Homes England

4. Mr P complains that HE will not reimburse an interest fee payment of £70.58 that it took after he redeemed a Help to Buy loan in September 2023.

5. He also complains HE did not provide him with documents to confirm the loan had been redeemed and that it has instructed the Land Registry to update its records.

6. Mr P says he has been caused distress and inconvenience.

7. Mr P would like HE to pay back the interest it took from him as well as the administration fee of £200, to recognise its poor service to him.

8. In July 2023, Mr P completed a redemption of a Help to Buy loan application. The loan was redeemed on 5 September.

9. Mr P raised a complaint with HE on 4 September. He complained that a payment for interest on his Help to Buy loan had been deducted on 1 September while the redemption was in process.

10. HE acknowledged his complaint a few days later. On the same day, Mr P also explained he was not happy because HE had not yet sent him confirmation that the loan had been redeemed or that it had contacted the Land Registry for it to update its records.

11. On 18 September HE replied to the complaint. It said there had been a problem with its processing refunds and it hoped to get this to him soon.

12. Mr P replied the same day. He added that he was not happy to have paid £200 for the administration fee when he believed HE’s service had been unacceptable. He explained he had not received certain documents after the redemption. Mr P asked for compensation and for the redemption documents.

13. HE replied and said it had looked into the matter and a refund was not due because the redemption was settled on 5 September.

14. Mr P replied and repeated that he was due a refund of £70.58. He said he wanted compensation and the documents relating to the redemption.

15. The next day after not hearing back from HE, Mr P emailed it to say he now wanted his administration fee back, compensation and the interest charge refunding. He said this was because it had not sent him the redemption document or processed a refund.

16. HE responded the next day to explain he was not due a refund of the interest charge. It apologised for telling him it would process a refund.

17. Mr P continued to email HE explaining it should refund the interest, send him the redemption documents and give him the administration fee back.

18. On 6 October, HE looked at the issues again. It explained that on 1 September when the interest payment was taken, this was for August’s payment. It said as he did not redeem his loan in August, this was still due. It apologised for not explaining this on the redemption letter it had sent him.

19. Mr P came to us two days later.

20. On 20 October, HE sent Mr P a letter to confirm his loan settlement had been received and that once any outstanding fees or interest are paid, it would close the account. It said once it has closed the account it would arrange for the removal of the DS1 charge (at the Land Registry) within ten days.

23. Before we decide if we should do a detailed investigation of a complaint, we look at whether there are signs the event(s) complained about had a negative effect which the organisation has not put right. Having done this we think HE has already done enough to put right the impact of its mistake in telling Mr P it would refund his interest charge.

Loan interest charge

24. Information available on GOV.UK in relation to Help to Buy loans shows that as part of the loan agreement a monthly interest fee is applicable along with a monthly management fee. It says if a person wants to change their equity loan, including remortgaging or making an equity loan repayment, they need to pay an administration fee. We will come on to this later in this statement.

25. Mr P’s redemption payment went through on 5 September 2023. Mr P complains that even though he redeemed the loan, HE took an interest payment of £70.58 on 1 September. He complained to HE and asked for it to refund this payment because in his view the loan had been redeemed and it should not have taken this payment.

26. HE emailed Mr P to confirm his complaint and it set out what it would be looking into. At this point, HE said it would look into his concern about the interest payment. But, Mr P responded to this confirmation email and he added that he also wanted to complain that HE’s service as part of the redemption process was not acceptable and he wanted compensation.

27. HE explained at first that there had been some processing errors and that it would process a refund of the interest payment shortly.

28. There were then several email exchanges where Mr P requested compensation for HE’s poor service and complained that it had not sent him documents to do with the loan redemption.

29. In its final response, HE apologised for incorrectly telling Mr P it would refund the interest payment. It seems that in fact, the payment was not incorrectly taken because the interest for August’s monthly payment was what it took on 1 September. It explained that as the redemption was completed in September, August’s monthly payment was still due because he did not redeem the loan in August.

30. Our Complaint Standards say that organisations should explain why things went wrong and find suitable ways to put things right for service users. Staff working in complaints should give meaningful and sincere apologies and explanations that openly reflect the impact on the service users.

31. We think HE made a mistake when it told Mr P it would refund his interest payment. It must have been very frustrating for Mr P when it later said it would not do this. HE appropriately apologised for its error and explained how it happened. It also set out the reasons why the interest was due and why it would not refund it. This was in line with our complaint standards. We think an apology and an explanation was enough to put things right.

32. Mr P thinks HE should make the refund because it told him it would originally, he thinks it has backtracked. We disagree. We are satisfied HE has provided a clear explanation of why the payment was taken and why it should not be refunded.

Administration fee and redemption documents

33. Mr P complained to HE that it had not sent him a confirmation letter that the loan had been redeemed and it had not contacted the Land Registry. He considered this poor service and wanted HE to refund him its £200 administration fee.

34. We asked HE for more information about its processes for what happens when a homeowner wants to pay back a Help to Buy loan. We did this because we could not see that HE had addressed this issue as part of the complaint.

35. HE sent us many documents. From these, we can see that when Mr P had been asking for the completion letter, the redemption process had not been completed. HE had been waiting on different documents from Mr P’s solicitors. For example, his solicitor did not send the DS1 (a form completed by the solicitor for Land Registry) and a completion statement until 15 September. So, HE simply could not send him those documents straight away. It sent them to him a few weeks after he complained to us.

36. There does not seem to be a set timeframe for HE to send out these documents, so we would expect it to send them ‘promptly’ in line with our Principles. Given that HE could not do what it needed to until after 15 September, we think that almost five weeks to do the work and send Mr P the documents, is reasonably prompt.

37. While it would have been better customer service if HE had explained this as part of its complaint response, we are satisfied it has sent Mr P what he asked for and within a reasonable timeframe. There does not seem to be any reasonable basis for Mr P to expect his administration fee back.

1. We have carefully considered Mr P’s complaint about Homes England (HE). We have decided not to take any further action because we think HE has appropriately explained why an interest payment was taken from Mr P in September 2023. We have also seen that HE sent Mr P the documents confirming the redemption of the loan. We think HE’s apology for incorrectly telling him it would refund the payment is an appropriate remedy for the frustration and confusion its mistake caused.

2. HE provided the documents Mr P requested on 20 October 2023, just a few weeks after he brought the complaint to us. We think this puts things right for Mr P and there are no grounds for it to refund the administration fee it took. There was a process for HE to follow with the redemption that involved a solicitor, so it could not have sent the documents when Mr P was originally asking for them.

3. We understand Mr P’s frustration at being given incorrect information - HE’s responses about the interest were not always clear. We are satisfied though that HE acted in line with our complaint standards by accepting its error and apologising for it.