Closing help to buy ISA.

brendanb581

Hi all

We might be completing on the 24th June... and the other day I realised my help to buy ISA was still open.

I have requested to close this now but can take 5 working days to get my closing letter. Does this all have to be processed for the bonus before exchange?

I feel like I might run out of time, do i then lose the bonus too?

Heelppppppp:eek:

Thrugelmir

You have 12 months to claim the bonus. There's no need to panic.

brendanb581

Thrugelmir wrote: »

You have 12 months to claim the bonus. There's no need to panic.

Oh right? From reading other posts I thought it had to be done by exchange? Thought it was part of the deposit lol cheers

nath81

When you close the account you will be given a letter by the bank, give the letter to your solicitor, and they will claim the bonus.

anotheruser

I thought the solicitor closed it?

Do they just charge you the full amount, then pay the bonus back to you in a cheque?

dazed007

Going through this now - we've exchanged a few weeks before completion as needed to give landlord notice and as the bonus goes towards completion decided to sneak another months payment into each of our ISAs before closing. What I wasn't sure about is if the 12 months to claim the bonus from closing the account can be done after completion or not.

Anyway, after exchanging my partner and I went into our respective banks and closed our help to buy ISAs and transferred the funds into our personal accounts, although the 'official letter' may take 5 days I managed to obtain a closing statement letter (Lloyds) and my partner got a closing statement stamped and signed (Barclays) as we explained we couldn't wait 5 days - please be careful when closing as the cashier tried to transact as a withdrawal initially rather than closing the account, it was only a system alert that had to be read out that saved this from happening despite me being very clear in my request.

Once you have the letter you also need to complete a First Time Buyer Declaration which you can download as a .pdf, submit these to your conveyancer and they can then process the bonus application.

Our conveyancer had decided to sign up to the scheme which I believe speeds things up, we submitted the documents to her late on the 2nd June and we received an email about half hour ago (8th June) to say the bonus has been received and is now showing on our completion statement.

Good luck!

brendanb581

What happens if the closing statement comes after you have exchanged/completed?

Surely this is too late as the solicitor has already done their work for you?

dazed007

I can't answer definitively but my understanding is that it has to go towards completion (otherwise people could potentially keep their ISAs open for another year after moving).

I believe the '12 months to claim the bonus' is the time between closing the account and applying for the bonus, both of which need to be done before completion.

I'm ready to be corrected but your solicitor would be the best person to speak to on this, also please see below link:

What if the bonus request is urgent?

helptobuyisaadmin.org.uk/conveyancers/faqs

DD137

Have you spoken to your bank? As I couldn't wait the 5 odd days for the letter to arrive I went into the branch (Nationwide) the day after I closed my ISA and they printed off a closing statement and stamped it. This was sufficient for my solicitor who then applied for the bonus.

brendanb581

DD137 wrote: »

Have you spoken to your bank? As I couldn't wait the 5 odd days for the letter to arrive I went into the branch (Nationwide) the day after I closed my ISA and they printed off a closing statement and stamped it. This was sufficient for my solicitor who then applied for the bonus.

Thanks for the reply mate - I have now asked if they would accept the closing confirmation of the account rather than the full statement as we are still waiting for that to come.

I can't see why they wouldn't accept this anyway, as it still contains all the relevant information such as the account number and closing balance.

We are attempting for completion on the 24th June so need this to go through ASAP.

brendanb581

Just an update - the solicitor is going to refund us the bonus for my partner after completion, because her statement hasn't come through just yet. We have enough money to cover the bonus, so it's all good