Help to Buy ISA guide
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My boyfriend and I have recently paid our reservation deposit on an off-plan flat. We will be exchanging in 2-3 weeks time and completing hopefully in June (practical completion is due to take place in June).
We each have a Help to Buy ISA (£2,000 in each one currently). I understand the ISA monies cannot be used to pay towards our deposit on exchange but rather only at completion. Should we be applying to close the ISAs now and get the closing letter to our solicitor, or can we wait for a little longer (I don't know how long these things take and cannot find the answer online!).
Many thanks in advance for any advice.
id say wait until nearer completion
maybe two-three weeks before? 0 -
My boyfriend and I have recently paid our reservation deposit on an off-plan flat. We will be exchanging in 2-3 weeks time and completing hopefully in June (practical completion is due to take place in June).
We each have a Help to Buy ISA (£2,000 in each one currently). I understand the ISA monies cannot be used to pay towards our deposit on exchange but rather only at completion. Should we be applying to close the ISAs now and get the closing letter to our solicitor, or can we wait for a little longer (I don't know how long these things take and cannot find the answer online!).
Many thanks in advance for any advice.
You can wait - ask your bank how long they recommend, but in my experience (Halifax) it's very quick. I had a completion date of 7th March and was worried about this; I went into the branch in the 3rd or 4th week of February asking when I should close, ready to do it there and then, but the guy advised me to wait until 1st March to get an extra £50 bonus. I closed it in-branch on the morning of 1st March, was given the closure document straight away, then scanned and emailed to my solicitor. My solicitor made a minor mess-up which meant he didn't apply for the bonus until late Wednesday 2nd, but the bonus money was received by Friday (maybe even earlier, but he didn't tell me).
So, check with your bank to see if they have a different process (I think I may have heard of one which sends the closure documents by post, which obviously slows things down), but from getting the closure document it's fairly swift, so you should be able to hold off until quite close to completion date if it will be early in June. I only had 4 working days from making my last £200 deposit on 1st March and completion on 7th March, and it was fine even with a slow solicitor. Maybe now a few bonus applications have been processed, your bank and/or solicitor might be able to give you a more definitive "x working days" indication of how long you need to allow.0 -
langrobbie wrote: »Hello, was wondering if anyone has any experience with actually obtaining the government bonus at completion?
I'm nearing completion in a house purchase, and my solicitor (a pretty big well known and established firm) is saying they don't do the help to buy ISA, i.e. they wont request the government bonus.
My solicitor says it's because they are not on the panel of approved solicitors for Halifax. I called Halifax and they say there is no panel of approved solicitors, anyone can do it.
I guess there is no obligation on my solicitor to do it, but if they aren't willing, then can I get someone else to do it? Seems like I have nice government bonus waiting for me but I can't get hold of it!
Thanks! Rob
Your solicitor meant they are not on the approved panel for the HTB scheme, not Halifax specifically.
Solicitors need to be registered with the scheme as an "“Eligible Conveyancer”
in order to use the portal etc. You/they need to read the Scheme Rules (specifically 4.6) and the Conveyancer Guidelines, both of which can be found on the Help To Buy ISA admin site (under "conveyancers" and then "the scheme" - I can't post links yet but it should be easy to search online for the relevant page).
I'm not sure what happens if your solicitor can't/won't become an Eligible Conveyancer, I guess you'd have to find another?0 -
Hi Marblehead, thanks for your response. Yes my solicitor is not registered with the scheme as an eligible conveyancer. In order for them to register with the scheme they need to prove they are a real firm. To do this they need to either be registered with Lender Exchange, which then means when it comes to registering with the scheme and obtaining the bonus it's really quick, because essentially being registered with lender exchange means that the scheme can be confident they are a validated firm. If they are not registered with lender exchange then they can still register with the scheme, but it takes about 10 days longer as the scheme need to validated the firm. All quite simple.
