Help to Buy ISA guide

masonic

Perry81 wrote: »

Hi I've ran into problems with my Help to Buy ISA, my solicitor didn't claim the bonus ahead of purchase and now I'm left high and dry. Solicitor has said that she tried to resolve the problem but has been unable to. I can't seem to find any contact details for the scheme. Has anyone complained/queried help to buy isa in the past? Contact details would be useful.

The only person you have recourse against is the solicitor. If the bonus was not received and used for the purchase then you are no longer entitled to it. If that was the result of negligence on the part of the solicitor, then you could try pursuing a complaint.

Gil.I.Am

My partner and I will be buying a house soon, but I won't be going on the mortgage as I was recently made redundant and am not working at the moment, but I took out a HTB ISA a few months ago. We will probably get married in the next year so I understand this would automatically make me a co-owner of the house - does that mean it is pointless for me to keep putting money in the HTB over the next year as me having an interest in a property would then make me ineligible for the bonus? Or should I keep putting money in and then if/when we move in a few years' time I could still take advantage of the HTB bonus?

Thanks in advance

Gil.I.Am

Anyone? Not sure if this got missed over the bank holiday :beer:

masonic

Gil.I.Am wrote: »

Anyone? Not sure if this got missed over the bank holiday :beer:

It's true that the home would be treated as a marital asset in a divorce settlement. Whether that is sufficient to qualify as a legal interest for the purposes of the HTB ISA scheme, I am not sure, but it seems likely it would.

What I am confused about is why the mortgage provider would not have you on the mortgage just because you don't currently have an income. You would be jointly and severally liable, so there is no downside to them in having you on there, and if you start working again then that de-risks the arrangement for them.

Gil.I.Am

Thanks Masonic

I think it may have been due to a car I have on finance and some credit card debt (around 3k I have that I have just been paying off in installments as it's all currently interest-free) increasing our outgoings, which makes sense as my gf basically only has food/travel etc as she doesn't own a car, then as I say I was thinking it might be better if we just got this house under my partner anyway and then I could possibly still save in my HTB, and then buy again in future as a first time buyer and use my HTB bonus at that point

kieran91

Hi quick question, sorry if its been covered but difficult to find amonst 67 pages of comments.

Currently in the process of buying a house.

House price 158,000
Deposit in my HTB ISA: 4,000
Deposit in partners HTB ISA: 4,000

So we will receive a bonus of £2,000

Mortgage for 150,000 so we will have £160,000 in the pot at completion so 2,000 too much, will we receive this money from our solictor?

eskbanker

kieran91 wrote: »

Mortgage for 150,000 so we will have £160,000 in the pot at completion so 2,000 too much, will we receive this money from our solictor?

No, you should adjust the deal so you only take a mortgage of £148K.

kieran91

Thanks eskbanker. We have already had a mortgage offer of £150,000 and we would also like to use the extra cash for renovations/decoration, is the option of creating the £2,000 surplus not possible at all? Would the option have to be to reduce the amount in the ISA's to £6,400 which would rise to £8,000 on completion when the bonus is received, this way we could use the £1,600.

Nishjones9733

Hi please can anyone help. If the max you can put into a HTB ISA is 200 per month, it will take me 4 years to save the 12000 to get the max bonus, has anyone any tips on how to save more to shorten this time please ?

eskbanker

Use a Lifetime ISA instead - the 25% bonus is paid on up to £4K/year so it would only take three years to get to £12K, less if you've already started.

And if you have more than £4K/year available to save, make use of non-ISA regular saver accounts.