stamp duty

kings111

Hi all,

Can I ask a question please?

I am in the process of looking for a new house. I have found one I like prices in the region of £195. It has been on the market for months and months now. I was thinking about offering £178. Then I was working out all the other things I would have to pay out for and I see that stamp duty is over £175. I am a bit annoyed now that if I pay £178/ £180 it would only be a little bit above the stamp duty and I will have to pay £1800 extra for nothing.

My question is would you offer £175 and say I dont want to pay above stamp duty or would you just bite the bullet and pay the £1800 extra for the stamp.

itsnowtime

Hi,

Just wondered if you've actually made an offer yet??

The Govt will be announcing their budget tomorrow and it is 'anticipated' that they will need to do something to get the housing market moving. One of the things being hinted at is that the boundaries for when you pay stamp duty may increase / change...

So you might be best waiting to see what happens tomorrow - that's what I'm doing...

Good Luck..

itsnowtime

Only just gone onto the BBC Website and here's an article to look at..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8009294.stm

Talks more of an extension - so you may be best to offer £174,500 and keep out of the stamp duty bracket

pjcox2005

I agree with itsnowtime that the budget may have an impact so consider that.

However, in terms of the original question I would offer £175,000 and explain the reasoning of the additional cost of stamp duty. You may get the property for less that route.

Alternatively if they won't accept the offer, consider purchasing the house for £175,000 and allocating the additional money for purchase of freestanding furniture, carpets, curtains etc from the owner (although the price agreed must be a fair price to reflect say age and quality). Benefit of this is that the payment for the additional bits will be outside the scope of stamp duty so hopefully you won't have to pay anything (although you may want to get professional advice on this).

Gwhiz

Simplest way is to negociate well so that you always go £1750 under your preferred price to pay so effectively getting the Stamp off!

kings111

wow thank you for all those quick replys.
I will wait and see what the gov says on wednesday. I havnt made an offer yet. I wasnt sure if £175 would be low off £195. Thats a good idea about the furniture and stuff inside the house, is that allowed?

do you think that a house on the market at £190/ £180 has difficulty selling because people dont want to pay the stamp duty? or is it just me!!

pjcox2005

Yep, the idea around furniture is allowed if done right. As a new poster I'm not allowed to post a link but if you go on the HMRC website they will provide details there.

And I reckon stamp duty has always been a sticking point on negotiations to some extent so not just you.

itsnowtime

I've seen quite a few houses reduce below stamp duty level recently - unfortunately not the ones that we're wanting.

But... I also think a lot of people are aware that they are likely to be 'offered' an amount rather than people just giving them the asking price..

So if you were happy to accept just below the stamp duty threshold you may decide to market the house for 5-10K more with the anticipation that people will make you an offer...and then... that offer is not way too low.. and is just about what you were looking for...

It's only my opinion and not everyone will do that..

Hope I'm making sense there...