Who do you send your Lifetime ISA withdrawal declaration to?

You must send it to your Conveyancer as part of their declaration is to confirm the contents of your declaration are correct.

When should you withdraw your Lifetime ISA?

The Lifetime ISA Manager has 30 days to send your Conveyancer the requested money. Although each case is different, a good time to request the money would be after you have: Had your mortgage offer issued Ordered and received your property searches Contracts have been received and the solicitor has raised legal enquiries

What happens to the Lifetime ISA if you fail to complete?

After your Conveyancer receives the Lifetime ISA money they will hold it on their Client Account. If 90 days after the receipt of the Lifetime ISA money, you have yet to complete or the purchase has fallen through, your Conveyancer completes a declaration and returns the Lifetime ISA in full. In cases where the transaction could still complete after the 90 days, the Conveyancer has 10 working days to inform the Lifetime ISA Manager about this. If the money is not returned in full then a withdrawal charge will be levied.

Who gets the interest whilst the Conveyancer holds the Lifetime ISA in their Client Account?

Any interest that accrues on your Lifetime ISA whilst it is held in your Conveyancer's Client Account is due to you. It must not be paid to the Lifetime ISA Manager.

Do you get charged a Lifetime ISA withdrawal fee?

It is free to withdraw your money unless: the ISA manager has reason to believe the information provided by you is untrue or incomplete; or the withdrawal is within 12 months of the first payment to that account

Do I have to pay my conveyancer a fee for drawing the LISA bonus for a home purchase?

The maximum that can be charged is £60 INC VAT per LISA.

How to make a Lifetime ISA Withdrawal

by:

Andrew Boast

Last Updated: 21/08/2022

Read by:

983

4 min read

Your Lifetime ISA can be used to buy a house as long as the purchase meets with certain criteria. In this article we'll run through what are the qualifying criteria and what is the process to withdraw the funds to buy a house. Click here to find out other information about the Lifetime ISA.

What are the qualifying criteria?

You can use the Lifetime ISA savings and any bonus to put towards a first time buyer's residential purchase if:

the property costs £450,000 or less (for shared ownership purchases, the full market value is used, not the total you are paying)
the withdrawal amount cannot exceed the purchase price
the owner will live in the property after completion (it cannot be a buy to let)
you are buying with a mortgage
you are withdrawing 12 months after the first payment into the Lifetime ISA
you are buying a legal interest in land in England or Wales with a view to the investor becoming a residential property owner
you use either your Lifetime ISA or Help to Buy ISA - you cannot use both

If you fail any of the above criteria you cannot use your Lifetime ISA to fund your purchase.

Summary of the process to cash in a Lifetime ISA to buy a house or a flat?

You complete your Lifetime ISA declaration and send this to your Conveyancer
Your Conveyancer completes their declaration
Your Conveyancer sends both declarations to your Lifetime ISA Manager
Lifetime ISA manager pays the requested funds to your Conveyancer

Read on to find out the more detailed process of what you, your Conveyancer and the Lifetime ISA need to do - PLUS we have a 'Frequently Asked Questions'.

What do you need to do?

Complete your Lifetime ISA declaration and send to your Conveyancer. The declaration includes:

amount to be withdrawn
Lifetime ISA Manager details including name and full address
account number
full address of property being purchase
confirmation you are a first time buyer and won't use a Help to Buy ISA
name and address of the seller's conveyancer
that all the conditions for a charge-free withdrawal for the first time residential purchase are met, or, in the case of a purchase of land with a dwelling which is not yet habitable, when that will take place
that the information provided is true and complete to the best of their knowledge and belief

What does your Conveyancer do?

Once your conveyancer receives your declaration they will then complete their own declaration whish confirms:

they are an eligible Conveyancer able to act for drawing down a Lifetime ISA
a declaration that you’ve received the information from the investor and that you have no reason to believe it to be untrue or incomplete
purchase price of the property
a declaration that the amount to be withdrawn will only be released towards covering the purchase price of the property
details of the Conveyancer's Client Account where the Lifetime ISA will be sent to
the Conveyancer's unique professional body registration number
a declaration that the information you’ve provided is true and complete to the best of your knowledge and belief

Within 10 working days after completion your Conveyancer will email the Lifetime ISA Manager with the completion date, account number of Lifetime ISA and the Conveyancer's unique professional body registration number.

Read: Conveyancers: first time residential purchase with a Lifetime ISA

What does your Lifetime ISA Manager do?

The Conveyancer sends both declarations to the Lifetime ISA Manager who should pay the amount requested to you within 30 days of receipt of the declaration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Written by: Andrew Boast

Andrew started his career in 2000 working within conveyancing solicitor firms and grew hands-on knowledge of a wide variety of conveyancing challenges and solutions. After helping in excess of 50,000 clients in his career, he uses all this experience within his article writing for SAM, mainstream media and his self published book How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone.

Reviewed by: Caragh Bailey

Caragh is an excellent writer and copy editor of books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey, property law and mortgage-related articles.

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