Help to Buy ISA with Remortgage

james_lawless

Hello,

My mortgage is due for renewal in a few months as the current ‘deal’ is due to come to an end. My fiancée and I are happy with where we live but the house is currently mortgaged/owned by me alone. She has a Help to Buy ISA and so I wonder if it would be possible to use this & the bonus to contribute towards the remortgage in both of our names? 

If this isn’t possible what is recommended to make the best use of these funds? It seems a shame to lose out on access to the bonus given the way she’s saved. 

eskbanker

She can use her HTB ISA bonus provided she's 'officially' buying into the property, i.e. a formal transaction conducted via a conveyancer to add her to the title deeds, rather than simply being added to a mortgage.

bowlhead99

She is allowed to buy part of your property from you by paying you some cash and taking on some of the mortgage; in doing so, the amount of cash she's paying you could be partly (or perhaps fully) funded by the ISA bonus.  For her solicitor to claim the bonus, the HTB bonus amount has to be used to partly pay her purchase price - the money that she owes you to complete her purchase of a stake in your house - rather than simply withdrawn from her ISA, kept in her bank account and spent on paying down the mortgage later. But with the money she's paying you for acquiring part of your property... if you're able to reduce the total size of the mortgage by paying down your mortgage it sort of works out the same.

The scheme rules do point out that if she's buying an interest in the house to hold jointly with someone else who previously owned it, the maximum 'purchase price' limit of £250k (or £450k London) is tested against the whole value of the property at the time she buys in, rather than just the amount she's paying for her interest in it.

"Purchase Price" means
c) in connection with the acquisition of an interest in land by a person who as a result of the acquisition becomes a joint owner of the land with another person who previously owned the land, the market value of the whole of the land as determined at the time of the acquisition;