Ready to withdraw from your Lifetime ISA (LISA) for your first home purchase? Congratulations! There are just a few simple steps you’ll need to go through first that we can help you with. We’ve broken these down below, so you know what to expect when the time is right.

First, you’ll need to send us your solicitor’s contact details in Settings > Withdraw > LISA > Buying first home, as they’re the person we’ll pay your LISA funds to. Before you do this, double-check that your withdrawal request is eligible under these conditions. If you have any questions about your eligibility or the withdrawal process, our Support team will be happy to help. Head in-app to Settings > Help to chat to us, or email support@moneyboxapp.com.

We’d recommend getting in touch about one month before you need to use the funds towards your purchase, as the exact withdrawal timings can vary, depending on a few factors covered below. If you’ve applied for a mortgage with us, we can take care of steps 2-4 for you. Haven’t got your mortgage offer yet? We can help find the right mortgage for you from over 90 lenders and get your application underway.

When you request your LISA withdrawal, we’ll freeze all further payments into the account within 1 working day. Don’t worry - freezing payments won’t affect your 25% government bonus, so if you have any pending bonuses, they’ll be paid out as usual.

Next, we’ll send an email to your solicitor and copy you in to keep you in the loop. We’ll send them a ‘conveyancer declaration’ to sign, confirming that they’re the responsible conveyancer for the purchase and will use your LISA funds for this purpose once paid out to them.

You’ll need to tell your solicitor whether you’d like to make a full or partial withdrawal from your LISA. The LISA can also be used for retirement after age 60, so if you’d prefer not to use all of the funds in your account for the purchase of your first home, you can leave some of the balance in the account to save for retirement. In the meantime, we’ll carry out some security checks on your account to verify your request.

Once your solicitor has returned the conveyancer declaration and confirmed that they're authorised to accept your LISA funds, we’ll initiate the withdrawal. This can take up to 5 working days while we check your form and verify the details.

Cash LISA withdrawals can take up to 3 working days to complete after being initiated. If you have a Stocks & Shares LISA, the withdrawal process can take 5-10 working days, as we need to sell down all of your investments before sending the proceeds to your solicitor as cash. Because of this, if you’re withdrawing from a Stocks & Shares LISA your balance may continue to fluctuate until the trades are placed. As a result, the actual amount you receive may be slightly more or less than the amount initially requested.

Once your LISA funds have been withdrawn, we’ll send the money to your solicitor. They’ll need to use the funds towards the purchase within 90 days of receiving them, but you can request an extension of up to a further 90 days if needed.

If you have a government bonus pending when your withdrawal takes place, as long as this is paid out by HMRC and can be withdrawn before the completion date of your purchase, you’ll still be able to use the bonus without incurring the 25% government withdrawal penalty. Once the bonus is paid by HMRC, we will process this as a separate withdrawal.

That’s it! Once your solicitor has received the payment from us, your LISA funds will be ready to use to complete your first home purchase. Congratulations! 🎉

We’d be happy to help. Just get in touch with us by heading in-app to Settings > Help to start a chat, or send us an email at support@moneyboxapp.com.