NHT Loan Applicants Urged to Hire Competent Professionals

Persons wishing to purchase a home are encouraged to engage competent professionals to avoid delays in getting their National Housing Trust (NHT) loan disbursed.

The agency promises that once persons are successful with their loan interview the money is usually paid out within 90 days. However, other processes external to the NHT may play a part in delaying the disbursement of funds.

“To avoid pitfalls or delays, ensure that you hire competent professionals – a good attorney who has experience in legal conveyancing,” said Assistant General Manager for Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at the NHT, Dwayne Berbick, at a recent JIS Think Tank.

“You want to ensure that the persons who are providing the valuation report and the surveyors identification (ID) report, that they are properly registered, properly certified, tested and proven individuals,” he added.

Mr. Berbick noted that loan applicants often encounter hurdles such as inaccurate information on documents and being misinformed by the persons they hire to complete the transaction.

“Those are some of the other issues that you face, especially when your documents go to the Stamp Office,” he said, noting that a good attorney will look out for and correct the errors “before your documents move further down the chain.”

The NHT’s website gives a step-by-step guide on what is required of persons when they are applying for a home loan, which Mr. Berbick noted is a “very involved” process.

“The institutions like the NHT or commercial banks are always on the front end of that process. Many times, mortgage institutions can do the loan processing part of it in roughly 30 days but, thereafter, comes the process of ensuring that all the fine details are in place,” he pointed out.

Mr. Berbick said that even the most minute detail can lengthen the loan-application process.

“For example, we have to ensure that 4 Half-Way Tree Road is indeed 4 Half-Way-Tree Road and that the evaluation report and the surveyors ID report don’t come back and say it is actually number 6; issues like that slow down the process,” he pointed out.

“The proper values attributed to the property, all of that it moves from the NHT to the Titles Office then Stamp Office. Many institutions on the back end do get involved and I know there’s some amount of frustration from the customer, as they don’t necessarily have an appreciation of all that is going on but hiring good counsel will help to reduce these challenges,” Mr. Berbick stressed.