Help to Buy Isa scandal: Breaking News

ultimatedingbat

"As far as my colleagues were aware it was supposed to be paid before deposit or soon after" - HMRC

"It's a grey area we don't know what to tell you. We need more guidance too." - HMRC

Not boding well AT ALL

cjjb86

I completed last Monday (15/8). I paid 10% of the purchase price on exchange and the rest on completion. This is when my help to buy ISA 'bonus', (which I had been diligently saving for a year) was subtracted from the total left owing.

Its neither correct nor incorrect to say that help to buy helps to boosts a deposit. It never adds to it, but on the flip side, it meant I had to pay nearly £600 less on completion which happily covered (Had more money left over) to cover almost half of my solicitors bill (which was lumped in with the completion amount.)

One thing I did realise is that there's a lot of misunderstanding with every part of the chain involving the solicitors and even the bank (Halifax) I held my help 2 buy ISA account with. When I came to close the account to claim the bonus, the teller had to call a manager, who had to spend 15 minutes explaining to me the process. Further, when it came to claiming the 'bonus incentive', the solicitor was fairly unsure throughout the process of how the bonus was to be claimed (it was their first transaction involving the bonus)

Also when adding to the ISA, the first £1000 cash deposit and £200 standing order was somewhat ill explained on the government website, and making the standing orders to the account (to build up the savings to claim the "bonus" on) could only be done at particular times during the month. I was told that if you missed a payment one month, you could double it up the next and still claim the bonus, those standing orders just rejected and didn't seem to be allowed.

Overall the help to buy ISA did save me money, money which seemingly burns away when you're buying a house, However it sure does make you work for it! I'm fairly savvy with money and small print.

However, many aren't and to them and the 'Telegraphs' somewhat misleading story from this weekend, coupled with the treasuries evident backtrack on the wording and promotion of the ISA, this will seem like another blow in these already relatively difficult times for aspiring first time homeowners.

Marvel1

How did people manage before the HTB?

cjjb86

gingercordial wrote: »

What if the boiler explodes two days after completion or a tree falls through the roof? No savings and you say you have no ability to save that up in a month or two either; you'd be stuck.

Insurance? I think a few firms do buildings insurance and a small UK company called British Gas do boiler insurance.

1,500 isn't a bad amount to have post complete if you've got an okish monthly salary, As long as you're sensible.

marksoton

It's the institutions who are to blame.

The government for poor clarity and the banking and legal "professionals" for failing to spot the anomaly and call them to order on it.

In my line of work if i failed to spot such poorly written legislation i'd potentially be in a dock.

Crashy_Time

mije1983 wrote: »

Then you could be waiting a week, a year, or 5 years.

Maybe not five years

http://www.mortgageintroducer.com/70967-2/#.V7y-RUlTHcv

Crashy_Time

marksoton wrote: »

It's the institutions who are to blame.

The government for poor clarity and the banking and legal "professionals" for failing to spot the anomaly and call them to order on it.

In my line of work if i failed to spot such poorly written legislation i'd potentially be in a dock.

Drive a crane do you?

mije1983

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Maybe not five years

http://www.mortgageintroducer.com/70967-2/#.V7y-RUlTHcv

So the number of sales are down, but the average value is actually up? So if anything, waiting could be the wrong thing to do if prices continue to go up (assuming a correlation between house prices and mortgage values)?

The point is, nobody actually knows what's going to happen with house prices. How long do you wait? If prices start to fall do you wait in case they fall further, or jump in before they may rise again? Yes waiting 6 months may be the answer, but on the flip side in 6 months properties that are within reach now may be out of reach.

Crashy_Time

mije1983 wrote: »

So the number of sales are down, but the average value is actually up? So if anything, waiting could be the wrong thing to do if prices continue to go up (assuming a correlation between house prices and mortgage values)?

The point is, nobody actually knows what's going to happen with house prices. How long do you wait? If prices start to fall do you wait in case they fall further, or jump in before they may rise again? Yes waiting 6 months may be the answer, but on the flip side in 6 months properties that are within reach now may be out of reach.

It is all about sentiment IMO, and IMO sentiment has very definitely turned, you can see that even on these boards now, where before it was all people with mortgages going "buy buy buy" now it is a lot more "Should I wait" type posts.

Gunther_Golf

cjdavies wrote: »

How did people manage before the HTB?

The primary reason (or so it appeared) for the HTB ISA being introduced was to assist people who were struggling to raise a deposit to purchase a property. In short people were not/are not "managing".

Considering how much of a hot potato the housing situation in the UK is you would have liked to have thought that the criteria/rules of the scheme would have been crystal clear from the outset.

Me and my partner have HTB ISA's and between us are looking forward to a government bonus of around £1200 to get us up on our feet - Being in Scotland the current concerns will not affect us due to initial exchange deposits not applying up here. I feel for those who have been let down