Help to Buy Isa - house sale collapse

Pabs88

Hi all,
I closed my HTB Isa in January 2021 to buy my first home. This dragged on a bit and frustratingly the seller withdrew last week. I have read online that I just need to get some confirmation letter from my solicitor to confirm the sale fell through (already requested) and can reopen my HTB Isa. However, given you can no longer open a HTB Isa, my question is do I have to transfer to a new lifetime Isa or does the bank just reactivate my closed account? The Isa was with Barclays who are looking into my query because  they don’t know what the procedure is. In the meantime I wondered if anyone had recently gone through the same thing and how it was dealt with. 
Cheers, 
Pabs

eskbanker

The HTB ISA website has now been removed and the link to the scheme rules no longer works, but the document is still visible at http://web.archive.org/web/20210506142301/https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/documents/2015/12/scheme-rules.pdf/, where clause 6.8 outlines the reinstatement process.  It's not entirely clear what criteria apply regarding whether it's possible to reopen it and there does appear to be the option not to do so if no longer offering them, so it'll be interesting to see what they say:

the Eligible ISA Manager shall, where it is possible to reopen the Help to Buy: ISA, re-open such Help to Buy: ISA and permit the Closing Date Funds to be paid into such Help to Buy: ISA; or (ii) where it is not possible for the relevant Eligible ISA Manager to re-open the Help to Buy: ISA previously held by that Help to Buy: ISA Holder as contemplated by paragraph (A)(i) above, and provided the Help to Buy: ISA Manager continues to offer any Help to Buy: ISA products to the public, require the Eligible ISA Manager of that Help to Buy: ISA to open another Help to Buy: ISA

I don't think there'd be any right to transfer to a LISA (where there's a strict £4K/year limit even when transferring) so suspect that you'll need to push for HTB ISA reinstatement....

masonic

Remember that the closure letter is good for 12 months, so if you are confident of completing on an alternative property within that timeframe no action may be needed.