Right to Buy vs MoneyBox Lifetime ISA

Pavv

Hi All,

Hope you can help with the below.

Basically, I am in the process of purchasing a council maisonette/flat from the council via the Right to Buy Scheme in London. The market price is £470,000.00, however, we qualified for a discount due to our tenure with the council of £112,800.00. Therefore the Purchase price the Council have offered us to purchase the property at is £357,200.00. I have funds saved in our MoneyBox Lifetime ISA which I would like to use against our deposit. However, MoneyBox have advised that the funds we have saved up through their scheme would still be subject to a penalty fee (we lose the government bonus as well as get charged a percentage of what we put in).

My Broker has advised me to challenge this in case I dont lose out on additional funds. My Broker's understanding is surely the price that you are exchanging at which is £357,200.00, and not at £470,000.00, is below the threshold of £450,000.00 which MoneyBox and LifeTime ISA stipulate. If this is the case, I hope I would not lose out or be penalised on the government contribution we have received.

I have spoken to HMRC and they were not sure.

Please can you help with the above query and provide clarity, as I do not want to close my Moneybox account and lose out on possible funds which I could be entitled to in case wrong information has been advised.

Kind Regards,

Pav

Keep_pedalling

According to HMRC guidance to LISA providers it is based on the purchase price, but it also states the following:-

 If a Lifetime ISA investor acquires an interest in land jointly with another person who previously owned the land, the purchase price is the market value of the whole of the land at the time of the acquisition.

As the current owners will still have an interest in the property for 5 years after the purchase the above condition could be the reason the full market value would apply rather than purchase price.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/lifetime-isa-withdrawals-for-a-first-time-residential-purchase