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Buying A House: Using Skipton’s Lifetime ISA (LISA)

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In 2018 we purchased our first home as first time buyers and used our Skipton Lifetime ISA to fund our deposit. This post covers why we chose the Skipton Lifetime ISA, how the Skipton Lifetime ISA withdrawal system works and our experience of it. If you are in the process of buying your first home and have a Skipton Lifetime ISA, read on for how quickly our conveyance received the funds and how we found the whole process.

Since the launch of the Lifetime ISA over a year ago, I have championed how great they are for first time buyers and have told anyone who will listen that it’s one the best ways to save for a deposit for their first home. We opened our Lifetime ISA with the Skipton in June 2017, basically as soon as it became available. Before that we were saving in a Halifax Help to Buy ISA which was giving us around 4% interest.

There were a few key differences which made us decide to switch from using a Help to Buy ISA to a Skipton Lifetime ISA which were:

    • You could only put £200 a month into a Help to Buy ISA, whereas the Skipton Lifetime ISA you could put up to £4000 in it at any time.
    • The bonus on the Skipton Lifetime ISA was paid into the account after the first year of it being open and monthly after that, meaning you could earn interest on the bonus. The Help to Buy’s ISA only paid the bonus when it was withdrawn by a conveyancer.
    • The Skipton Lifetime ISA can continue to be used to save for retirement after using some of the funds for a deposit whereas a Help to Buy ISA was only for purchasing a home.

When we opened the Skipton Lifetime ISAs we decided not to transfer the funds straight away as the Skipton were paying less than 1% interest and instead ‘got the clock ticking’ on it being open for a year. One of the rules is the LISA must be open for one year before your conveyancer withdraws it. Just before the end of the financial year we transferred our Help to Buy funds meaning we were eligible to receive the bonus and all the money was there ready for the purchase of our first home.

We found our dream home at the end of April and put in an offer at the beginning of May. By mid May we had found a conveyancer and by mid June he had completed our searches and was ready to receive our deposit. Skipton claim it can take up to 30 days for the funds to be transferred from the LISA to your conveyancer but we found this to be a lot quicker and I believe you can get it even quicker if you press Skipton and are on the ball with it.

We didn’t realise at first that you need to send off two documents to the Skipton to request the funds which delayed things by a few days as it was a Friday when our conveyancer said he was ready for our funds, Monday before I sent off the documentation, and then due to me missing the Special Delivery cut off, Wednesday before he received it. It was then a further day before he sent it meaning get Skipton probably didn’t get the paperwork until over a week after our conveyancer first asked for us to transfer the deposit. Two key things to remember:

  • Lifetime ISAs are relatively new and many conveyancers are unsure of what to do themselves, so familiarise yourself with what you need to do beforehand.
  • Get the paperwork filled in and ready WAY before you get to the deposit request stage so your conveyancer can simply send it off when he is ready (bearing in mind also the 30 days)

The two pieces of documentation you need filling out are located on Skipton’s website. One is a form you fill in to let them know your details (Investor Declaration) and how much you want to withdraw, and one is your conveyancer’s document with their bank details on and details of their firm. (Conveyancer Declaration) After around a week, I rang Skipton to chase and they could see that they’d received the forms, but without me having a completion date, there was not much that could be done. Imagine my surprise when I was contacted via email by one of their contact centre employees only a few days later.

It was a Saturday morning when I got the email which hugely surprised me as I thought there’s things would only happen Monday- Friday. I was sent a document confirming that I wanted a  Skipton Lifetime ISA withdrawal and asking me to use Adobe reader to sign it documentation to confirm this. Once signed, it saved automatically and was emailed to myself, Skipton and the conveyancer as confirmation that I authorised transfer of the funds and a date popped up for an agreed transfer date which was two days later. They informed me that although this was the agreed transfer date, it could take two further working days to show in the conveyancer’s account.

