[0:00] When you first come to the first home approval application form, you'll be prompted to answer a question. If you have previously applied for financing for this home, it is very possible that the financial institution submitted a pre-approval form on your behalf. This financial institution should have this pre-approval number and then you can use this number to pre-populate some of the information that was submitted by the financial institution.
[0:36] If you do have this number, select yes and you'll be prompted to enter in the number. The number always begins with a prefix FHP. Once you select search, you'll see the results populate below and then you will select the case. This will open up a new screen and all of the information that was submitted with the pre-approval form will be populated and so you have less information to fill out.
[1:08] If you do not have this pre-approval case number, you will select no for the question and the standard form will be brought up. At the top, you'll see that there are several forms that you will have to submit along with this digital form and these must be completed beforehand. By clicking on them, you'll be able to download them and fill them out, scan them, and then submit them with this application. They must be completed before you submit this application and if they are not, it is
[1:41] very possible that your application for first-home exemption that your rating could be denied. Once you have those completed, the first field that you're going to select is the application type. This determines the exact type of financing property, the first, the exact type of exemption you are applying for. For instance, you have first-home acquisition and financing. This is probably the most common scenario and this is where you are purchasing a home
[2:15] and property and requesting financing for this. Then you have first-home construction and financing. This is a scenario where a piece of land has been purchased previously but no home constructed and now you are constructing your first home on this land and you are financing this construction. The last option is a first-home construction house and lot package. This is where you are purchasing a vacant land and you are also purchasing a package wherein
[2:48] a builder will construct your first home on this land. Once you have selected the type of application, you'll be prompted to enter in the real property tax assessment number. This is a unique seven-digit number that is associated with every property within the Bahamas. Below that is the applicant information. If you are submitting this application for yourself, this will be your information. If you are a legal representative submitting it on behalf of a client, this will be the
[3:19] information of your client. Many of these fields are a self-explanatory. Every field that has an asterisk next to it is required. You can see that the middle name is optional and then we have the last name as well. When we come to the birthday, we can see below we have the exact format that is required. It is month, month, day, day, four-digit year format.
[3:51] The easiest way to complete the birthday is to just type it in. If however, you would like to use a calendar icon, there is something that you should know. If you click on the calendar icon, you can see drop-down menus for both the month and the year. If you select the drop-down menu for the year, however, you can see it only goes back 10 years from the current year. If you need to get further back, you have to select that year and then you'll see that
[4:22] we have a further 10 years back that is available and you keep selecting this until you reach the year that is required for the birthday. As I said before, you can always just type it and often this is probably going to be the easier option. The rest of these fields are self-explanatory. You'll need to enter the passport number, the national insurance number on your national insurance card, the email of the applicant, their phone number, and you can see below this
[4:59] that we have a three-digit phone number with a dash followed by the last four digits of the phone number. This is the only format that is accepted. If you do not enter in this format correctly, it will prompt you to enter in a valid phone number. Then we have the address of where the applicant lives, their PO box, and then the island of where they live. If you have multiple applicants, for instance, if there are going to be multiple people on this conveyance, you select Add Applicant, and then you enter in all the information for
[5:34] the second, or third, or fourth applicant. Down here below the applicant, you'll see you are prompted to answer a question if a legal representative is applying on behalf of the applicant. If you are the individual who is purchasing this property for yourself, you will select no. If you are a lawyer or a paralegal who is submitting this on behalf of a client, you will select yes. Under the attorney field, you will see we have Firm.
[6:05] Now when you register as a legal representative, you'll be prompted to associate yourself with a particular law firm. This information is going to be automatically populated within the system, so under Firm, you will see your firm automatically populated. And then below that we have the attorney. This is the individual representing the applicant. In addition, you will need any phone numbers, the type of phone number that it is.
[6:36] If you would like to add more than one phone number for the attorney, select Add Number, then we have the emails and the email type, whether it's worker personal, and once again, you can select multiple emails. Once you've entered in the attorney's information, we reach the vendor section. The vendor is the individual or entity, I should say, that is selling this property to the applicant. There are two basic types of vendors that we can have, either an individual or a company.
[7:06] If the vendor is an individual, you will need to enter their first name, their last name, the passport number, and their nationality. If the vendor is a company, you will need the company's name, and their 10. Below that we reach the financing section. If the applicant is applying for financing, you will select Yes. If not, you will select No, and you will not have to fill out any of those fields. If they are, however, you will need to enter in the loan amount. You do not have to enter commas, just enter in the numbers, and any sense to the nearest
[7:41] hundred, if that's the case, and then you're going to select the financial institution from which they are receiving financing. If you do not see the financial institution displayed, you can check this box, and then you'll be prompted in to enter all of the information of that financial institution, their name, the 10, the address, the PO box, and then finally, the island. In this case, I'm selecting the Royal Bank of the Bahamas, free port, and then finally,
[8:14] we have the property section. Within the property, you're going to select first its type. Is it a condo? Is it a single family home? Or is it a duplex? This will determine exactly how much exemption is provided to the applicant. Then you have the street address of the property, and then finally, the legal description of the property. This needs to match whatever is on the conveyance. And then finally, is this property a gift? Select yes or no. No, if it is not, then you're going to enter in the sell price for the property.
[8:47] If it is, then you're going to enter in the fair market value of the property to the best of your knowledge. And then finally, any notes. If there is anything you would like to communicate to the first home unit officer, you can put this in the notes and they will see it within the application. And then finally, we have all of the uploads that are going to be required. As you can see, some of these, we prompted you to fill out at the top of this form, like the affidavit of first home vat zero rating.
[9:19] Then we have the conveyance, the mortgage if applicable. If you're not obtaining financing, you will not need to provide a mortgage. This also applies to the bank commitment letter upload. If you are not obtaining financing, you do not need to submit this. And then we have things such as a passport and a national insurance card. Now you might have more than one of these, depending on how many applicants are applying for this exemption. You will need one passport and one national insurance card for every applicant.
[9:51] So if you have three applicants in this application, then you will need to provide three passports and three national insurance cards, one for each applicant. And then we have the appraisal. This is going to be optional, the real property tax declaration form, the customer detail, and any other uploads as well as the affirmation. If you have any errors, you can see that you will have an error message down at the bottom and you can scroll up to the red lettering to find all of those errors that are in the form
[10:30] until you can fix all these errors, you will not be able to submit any. If you are in the process of completing one and you need more information, you need to fill out more forms, you can save this as draft and come back to it. And then finally, once you are completely done, you select submit. The form is going to be saved on the public side on this portal that you are using. It's going to be saved on the internal side. First home unit officer will be assigned to your case and within about an hour you will
[11:02] receive an email notification informing you of the acceptance of your application. And this email will also include a unique case number that identifies your specific case. Thank you.