LISA First Time Buyer rule

phdstruggler

I started saving in LISA with Tembo, who are absolutely fantastic by the way! 

After loading a few £250s and then a whole £1,000, my mum decided to reveal that when I was 4 years old, we moved to a new house and they wrote me as a part-owner of it. I was 4, it was back in Ukraine, and the house is long sold. Nor me or my mum have owned a property ever since. So, now I can’t use LISA for a house as I am not classed as a “first time buyer”…

If I withdraw the money now to use it for a house as cash, I will lose around £150 in addition to the bonus of course, which is not horrible, but still very unfair I think.

Do we know if the rules may change in the future, and perhaps I should keep the money there for now and maybe by some miracle it will change? I won’t need it for another year or so.

masonic

We know that when you reach the age of 60 the penalty will not apply. Chances of it changing before that are slim, but who knows. Reducing the penalty to 20%, as happened during the pandemic, would seem like a reasonable step to take, but for some reason hasn't happened. There is certainly no point locking in the penalty now if you don't need the money now.

BevanAshford

phdstruggler said:

I started saving in LISA with Tembo, who are absolutely fantastic by the way! 

After loading a few £250s and then a whole £1,000, my mum decided to reveal that when I was 4 years old, we moved to a new house and they wrote me as a part-owner of it. I was 4, it was back in Ukraine, and the house is long sold. Nor me or my mum have owned a property ever since. So, now I can’t use LISA for a house as I am not classed as a “first time buyer”…

If I withdraw the money now to use it for a house as cash, I will lose around £150 in addition to the bonus of course, which is not horrible, but still very unfair I think.

Do we know if the rules may change in the future, and perhaps I should keep the money there for now and maybe by some miracle it will change? I won’t need it for another year or so.

Unless there is paperwork to establish that what they say is true. Just ignore something that could easily be a mistake or misunderstanding and don’t acknowledge it when asked. 

phdstruggler

BevanAshford said: 

Unless there is paperwork to establish that what they say is true. Just ignore something that could easily be a mistake or misunderstanding and don’t acknowledge it when asked. 

Yeah, the paperwork exists, but it’s in Ukrainian and very questionable! But in any case I wouldn’t deny something that I actually know is true, paperwork or not, especially not to the UK government, and for a serious investment like a house 🤷🏻‍♀️