Can I use LISA or not? House purchase

Yorkie006

Hi,
can someone please clarify if I can use LISA to buy a house
Situation: 1st time buyer, sole buyer, have a deposit of £5k + 8k (+interest/bonus) in LISA (this will give me in total about 7% deposit).
LISA opened in January 2023 (4k put in when account opened and then another 4k in current tax year), so have 8k in total deposited.
Can you I use the LISA to buy this house?

The government website says:
You can use your savings to help you buy your first home if:

• you buy the property at least 12 months after you make your first payment into the Lifetime ISA

If this info is correct, I am able to use my LISA to buy.

BUT, the website of the bank the LISA is with says I can only use it if:

• You made your first deposit into a Lifetime ISA at least 12 months before instructing your conveyancer

in which case I won't be able to use it.

So, my LISA will be opened for 12+ months by the time I need it for the purchase BUT it was opened/money deposited for less than 12 months before the conveyancer was instructed.

Considering the money in the LISA is basically half my deposit, not being able to use it (or having to pay a penalty and get out less than I paid in) is going to cause some trouble.

Can someone please clarify the situation for me? Thank you!

eskbanker

The gov.uk guidance is clear that the 12 month test is applied at the time of withdrawal not when instructing the conveyancer:

when making their withdrawal, it’s at least 12 months since the investor made the first payment into the Lifetime ISA

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

Looks like Paragon have misunderstood, unless they specifically mean instructing the conveyancer to access the LISA funds rather than the start of the whole purchasing process....