Here's the catch with my situation. The solicitor is a member of lender exchange, and they have now applied to be on the lender exchange 'help to buy ISA panel'. No idea what this is, but my solicitor believes they must be registered on this panel before they can register with the scheme. registration onto this panel can take a very long time and they wont be registered in time for my completion. I guess it's like how lender exchange manage panels for mortgage lenders, they have set one up for ISA help to buy scheme. But Halifax and the scheme have said that a solicitor doesn't need to be a member of any panel or anything, so no idea why Lender Exchanhe have set this up? The fact they are registered with lender exchange is good though, it means that when it comes to registering for the bonus it'll be quicker, but even if they weren't registered with Lender Exchange they could still get the bonus, so I don't know what they mean when the say they need to be on this panel. I spoke to a senior partner at the firm today and they are going to look into it, basically it seems they have got themselves caught up in some lender exchange related red tape that has no bearing on registered for the scheme.
So hopefully they will come to their senses and just register for the scheme and get my £800 bonus, if they maintain that they cant because they need to be on this panel (despite the scheme and halifax saying they do not), then I'm stuck. I've called other solicitors, and they say that they cant really just handle the bonus side of my house purchase transaction, it's complicated, in that they would have liability and haven't been involved in the rest of my transaction, I would need to do ID and other legal work with them, and the max they can charge is £50 plus VAT, as per the scheme rules, so no one is prepared to do it for that, and I can't change solicitor now when so close to completion.
I think my solicitor will come good, but I've had to do so much digging to get them moving on it.
House buying process is like a full time job!
My advice to anyone using this scheme is to ensure your solicitor is well versed in it before appointing them, it's very new and most seem confused on how it works.
Rob0 -
Where is everyone else putting their savings, as it only allows £200 per month? HTB isa counts as a cash isa, and I'm not ready for a S&S isa yet.0
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There are a range of current and regular savings accounts that are ideal for building up your savings alongside your HTB ISA: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=53746140
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I am confused by the following paragraph on the Help to Buy ISA guidance:
'However, you can only use the bonus for your mortgage deposit, not your home deposit. What this means in practice is that the Government bonus can't be used toward the deposit you pay to the seller when you exchange contracts, it can only be used at completion'
I am buying with the equity loan of 40%, so I only have a 5% deposit (the flat is £335,000, so my deposit is of course £16,750 and the equity loan is £134,000). I mistakenly thought the Help to Buy ISA funds could be used towards the 5% deposit (which I assume is the deposit payable on exchange of contracts). It seems now the ISA funds can only be used at completion. My mortgage offer is for 55% of the purchase price (i.e. £184,250). So if my ISA funds get paid to my lender on completion then do those funds serve to immediately reduce the amount I've borrowed? Should I have told the lender I have the ISA before it issued it's mortgage offer? Clearly my 5% deposit, 40% equity loan and 55% mortgage make up the full purchase price, so I don't understand what is meant by a 'mortgage deposit', as there is no shortfall I need to make up?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, as I can't seem to get my head around it!!0 -
Hi All,
I opened a HTB ISA with Santander on Wednesday so that I could transfer my Natwest (split) HTB ISA over to a better interest rate.
It's all set up and ready to go (I have a 123 account so I can already see it online), and this morning I've posted off a transfer form.
I'm wondering whether while it's processing, I should put this month's £200 contribution into my Natwest HTB ISA, or wait until the transfer is complete and add this month's contribution to Santander.
I suppose adding it to Natwest now would give me a few extra days of interest, and there's less likely to be any confusion/accusation about me contributing more than I'm allowed.
Is there anything I'm missing or could I do either without a problem?0 -
Morning,
I’m looking for some advice on my HTB ISA if anyone can help as I have read something on the main website that makes me think I have transferred in the wrong way and am unsure how this will affect my savings.
My wife and I opened a HTB ISA each last month.
I had a cash ISA already and have had it for a few years but I had not paid into last financial year at all bar the interest I earned.
When we opened the HTB I transferred £1200 twice from my cash ISA into my current account and then transferred the same to each HTB ISA.
Now it is the new month I want to transfer £200 for the both of us into the HTB from my Cash ISA.
Have I done anything wrong so far and should I be doing things differently each month when looking to transfer the £200 each?
I appreciate any help you can provide.0 -
It doesn't sound as if you had done anything wrong. You are free to withdraw from your ISA whenever you like, as much as you like.
As you had not made any deposits into another ISA last tax year, you were entitled to make your HTB ISA deposit. It also sounds as if your wife had no other ISA, so no problem there either. You are also entitled to gift money to your wife (or anyone else), so again, no problem there.
Going forward, you can pay into one of your two ISAs - the HTB one or the normal cash ISA, but not both.
What do you think you might have done wrong?0
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