Can someone explain how this works please?

[lilyboleyn]

Sorry.

We’ve put a deposit on a new build. Help to buy. Builder has offered £1000 towards our legal fees. Apparently this is not a direct transfer from them to us, but rather an ‘allowance’. So we have to pay the legal fees up front.

But I don’t understand whether we will get that £1000 back in cash at the end, or whether it will be taken off our total cost (but then surely we’ve got a mortgage for £1000 more than we’d need...)

I will, of course, ask the builder but they’re closed until the weekend. Solicitor not much help - just said it’s an allowance and the builder won’t give us or the solicitor a direct payment.

TIA

Solicitor not much help

Get another then. You're not paying them to be "not much help".

No one?

You can ask the solicitor to clarify. Nobody here can tell you as different builders have different deals on different properties, so we just don’t know the answer.