of your income and expenditure, including a full credit check of your financial history will be made by the housing associations/other developers offering New Build HomeBuy, (MyPlace will carry out this appraisal in the case of Open Market HomeBuy applications) prior to any approval to purchase. This will include a requirement that you supply supporting documentation such as payslips and bank statements, and your ‘in principle' mortgage offer, when requested. (Please do not send this with your application form).
If you are looking to purchase through Open Market HomeBuy, you will be advised if and when approval is given in order that you may look for a property.
Q.64 Your gross annual income is the amount you are paid every year as your salary, before the government takes any tax, national insurance or other deductions. If you are unsure of the exact figure, ask your employer.
Q.65 If you are a previous or current home owner this figure should include any equity acquired from the sale of an existing or previous home which you intend to use toward the cost of your new home purchase.
Q.66 If you have other regular sources of monthly income that could help our ssessment it is important that you tell us.
SECTION J – MONTHLY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
This section will give us a good idea of whether you will be able to afford the ongoing monthly financial commitments involved in owning a home.
Q.68 If you are in receipt of Housing Benefit or Disability Allowance this does not to always exclude you from accessing an affordable home as long as you have ufficient capital to contribute to the initial purchase.
Q.71 You should include the total amount of all your outstanding loans, credit and store cards no matter how much they total or how many you have.
Q.73 Your current rent or mortgage payment each month gives us an idea of what you are used to spending on housing compared to what you will be spending when you buy a home.
Q.74 To help you answer this question, we suggest you use the list at the back of this booklet to work out the total of your monthly outgoings. You don't need to include your rent, mortgage, loan, credit or store card repayments, because you will already have given us that information in previous questions. You will be required to provide this detailed information to housing associations/developers (in the case of Open Market HomeBuy this will be to MyPlace) when a full assessment of your application is done prior to approval to purchase. (please do not send information until requested). You will therefore find it useful to retain your completed notes for future reference.
You should estimate these costs taking into account any savings or anticipated increases you may incur in moving to your new home, but be realistic. You will probably be asked to provide further details of your monthly outgoings before any offer of purchase is made by a housing association or developer or, in the case of Open Market HomeBuy, MyPlace.
Q.75 It is important that you answer this information correctly as a full credit check of your financial history will be carried out before any offer to purchase is made. Failure to provide this information could affect your application.
SECTION K - WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT HOUSING CIRCUMSTANCES?
Q.76 Please tick one box only which best describes your current housing circumstances.
SECTION L - PREVIOUS OR CURRENT HOMEOWNERS
Q.84 State briefly the reason for your application, for example – Relationship breakdown, or existing shared owner
Q.86 You will need to have sold your current home or have sold your share of it and have been taken off the mortgage before you could be considered for a property to purchase. See also the note re Section A – ‘Are you eligible for low cost home ownership', at the beginning of this guide.
SECTION M - SOURCE OF INFORMATION
Q.88 This information will assist us to know which types of publicity have proved successful in advertising MyPlace.
SECTION N - EQUAL OPPORTUNTIES
Q.89 The equal opportunities questions are voluntary and used for statistical and to record keeping purposes. It is also used to ensure we comply with the law in making assessments of all applications.
SECTION O - ADDITIONAL GENERAL QUESTIONS
Q.92 These questions should be answered if this applies to you or any member of & your household. This information is required for reporting purposes to local authorities and housing associations.
SECTION P - DECLARATION
It is important that you read this information before signing. In the case of applications where two applicants are applying, please ensure that both read and sign the form.