Help to Buy ISA guide

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  • Hi, apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I couldn't find it!


    Can I use the ISA bonus if I'm an outright cash buyer? Every mention so far has been in conjunction with a mortgage
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,375
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    Pringleton wrote: »
    Hi, apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I couldn't find it!


    Can I use the ISA bonus if I'm an outright cash buyer? Every mention so far has been in conjunction with a mortgage
    Answered in the FAQ linked from the post before yours:
    Can I buy a property without a mortgage and be eligible for a government bonus?
    No. The property you are buying must be mortgaged in order to be eligible for the government bonus.
    ....the thinking presumably being that if you're in a position to buy your first place as a cash-only purchase then you clearly aren't in need of taxpayer assistance to get onto the property ladder!
  • Can someone please help me? My partner's had his HTB bonus refused!

    We're completing on Monday. Last week we went into Barclays to close our HTB ISA's, me and partner both did it with the same clerk at the same time - closed our accounts and in the process the remaining balance was transferred to other accounts.

    I received my closing statement on Tuesday, which shows my closing balance and my bonus application went through via solicitor. My partner received his statement yesterday and the bonus has been rejected. The bonus management people have said:

    "The attached document does not confirm that the account has been closed. It also states that the customer has withdrawn the funds prior to closure, leaving a balance of 0."

    I've since checked and there is a difference between his statement and mine - his doesn't say 'closing balance £xxx' like mine does.

    I'm completely panicking now because that's £1000 of funds we were expecting.

    Our solicitor has asked for this extra £1000 today because he can't complete on Monday using the bonus funds, and he said 'we'll have to sort it {the bonus issue} out after completion'

    We gave exactly the same instructions to the clerk, and if he did mine correct why hasn't he done my partners? The only difference between our accounts is that I still have a savings account with Barclays, and my partner was closing his last account with Barclays, but the clerk didn't say we had to do anything differently.

    Can this be sorted by speaking to Barclays? And can it also be sorted after completion or will we have missed the boat to be issued the bonus anyway??
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,375
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    User1312 wrote: »
    Can this be sorted by speaking to Barclays?
    If Barclays have basically processed identical transactions in different ways and jeopardised your HTB ISA bonus in doing so then I would indeed raise it with them as a matter of urgency and insist on the correct statement being reissued today.
    User1312 wrote: »
    And can it also be sorted after completion or will we have missed the boat to be issued the bonus anyway??
    If your solicitor has said 'we'll have to sort it {the bonus issue} out after completion' then you can either question him further on exactly what he means by that or trust him. If he gets a revised statement from Barclays today then I'd have thought there's a chance that the bonus application can be resubmitted before completion (even if the actual bonus money comes through after completion).

    It could all get messy as to whose fault this is - it sounds like Barclays made the initial error but neither you/partner nor the solicitor noticed the lack of confirmation of account closure on the statement prior to submission, but obviously the key thing at this stage is to do whatever you can to get things back on track today....
  • Thank you. We only received the statement yesterday evening, and scanned it to our solicitor straight away, which he picked up this morning and applied.

    I asked him "will they say it's too late if we try and sort it after completion" and he said no. But I'm not sure he's done too many of these before so I wondered if anyone else had come across the same issue and have, in extenuating circumstances, been issued the bonus after completion.
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,375
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    To be honest your solicitor should have left more time for this anyway - the ISA manager (Barclays) has up to seven business days to provide the closing documents but even after that the bonus administrator has another week to actually stump up the cash after the application is made, as covered in clause 8.3 of the conveyancer guidelines:
    The Administrator will process a validated Bonus Request and make the payment to the Eligible Conveyancer’s Client Account within 5 Business Days. A Bonus Request must therefore be made at least 5 Business Days before completion of a property purchase.
    However, there is an expedited process that allows a conveyancer to claim a bonus without the formal closing statement, so I'd suggest that you read up on clause 9.1 of those conveyancer guidelines and discuss urgently with your solicitor....
  • Hi,
    Has any one tried to get their bonus on their HTB living outside of the main london boroughs, as my solicitor has just tried and has been told that the borough i am moving to (upminster) is not a london borough even though it comes under the london borough of havering.

    Thanks
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,375
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    Lady712 wrote: »
    Has any one tried to get their bonus on their HTB living outside of the main london boroughs, as my solicitor has just tried and has been told that the borough i am moving to (upminster) is not a london borough even though it comes under the london borough of havering.
    HTB ISA bonuses can be used anywhere in the UK, not just London, but the significance of London is that maximum qualifying property value for HTB is £450K rather than £250K elsewhere.

    So, I'm assuming that the reason for your question is that your chosen property is valued between £250K and £450K?

    As far as I can see Upminster isn't a borough as such, but is a town within the borough of Havering, which is indeed one of those qualifying as within London for HTB purposes (see Schedule 9 at the end of the scheme rules) so you should qualify. Is the specific address you're looking at definitely within the Havering boundary?
  • Hi eskbanker,

    You are correct, the property in question is between £250k-450K. yes upminster is definitely in the borough of Havering.

    Thanks for your help
  • I've just saved the attached and sent it on to my solicitor.
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