Help to Buy ISA guide

sharpinf

colsten wrote: »

provided your ISA is flexible. You need to check the T&Cs.

Thanks for that reminder - I've checked and as a Nationwide Instant Access Cash ISA it is flexible and it shows that way online.

Thanks to masonic as well for that confirmation

Jaunty_One

FYI for those choosing the Nationwide HTB ISA:

It takes up to five working days to receive your closure letter. I asked for a copy to be emailed but they refused to. The problem I had is that I exchanged on Apr 28th and completed on May 9th. Not much time to sort things out when you factor in a bank holiday weekend too.

I didn't want to close the ISA before exchange as I have had FOUR properties go belly up (via vendors messing me around or other extenuating circumstances on their part but that's a story for another post), plus I was part of a nervy chain so I waited until I was sure I should close it.

Long story short, completion happened before I received the HM Government bonus, then they had the cheek to send this reply:

The scheme rules state “that to be an eligible Customer, they must not be, and never have been, a residential property owner. By requesting the bonus post completion of the property purchase, this means that at the time of the bonus request the customer is a residential property owner and is therefore no longer an eligible Customer”.

Clearly they can see when I closed the account, when I purchased the home and when I made the application. I think it's unjust and though I'm ecstatic I'm finally a home-owner, I specifically saved money in the HTB ISA for the bonus, so I'm appealing their decision. Wish me luck!

You'd be doing yourself a favour by not leaving it so late in the day to apply as I did. If anyone has any tips for me, I'd love to hear them. Vice-versa, I'd love to help people avoid the pitfalls I faced through my two and a half year journey.

colsten

There's a provision for sales not going ahead. Although you may lose the solicitor's charge.

If your property purchase doesn’t go through, after you have claimed your bonus, you can re-open your Help to Buy: ISA. Your solicitor or conveyancer will return your bonus to the government, and give you a document (called a purchase failure notification) confirming your property purchase did not complete. If you take this to your bank or building society, they will re-open your account for you. At this point, you will be able to deposit your money as a lump sum. So, if you closed your account with £12,000 in it, you will be able to re-deposit £12,000.

If you decide not to re-open a Help to Buy: ISA, you can use your purchase failure notification to deposit your lump sum in a cash or stocks and shares ISA. This will not count towards your annual ISA subscription limit. However, if you do put your money into a cash or stocks and shares ISA, you won’t qualify for a government bonus if you later use the money to buy a home.

- See more at: https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/faq/#sthash.LZ1POBgQ.dpuf

koselur

Hi all

I have a question - I set up a HTB ISA with Halifax (4%) back when they started (December?) I have paid in £2k. I want to transfer the account to Virgin (3%) now that Halifax have dropped the interest rate to 2.5%.... BUT I haven't yet been paid my 4% interest from Halifax (I would get this on the anniversary of opening my account).

http://www.halifax.co.uk/isas/cash-isas/help-to-buy-isa/

"Interest is calculated daily and it will be paid yearly on the anniversary of the date you opened your account (or on the working day immediately after if your account's anniversary date is not a working day)."

My question is: if I transfer the account now do I lose the interest accrued or does that follow the savings into the new account?

Hope this makes sense Thanks!

Beckyo

Both I and my partner set up Help to Buy ISAs in March but we are now having real difficulty claiming the bonus.

We are currently in the process of buying a flat, but following exchange our solicitor handling our property purchase told us they are not registered for Help to Buy ISA and have no plans to register for the scheme. We are now trying to find another solicitor who may be able to claim on our behalf, then transfer the funds to our existing solicitor prior to completion. However it seems that hardly any solicitors have actually signed up to the scheme?! I am not even sure that our existing solicitor will agree to this arrangement.

This leaves us in a very frustrating position as we are unable to claim what to us is a substantial amount of money.

Has anyone else experienced this?

masonic

koselur wrote: »

My question is: if I transfer the account now do I lose the interest accrued or does that follow the savings into the new account?

Any interest that has accrued but has not been paid will be added to the closing balance during the transfer.

BUT!!!! Halifax has only dropped the rate for new customers, so why transfer?

Sophie508

Quick question, we are due to exchange on 30th June. Is the money used towards the deposit? For instance our deposit it £15,001 , we have a bonus of £1150 . Would this mean we them pay £ £13850 ?

Or does it not work like this ? I see a lot of people say yes and a lot of people say it's to be used on completion of the purchase ? I don't understand what 'completion of a purchase ' is?

Please help no one seems to know

Thanks x

masonic

Sophie508 wrote: »

Quick question, we are due to exchange on 30th June. Is the money used towards the deposit? For instance our deposit it £15,001 , we have a bonus of £1150 . Would this mean we them pay £ £13850 ?

Or does it not work like this ? I see a lot of people say yes and a lot of people say it's to be used on completion of the purchase ? I don't understand what 'completion of a purchase ' is?

It goes towards your mortgage deposit. There are other payments that may also be referred to as a "deposit", which is why some people try to describe it using different language.

bhoy1976

My wife and I were really interested in the Help to Buy ISA but this £250,000 maximum value is unrealistic.

The best we could hope for in Brighton & Hove would be a 2 bedroom flat.

In fact, for that money, we'd be hard pushed to buy a property outside of our area for that money.

I don't know what £450,000 gets you in London but £250,000 doesn't get you much in Sussex.

TrustyOven

masonic wrote: »

It goes towards your mortgage deposit. There are other payments that may also be referred to as a "deposit", which is why some people try to describe it using different language.

I thought people on this forum were saying it goes towards the total outstanding amount of the mortgage.

So if you need to accumulate 15000 depost before you can start proceedings, you would not be able to use your HTB bonus for this part, and after you exchange contract and get your keys and you are in your house and moving your stuff in, then the bonus gets applied to the total outstanding mortgage...

That's how I understood it from some other reply on the foum.

Is the above correct?