Tax penalty from land tranaction

j69ant

Hi all,

Last November, i finally got a letter from the solicitor saying the house ( previoulsy owned by me and my x ) had been transfered in my sole name. He included a tax booklet ( about 8 pages ) which he had completed and i just had to sign 1 page. I received it on the 27th November, and posted it on the 3rd Jan ( would have done before but left on my desk b4 xmas ) . Ive just had a letter from the tax office saying ive been fined. Apparently, i had 28 days to return the signed form . My solicitor didnt mention this, on the phone or in his letter, and i was niave enough to just sign the form without reading any small print. Ive been told i can appeal the fine, giving a reason. Anyone know what my chances are of having it waived. Not impressed with my solicitor. He wont even speak to me now, and is "busy" when i try to call

Cheers

Ant

claz

write a letter to your solicitor stating exactly what has happened and that you expect a response in 1 week, as you will probably have restrcitions on the ammount of time you have to appeal

my partner and i are moving and stamp duty also has to be paid 30 days after the transaction or you will be fined and the solicitor made this clear to us

if he doesn't rely call and make an appointment don't take no for an answer you paid him to sort this so he owes you!!!!

if you are still not happy put in offical complaint to the partners of the solicitors and threaten to report them to the law society if immidate action is not taken this will make them realise you mean business

*Sparkle*_3

If the solicitor drags his/her heals the just mention that you'll contact the law society, worked great in my circumstances.

My solicitor made us pay stamp duty when the property was excempt from it, i only found out two years after paying the duty that I didnt need to.
I Tried to get it back off inland revenue but they said they dont do refunds after 2 yrs!! :eek:
So i claimed it back off solicitor, on the grounds of negligence, she dragged her heals for months.... as soon as i mentioned i will make a complaint to the law society i had a cheque within a week!!

RiskAdverse100

Your solicitor really should have made it clear to you that you had to sign and return the form quickly.

Unfortunately it is not possible to appeal the fine in these circumstances.

You do need to write a strongly worded letter to the solicitor making it clear that he did not tell you that the form had to be returned promptly and that, as a result, his firm should pay the fine.

RiskAdverse100

Debt_Free_Chick

I would tread carefully with the solicitor - be firm, but don't start threatening or making unreasonable demands. Morally and from a customer service viewpoint, he should have told you of the deadline. Legally, he sent you the Inland Revenue leaflet and I assume this mentions the deadline. If it does, then I don't see you have a strong case legally - as a Court is likely to find you partly to blame for not reading what you were sent.

Sorry, but that's how it seems to me - and it does assume that the deadline was in the leaflet.

*Sparkle*_3

but dont you pay a solicitor to look over these things for you??

If i brought i house and got the legal pack, i wouldnt go through all of the small print myself, i'm paying a solicitor to do that for me!!
Isn't that their job?

claz

i agree with sparkle it is their job to ensure that you understand what is going on in laymans terms

i would write a letter of complainent and if you get no response then write another letter threatening to go to the law society

i work in a solicitors and we have a policy on complainents about which memebers of staff deal with the complainent and how quickly a complainet should be processed ask your solicitor if they have a policy they may have provided you with client care information when you first started try and dig these out and see exactly what it says in there

Debt_Free_Chick

We don't know what the solicitor's job was - precisely. That will be in the terms of the engagement letter. If he wasn't advising on the tax situation - which may, or may not, be his speciality - then arguably he had no role.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic .... just used to the way that professionals like solicitors act. Generally, you pay them to do a very specifically worded job. Whether advice on tax was included, we do not know

j69ant

hi all,

thanks for the replies..

As far as i was concered / aware the solicitor was paid to basically do all the work for transfering the house from "our" name to mine.

His invoice to me states...

"For Proffesional Charging relating to the transfer of equity of ***** (address ) - £125 + vat.. On top of that there were land reg charges etc

There probably was a lot of "small print" on the forms, but again, i was expecting him to advise.. His letter that he sent with the forms is a brief 5 line letter asking me to sign pages 5 + 6. Tried to ring him again and have been told ( by his secertary ) a letter is in the post explaining the reason for the mine..

i've just written a letter to the Stamp duty office, requesting the fine to be waived.

Ill post the outcome when i get a reply from the stamp duty office

Thanks again

Ant

j69ant

Good news folks...

Wrote a letter explaing the situation to the IR, and got a reply yesterday. Short and to the point. Just said thankyou for your letter and that the fee had been waived and the case closed. That was it.. But i'm happy. Just going to write a letter to my EX solicitor.

Thanks for everyones advice

Ant

*Sparkle*_3

well done and great news!!