How quick to draw down Lifetime ISA LISA for urgent completion - experiences

Angeljayne129

Hi all,

Forum newbie (posting not perusing!) and I'm curious as to personal experiences of conveyancers drawing down money held in a Lifetime ISA for the purpose of buying your first house.

To keep it simple, I'm purchasing and selling in the middle of a chain. The vendor selling to me will be a cash buyer, all our deposit is coming from equity and the remainder is mortgaged. Our buyers are first time buyers.

They have a Help to Buy ISA and a Lifetime ISA to fund their deposit and the rest is mortgaged.

Timescales - our property was listed for sale in the middle of Jan, under offer in 9 days. By April us and our vendor we're ready to go only to find our buyers were purposefully stalling due to their benefits / legal aid / general finances. Anyway, this sale fell through, we relisted and back under offer in a day.

Current buyers purchased the previously completed searches off our old buyers solicitor (eventually - delayed due to their solicitor taking a nice 2 week break after Easter).

No problems with the searches, buyers went in to sign contracts thinking they'd be all set, only to be told by their solicitor they now had additional paperwork to complete and drawing down their deposit from the LISA could take 10 - 30 days (HTB ISA not so much of a problem as they can request the government bonus within 24 hours using the expedited process).

The buyers solicitor has put an urgent request for the money (9th May giving 2 days for ISA provider to process this) as completion is urgent for us and our seller (personal circumstances - and I know solicitors / our buyers aren't bound by this).

We haven't yet exchanged - it is likely that exchange and I'll completion will be simultaneous (everyone in the chain is ok with this to just get it all boxed off).

The buyers solicitor sent the declarations etc off to the ISA manager yesterday asking for the money for tomorrow.

My question really is, what are your experiences of drawing down the balance from a LISA and has anyone managed to get the money that quick when the conveyancers have processed the paperwork and listed it as urgent?

We're not banking on it happening (no vans booked or anything, I'm on maternity leave so can be available for a short notice move) but it would be nice to know if there is a chance.

I don't know who the LISA is with.

Any experiences are much appreciated!
Thanks

Viki2410

Our LISA was with Hargreave Lansdown. The solicitor requested on 15/04 and they had the funds on 23/04, so less than a week including 2 bank holidays. We were told it could take up to 30 days though

diggingdude

Took about a week to get to get mine from Skipton

Angeljayne129

So there is hope that there won't be a massive delay with the funds - we have everything crossed!

Angeljayne129

Just wanted to update in case anyone else is ever looking for an answer - the LISA was with Skipton and they did release the funds to the solicitors on the 10th May so we were able to exchange and complete! Our buyer had to contact them on the 9th as they'd emailed giving instructions of how to authorise the draw down and they hadn't received the actual form but Skipton soon sent it and it was all sorted.

So FYI, the Help to Buy ISA government bonus was paid in 24 hours using the expedited process and the LISA only took 3 days to draw down. All depends on the conveyancing solicitor - they have to process the paperwork quickly and request it as urgent but it is possible!