Help to Buy ISA Experience

karasdfghjkl

Hi All!

My partner and I reserved a new build with Ashberry Homes today (a company under the umbrella of Bellway) we have our AIP and are awaiting an apt with the mortgage advisors to start the full application...

However they have just told us that the bonus from the Help to Buy ISAs sometimes does not contribute to the exchange deposit so I was wondering others experiences of this. We currently have our full deposit saved in our ISAs and approx. £1500 saved for fees (and will continue to save as we get closer to completion). Missing the bonus would mean a short-fall of approx. £1200:(. I've heard some people managed to negotiate a smaller deposit on exchange using the bonus or use their bonus for legal fees on completion. Does anyone have any experience of this or what happened to them?

Thank you all in advance!

Thrugelmir

Use the funds towards completion, i.e. legal fees etc.

adamh87

It 100% can't be used for the exchange deposit. Use the fees cash to make it up, or free up the money you're saving now to make the difference up.

You'll get the bonus money at a later point in the process so you'll be no worse off all in all.

This was a bit of bad government policy that initially looked good, not your fault. The LISA fixes this issue, but sounds like you don't have time to wait a year for the bonus to pay out.

Best of luck with your new home!

robgoode

Are you able to get an agreement in place where you are able to pay exchange deposit at the same time as your completion payment? We did that and the builder was happy to receive the full deposit on completion.