Managing your equity facility

You may want to make some changes to your equity facility over its lifetime, as your circumstances change.

These may include:

• Managing your service charge payments
• Changing the name we use for corresponding with you
• Changing the address we use for corresponding with you
• Adding a new party to or removing an existing party from the equity facility
• Updating the equity facility upon the death of a customer

You will automatically receive an annual statement on your equity facility. You may also want to request a statement on your equity facility covering a specific period of time.

Guidance on how you can go about making any of these changes or requests can be found below.

Managing your service charge payments

Under the terms of your FHS Customer Contract, service charges become payable from year 6 following the drawdown of your FHS Equity Facility for services related to the provision, maintenance, and servicing of your equity facility.

Service charges are calculated at the following rates per annum:

The service charge rates are fixed for the life of the equity facility.

Service charges accrue daily and are applied to your account monthly in arrears, so your monthly service charge may vary depending on the number of days in the month. We will contact you before the service charge is due to be applied to the equity facility to confirm your preferred payment option.

You can choose whether you want to:

• Pay the full monthly service charge by monthly Direct Debit, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), or via a debit card facility
• Pay a reduced amount if you can’t afford the full monthly service charge
• Make a once off payment against any accrued service charges
• Defer payment until another date

There is no additional cost associated with deferring the payment of service charges, however, the service charge will continue to accrue against your equity facility and will need to be paid in full at a later date.

Setting up or changing your monthly Direct Debit

You can set up or change your monthly direct debit through the FHS customer portal by completing a Direct Debit Mandate form, or by calling us on 0818 275 662.

Making service charge payments via debit card or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

You can make service charge payments via debit card or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) by calling us on 0818 275 662.

Deferring service charge payments until a later date

You can defer service charge payments until a later date through the FHS customer portal by completing a Defer Service Charges Payments Request form, or by calling us on 0818 275 662.

Changing the name we use for corresponding with you

If you are an existing party to the FHS Customer Contract, we can change the name we hold on file for you for the purposes of corresponding with you. You can change the name we use for corresponding with you through the FHS customer portal by completing a Change Customer Name Request form, or by calling us on 0818 275 662.

If you wish to add a new party to or remove an existing party from the equity facility, these are separate processes. Please see Adding a new party to the equity facility or removing an existing party from the equity facility for more information.

Changing the address we use for corresponding with you

If you are an existing party to the FHS Customer Contract, we can change the address we hold on file for you for the purposes of corresponding with you. You can change the address we use for corresponding with you through the FHS customer portal by completing a Change Customer Address Request form, or by calling us on 0818 275 662.

If you are changing your correspondence address because your employer requires you to live elsewhere, we will also require a letter from your employer confirming that this is the case.

If you are changing your correspondence address because you are renting out your home or it is no longer your Principal Private Residence (PPR), under the rules of the FHS, you must redeem the full equity share, as well as service charges that have accrued against the equity facility. Please see Redemption / Buying Back the Equity Share for more information.

Adding a new party to or removing an existing party from the equity facility

If you would like to add a new party to or remove an existing party from the equity facility, we can organise this if you contact us through the FHS customer portal, or by calling us on 0818 275 662. We will ask you to complete and return to us a number of legal documents, in conjunction with your solicitor.

One / all parties to the equity facility is / are deceased

Where there is only one party to the equity facility, who is now deceased, then under the terms of the FHS Customer Contract, the equity share must be redeemed. Similarly, where there are multiple (2 or more) parties to the equity facility and if all of those parties are now deceased, then under the terms of the FHS Customer Contract, the equity share must be redeemed.

In the case where there are multiple (2 or more) parties to the equity facility and if one of those parties is now deceased and another party to the facility remains living in the home, the FHS equity facility does not need to be redeemed, but we will update our system of record for future correspondence.

Please notify us of the above scenarios by contacting us via the FHS customer portal, or by calling us on 0818 275 662.

Requesting a Statement

You will automatically receive an annual statement on your equity facility.

If you require a statement covering a specific period of time, we can provide this to you on your FHS customer portal if you complete a Statement Request form, or by calling us on 0818 275 662.