Help to Buy ISA and Lifetime ISA Timelines

unuspromulti

Hi All,

I'm a potential first time buyer with a HtB ISA, opened a LISA last April and am now looking at making an offer on a property. My plan up to now has been to use the ISA if buying before March 18 and if after that I'd transfer the ISA into the LISA and use the LISA.

What I don't know is how long it's likely to take to transfer the ISA into the LISA and how long it would take for the solicitor to extract the money and bonus from the LISA in order to use it as part of the purchase. I'm assuming any LISA bonus won't be available until early May at best if I put money in in April as bonus is paid monthly after the first year.

If I knew the above I think I'd have an idea as to when I might be able to complete using the LISA (talking May/June?) which if used correctly (top up 2017 allowance and again in April) could be worth another £1500+ in bonus which would be great. I guess that the solicitor might want to do this some time before completion also but I don't know what the norm has been with the HtB ISAs and if that might push potential completion time out further.

The other part is being a FTB I don't know how long to expect to wait from offer to completion and if getting an offer accepted in Dec/Jan would mean completing in March or later. I know every sale is different and that websites talk about conveyancing taking 8-12 weeks although people I speak to say it took them a lot longer. For us it would probably be ideal to wait a bit to get the advantages out of the LISA but would there be a risk that if the seller got their purchase in order etc before my LISA was ready (and after I'd transferred the ISA) that I could get stuck asking the seller to wait? Or, would I be best trying for a quicker sale using the ISA and if we get to March and the completion looks a long way away then look to the LISA?

Sorry there's lots of hypotheticals but I just want to understand the different situations that we might get into so I can get my expectations in order. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

juniordoc

It would be useful to know a bit about the property you are planning on offering on in order to help you predict what happens next.
Would you be buying leasehold or freehold?
What is the position of the seller? Will you be starting a chain with them then having to find somewhere they want to buy? Do you have any idea from them or their estate agent how quickly they are likely to want to progress?

unuspromulti

Thanks, property would be freehold.
Seller will be buying somewhere (downsizing following divorce) so starting a chain.
Seller has said that they're in no rush at the moment having had two previous sales fall through (buyer had change in circumstances) and not wanting to stress although it's been on the market a year.