Help to buy ISA closure

Driverkm

My son was part way through buying his first home when the isolation kicked in. He had closed his help to buy ISA and has been given a year to get the bonus. under current climate as he's not exchanged it seems prudent to put things on hold. if the deal falls through and he doesn't find another property then he's at risk of losing the bonus. Is there anything he can do to a) reopen the isa b) get a longer guarantee?

[Deleted User]

Talk to the bank, ask if they can undo it ASAP.

jkasc

I am in the same position. After two days of arduous waiting on hold on Barclay's phone lines, I eventually managed to speak to someone there (via Twitter DM), they said yes in principle, they were happy to have me back and reopen the H2B ISA. The snag was, the ISA team needed to speak 'securely' to me. I did not have online banking set up with Barclays, so this wasn't possible. I asked if he could get them to phone me - he said not possible. I said how about email? -Again no way. He suggested when it's blown over, and branches are reopen, speak to him again, get an appointment, and go into a branch. Which realistically I'm not going to wait for, so I put my money in a different place; annoyed at their failure. 

afs2804

I'm in the same situation - I closed my Halifax H2B ISA in August, house purchase has fallen through. I took the relevant paperwork to Halifax on 16th April, they confirmed it was possible, copied all paperwork and said they would get back to me. They phoned me back on Monday 27th to say they've still been unable to reinstate my account due to staffing amid the lockdown. They are only processing essential requests - apparently this doesn't count as essential! I've contacted other banks, but they are unable to reinstate the ISA for me - it's got to be Halifax. The lady from Halifax said she will keep trying to process it, and the only other thing I can do is put in a complaint. Not impressed!

afs2804

@Driverkm You will need a purchase failure notification from the solicitor - if you search it online you can see the form they need to fill in - you can't get the account reinstated without it.

jkasc

I just managed to reopen my Help to Buy ISA with Barclays. It took around 3 1/2 months of chasing, loads of phone calls and chats with bots/customer service people over their website and twitter - it paints a very confused picture of the bank's inner workings.

The reopening hasn't been smooth. They've been very poor on communication. For about a week and a half they had cashed the cheque for the closing balance (£7.5k) but not reopened it or notified me. Only after my second long phone call this week have I determined for sure they have reopened it. Still now, they have cashed a cheque for a monthly payment (£200), and lost it - the ISA hasn't received this. Most delays and confusion due to Covid/Lockdown it seems.

But nicely they have credited me with interest for the intervening period, where my money was out of the ISA as it was closed.