Guidance

How to repay your equity loan when you sell your home

The process you need to follow to repay your Help to Buy: Equity Loan when you decide to sell your home.

Applies to England

Making changes to your equity loan

Before you make any changes to your equity loan or mortgage, you need to understand how those changes may affect you. You should think about getting independent financial and legal advice.

You need to keep paying your management fee, and monthly interest if this is due, until you repay your equity loan in full.

You’ll need to settle any outstanding payments, or ask our Customer Service team to set up a payment plan, before making any changes to your equity loan.

How much you need to repay

When you sell your home to repay your equity loan, the amount you repay will be based on either the market value of your property, or the sale price, whichever is higher.

The market value of your property is worked out by a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) valuation.

If you are paying monthly interest or management fees, you should keep making these payments.

You’ll need to settle any outstanding payments in full, or set up a payment plan with our Customer Service team, before they can continue with your request.

The amount you repay includes interest, fees and any outstanding payments, or arrears. You must repay all of these in full to complete the repayment process.

When you’ve received an offer on your property, or are close to confirming the house sale, you need to follow these steps.

1. Get a surveyor’s valuation report

Before you contact a surveyor, you must tell us about anything that may affect the value of your home, as they may need to agree which RICS surveyor you can use.

This can be things like:

  • external cladding
  • any breaches of planning permission
  • building regulations that have an impact on your property’s value (for example, a conservatory that does not have a building control certificate)

If your property is affected by external cladding

If your block of flats has certain types of external cladding, you may need a specialist valuation of your property.

How the valuation report should be made

You’ll need to:

  • send our Customer Service team a RICS valuation report for your property, so they can work out how much you need to repay
  • pay for the report yourself

The report must be:

  • created, signed and dated by the certified RICS surveyor who made the survey. Find a RICS surveyor in your area.
  • on the company’s headed paper addressed to Homes England
  • supplied as a PDF file or a digital document that you cannot edit

We cannot accept valuations that are made for bank or mortgage purposes.

Our criteria for the surveyor

You should give the surveyor making the valuation a copy of these criteria.

They must:

  • be both RICS qualified and registered
  • be a RICS member or fellow (MRICS or FRICS) - if you have Help to Buy: Equity Loan (2021-2023)
  • be independent of any estate agent
  • not be related or known to you
  • inspect the inside of the property
  • provide at least 3 comparable properties and sale prices within the last 12 months - they must be like-for-like homes in type, size and age, and within 2 miles of the property that is being inspected
  • provide bespoke market commentary and reference how the comparable properties provided justify the determination of market value

The report is valid for 3 months from the date it was produced. You must send our Customer Service team the report within 5 working days of the date it was issued. You can do this by post or email.

Post: Help to Buy Customer Service team, PO Box 5262, Lancing, BN99 9HE

Email: [email protected]

When emailing our Customer Service team, please include your account number and a brief summary of your query in your email subject line, i.e. RICS report.

If the report expires before your property sale completes

If your valuation report expires before you repay your equity loan, you’ll need a ‘desktop valuation’ letter which will extend the original valuation by 3 months.

This letter must be:

  • from the same RICS surveyor that made the valuation
  • on the company’s headed paper and addressed to Homes England
  • supplied as a PDF or a digital document that you cannot edit

If you do not complete the repayment process in the additional 3 months, you’ll need to provide a new valuation report.

If your valuation report is due to expire, we’ll write to you and ask you to get a desktop valuation.

Getting a desktop valuation

The RICS firm who did the original valuation can supply a desktop valuation report without visiting the property in person.

They must:

  • refer to the original valuation report
  • confirm the updated report is a desktop valuation
  • be a surveyor from the same company as the first inspection
  • provide at least 6 comparable properties and sale prices from the last year if the property has increased or decreased in value. If 6 are not available, they must state this clearly
  • provide bespoke market commentary and reference how the comparable properties provided justify the determination of market value

The report must be:

  • made within 2 weeks of the expiry date of the original valuation report
  • completed, signed and dated by the same RICS surveyor
  • on the company’s headed paper and addressed to Homes England
  • supplied as a PDF file or a digital document that you cannot edit

This valuation is valid for 3 months from the date it is produced.

We need to receive it within 5 working days of the date it was issued.

If you do not complete the repayment process in the additional 3 months, you’ll need to provide a new valuation report.

If we reject the report

You must make sure your surveyor carries out the valuation in the way we’ve asked.