I was really impressed by this as I was assuming it would be another form in the post, followed by me having to post it back, adding more days onto an already long winded process. On the Monday I rang the conveyancer several times to find out if the funds were showing, but there was nothing. I remembered about the two days and gave it until Tuesday afternoon and when they still weren’t showing, I checked my online account and saw that the balance was still intact. I rang Skipton immediately who kept me on hold for quite some time before coming back, apologising and transferring the funds there and then. I actually received an automated email while I was still on the phone saying the funds had left my account, something I didn’t even know existed before this point and would have been looking out for if I’d had known.

Two key learning points about the Skipton Lifetime ISA Withdrawal process:

  • Don’t assume that because they agreed to move the money on a certain date, that they will. Continuously chase. I lost two days by giving them the benefit of the doubt.
  • You will receive an email as soon as the money is moved. It’s an automated email telling you a withdrawal has been made. This will give you the knowledge the money has actually been moved.

By the Wednesday, the conveyancer had my funds. It was 20 days after he had first asked me about them which is good considering Skipton do say ‘up to 30 days’, however I reckon we could have knocked another 7 days off that at least.

I’ve written our time line below to give you an idea of what to expect, but also how you can make changes to get your money to your solicitor even quicker:

9th May: Put in an offer

11th May: Found conveyancer, starts searches

20th June: Searches comes back.

29th June: Conveyancer emails me requesting deposit funds

4th July: Conveyancer receives Skipton Lifetime ISA withdrawal paperwork from us

6th July: Skipton receive completed paperwork

14th July: Email received from Skipton asking to confirm transfer of funds

16th July: Date money to be transferred

17th July: Phone call to Skipton to find out why funds are still showing in MY account at 4pm

18th July: Conveyancer confirms funds are showing in his account

Hope this helps with your house buying process. If you have any further questions about the Skipton Lifetime ISA withdrawal process, don’t hesitate to message me and I will help if I can!

Using your lifetime ISA (LISA) to purchase a new home, the withdrawal process and how long it is likely to take #ftb #firsttimebuyer #lifetimeisa #skiptonbs

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Monday 30th of May 2022

This is great - thank you for sharing! We don’t have an exchange date yet but want to move as quickly as possible once the mortgage offer comes through.

Esther

Monday 11th of January 2021

Hiya. This is really helpful for me as a first time buyer with a Skipton LISA, thank you so much! The property I have reserved is due for completion in around 6 months' time and I'm struggling to find the answer to this question - if I exchange in 28 days on 5% withdrawn from LISA but my completion date isn't for another couple of months after that, am I able to continue putting money in (and earning bonus on) into the LISA in time for completion? Thank you x

Roy Lenke

Sunday 23rd of February 2020

Good post! Thanks!

Chris

Wednesday 12th of June 2019

Thank-you kindly, Nicola! It was a bit of a drama because the conveyancer did not want to exchange without knowing that funds would be available on the completion date. So we moved the exchange date to the day before completion: we'll exchange tomorrow and complete the day after. 30 days is the maximum amount of notice you can give to withdraw funds and this is part of the way Lifetime ISAs have been set-up by the government so that funds are not being released any earlier. Still, Skipton did not want to give a guarantee that they could turn it around quicker, more an unofficial "it should be fine, it happens a lot". For the record, and hopefully for the additional benefit of others, here was my timeline:

3rd June: Conveyancer receives paperwork from us

3rd June: called Skipton to inform them that withdrawal was imminent and it would need to be done quicker than 30 days - they recorded the request on my account in anticipation of the paperwork being received.

5th June: called Skipton and they confirmed that they had received completed paperwork (later that day, kindly calling me back to let me know)

11th June: Email received from Skipton asking to confirm transfer of funds

11th June: PDF signed and money transferred same day

12th June: Conveyancer confirms funds are showing in her account

Thanks again, Nicola, if I hadn't read your blog this would have a been a significantly more stressful process!

Chris

Friday 31st of May 2019

Thank-you for sharing: I'm due to complete within two weeks and have just discovered Skipton's 'within 30 days' timescale. Based on what you've written, I'm re-assured that I can get things moving quicker with a bit of cajoling!

Nicola | Mummy to Dex

Friday 31st of May 2019

Ahh congratulations! Definitely! Chase everyday and I’m sure you’ll meet your completion date. Best of luck!