:: Battle has started! ::

Just to update my friends, Theodore and I received letter from HDB last week regarding our loan and appointment to collect keys to our flat. The loan amount was kinda the same, except that it is a little higher due to my pay increment. I was disappointed, but if you know me, I tend to imagine the worst things to happen and this is one of it, meaning to say that I wasn't too shocked by the news.

The appointment date was set as this Thurs. The unfortunate thing is that, the lady handling our sales, Li Ting, has gone on maternity leave, so we had a new lady, Patricia, taking over. I had to call customer service on Monday to find out if there's anyone taking over our case! When Patricia called me, she didn't seem to understand our issues, as though Li Ting didn't hand over and explain on our behalf. I had to explain all over again as much as she was willing to listen. 

Just a brief summary of sequence of events:

1. We applied for a flat in September 2011, all the info I got was that the Date of Completion would be 31 August 2013.

2. We applied for Housing Loan from HDB end November 2011, told to send in more supporting document and results came back with a loan of $156,300 approved.

3. We went to the MP to request a higher loan, but to do this, we needed to defer the loan assessment until Theodore has finished 12 months of employment. At the same time, the deferment would help to delay the submission of our marriage cert because the Additional CPF Housing Grant we are requesting requires a copy of the marriage cert before the grant can be disbursed to us.

4. We selected our flat on 19 January 2012, a flat that costs $440,500. The sales officer told us we will likely receive $35,000 of Additional CPF Housing Grant.

5. I think we have chosen a wedding date, but officially booked the Sanctuary in church only in February 2012. The banquet venue we wanted was due to close in end March. We were disappointed that our first and only choice was down. We had to start researching on other venues. While researching, we came to know that the venue we wanted will be taken over by another restaurant group.

6. On 3 April we went to rekke the banquet venue with my parents. There we signed the contract with deposit paid by my mom.
Somewhere in between we received updates that the flats were completed and ready for key collection.

7. In July we applied for HLE again, because we received letter that we managed to defer the next appointment until June, just when Theodore has completed 12 months of employment.

8. We also received letter of our AHG approved. Amount was slightly less than expected, not sure why. I felt it would be a losing battle to try appeal and get $5000 more so we left it as that.

9. Our loan got approved, with the amount slightly higher at $161,300.

10. In August, we got our letter for appointment to sign the agreement of lease and to collect our keys! But with the loan amount not yet sufficient, we needed to do something about it.

We went to meet MP on Monday evening to ask for help to write an appeal letter to HDB for higher loan, as well as to ask if we could defer the submission of our marriage cert. We had approached the MP for help once before. They managed to help to a certain extent and we needed more. While I admit that we didn't choose the cheapest flat available, I must say that we chose the one most worth the money and one that meets most of our criteria. Praise God!

Theodore just went to hand the letter to one of the officers there on Tuesday and managed to postpone our key collection date. Please pray along with us for favour that we will be able to get the right amount of loan and get this flat! Thanks!