We may reject the valuation report if it:

  • does not follow the instructions
  • is too high or low compared to similar properties

If we reject the report, you’ll need to provide and pay for a new report.

If you do not agree with the new valuation

Under the terms of your equity loan agreement, the President of RICS will appoint a RICS surveyor to produce a final valuation.

2. Find a conveyancing solicitor

You must instruct a conveyancer to carry out the various legal processes that are required.

You can find a conveyancing solicitor on the Law Society’s website.

3. Complete the repayment application form

Complete and return the equity loan repayment to our Customer Service team.

Help to Buy: Equity Loan repayment application form

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Email:
[email protected]

Post:
Help to Buy customer services, PO Box 5262, Lancing, BN99 9HE

You must provide your conveyancer’s contact details and give the conveyancer authority to act on your behalf.

You’ll need to send us your RICS market valuation, and memorandum of sale if you’re selling your home.

When emailing our Customer Service team, please include your account number in the subject line with the reason for your email, such as ‘repaying equity loan with house sale’.

4. Pay the administration fee and any arrears

You’ll need to pay an administration fee of £200 when you apply to repay your equity loan.

You’ll also have to clear any arrears or outstanding payments. If you cannot clear your arrears, you may be able to:

  • continue with your application if you agree to a payment plan
  • clear the arrears before the repayment process completes

Your conveyancer will need to confirm with our Customer Service team if this is possible.

How to pay

You can pay by:

  • online bank transfer
  • debit card by calling 0300 123 4123
  • cheque

You must tell our Customer Service team if you pay online. Email [email protected] or call the number above to confirm.

When emailing our Customer Service team, please include your account number and a brief summary of your query in your email subject line, for example ‘payment’.

Our Customer Service team is available Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm (excluding UK public holidays).

Payment details

Bank name: Lloyds Bank PLC
Account name: EQGATEWAY RE HE HELP TO BUY ADMIN
Sort code: 30-80-12
Account number: 24501860

Reference: Your customer reference number or first line of your address and postcode.

We cannot progress your application until we’ve received this payment.

5. Receive a redemption letter

We’ll send you and your conveyancer a redemption (repayment) letter after you’ve sent us:

  • the RICS valuation report
  • your completed application form
  • the administration fee
  • a copy of the Memorandum of Sale from your estate agent When you’ve sent us everything, we’ll review your application and contact you if we need more information. 

This letter will confirm:

  • that you can repay your equity loan
  • the percentage of equity loan you took out
  • an estimate of how much your repayments will be, based on the valuation report

The repayment amount will include any outstanding interest, fees and arrears.

When you sell your home to repay your equity loan, the amount you repay will be based on either the market value or the sale price, whichever is higher.

We’ll send your conveyancer a list of items they need to put into a ‘legal undertaking’. This is an agreement that is formalised in paperwork.

If the sale completion date on the undertaking is delayed by more than a week, they may need to create a new undertaking and repayment amount.

If the funds from the sale of your home do not cover the total amount due, you’ll need to make an additional payment.

We will not grant an ‘Authority to Complete’ (a form giving you permission to complete your sale and repay your equity loan) until you have repaid everything you owe, or a payment plan is agreed.

Repay your equity loan

We’ll issue the ‘Authority to Complete’ form within 5 days of receiving the legal undertaking from your conveyancer (or when a payment plan has been agreed).

This means you can repay your equity loan and your property sale can complete.

Completing the process

  1. Your conveyancer transfers the funds to repay your equity loan. The total amount will include any interest, charges, administration fees and arrears that you owe.

  2. Your conveyancer sends you the relevant completion documents.

  3. When we receive the funds, we’ll check that the amount matches the figures on the Authority to Complete and inform your solicitor.

  4. Your solicitor will certify this and send you a ‘completion statement’ on headed paper.

  5. Once you’ve fully repaid your equity loan and other costs, we’ll apply to the Land Registry to remove the charge on your property.

If you’re paying monthly interest and management fees, you should keep making these payments until the process is complete.

Your feedback matters. Please complete our short survey, it will only take a few minutes.

Updates to this page

Published 5 May 2021
Last updated 23 November 2023 + show all updates
  1. Guide has been updated to encourage customers to complete an application form before paying an administration fee.

  2. Contact details updated

  3. Updates throughout to clarify the role of Homes England's equity loan administrator.

  4. Added a link to the cladding guidance for Help to Buy homes.

  5. First published.

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