Help to Buy ISA £250K Limit - are there ways round this?

StandingInTheSun

We've seen a nice new build but it's up for £260k. 

A help to buy ISA is an important part of our deposit (we have two maxed out at £12k each so that's an extra £6k government bonus) but it has a limit of £250k.

We're wondering is there a way around this? EG. Could the developer sell this to us for £250k and we pay the extra £10k as a one-off separate cash payment? 

moneysavinghero

What you are suggested would be fraud. You could offer £250,000 and hope they accept it.

grumiofoundation

Have you offered 250k with an explanation as to why this is a ‘hard limit’? 

StandingInTheSun

grumiofoundation said:

Have you offered 250k with an explanation as to why this is a ‘hard limit’? 

We haven't been to see the show home yet, a waste of time to go really if this isn't feasible at all.

A friend suggested you could pay £250k for the house and then £10k for fixtures and fittings (which aren't included in the T&C's of the ISA limit) to get around it but don't know if that's something which would work.

Really wish they had moved the limit in keeping with rising house prices. 

grumiofoundation

StandingInTheSun said:

grumiofoundation said:

Have you offered 250k with an explanation as to why this is a ‘hard limit’? 

We haven't been to see the show home yet, a waste of time to go really if this isn't feasible at all.

A friend suggested you could pay £250k for the house and then £10k for fixtures and fittings (which aren't included in the T&C's of the ISA limit) to get around it but don't know if that's something which would work.

Really wish they had moved the limit in keeping with rising house prices. 

I don’t see why it is a waste of time ? 

A ) you might not like it - issue solved. 
B )  you offer 250k, is accepted - also solved (and you saved 10k - very MSE!). 

C ) you offer 250k, gets rejected, you then investigate feasibility of paying 10k separately - the developers will probably be keen to help with this - but I wouldn’t go in asking that from the start unless for some reason you would actually rather pay 260k than 250k! 

You can pay separately for some items that aren’t fitted but price has to be “just and reasonable” - I.e. can’t pay 10k for a rusty lawnmower and a couple of chairs.
No idea whether this is easier or harder with a new build to pay separately for ‘extras’ e.g. carpets, white goods in kitchen? 

Do agree re limit but guess with Lifetime ISA ‘replacing’ help to buy ISA the HTB limit was just ignored. 

Edit: link from HMRC https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm04010