Outbid by someone bending stamp duty rules

davenoripcord

Hi there,

I'm a newcomer to the forum looking for some help.

I made an offer for a property at the asking price of £249,950 and have been outbid by another party who have offered this + £3000 for fixtures and fittings.

The only problem is there are no fixtures and fittings of any worth. The house is in need of major modernisation, and has 30+ year old carpets, a very old cooker, and rusty old storage heaters. The only unfixed item I could find in the property was a mobility scooter in the garage which can't be worth a couple of grand?!

So basically I've been outbid by someone who is ready to commit tax fraud!

I'm wondering what my position is. I could just grit my teeth and made a higher offer, but I would feel very uneasy from an ethical point of view matching their offer because I don't believe there are £1000 worth of fixtures & fittings, let alone £3000. (I could afford to take the leap into the 3% stamp duty zone and do things "above board" but I'd be stretching myself to do so)

I'd hope the vendor would see the risk in accepting their offer, but you can't really legislate for other people's views on such things.

I hope someone can help!

Cheers,
Dave

castle96

all f&f would need to be listed/agreed by solicitor, which puts the 'lie' into the legal domain. But if both parties agree, who would know any different ??

Grovester_2

Well I would speak to the agent. Ask if they are aware that there are no F&f's and that you will happily report the sale to the taxman (ideally get some photo's first) and in no uncertain terms tell the EA that they are a party to tax evasion. See if that has any response.

Trouble is, if the EA tells the other buyer who then lowers the offer to 250k, the vendor may still go with them as you may come accross as a difficult buyer and you've cost them 3k!!

Gwhiz

Offer them £4K and a BJ! I think you'd secure the deal on that basis

themanbearpig

Offer £255, and then reduce the offer to £250 before you complete!

davenoripcord

Now there's an idea!

Rockporkchop

Stick with £250k but offer to pay the vendor's estate agent's fees (which should be around the £3k mark) - completely above board.

chickmug

Rockporkchop wrote: »

Stick with £250k but offer to pay the vendor's estate agent's fees (which should be around the £3k mark) - completely above board.

Are you 100% sure.

Where did you get that information?

MissMotivation

chickmug wrote: »

Are you 100% sure.

Where did you get that information?

I've had this done before Chickmug, completely above board.

davenoripcord

It now seems like I've been a victim of foul play...

2 hours after telling me the were to inform the vendor of the offers on the table (mine and their dubious £3000 in a brown envelope one), I decided to contact the Estate Agents to see what was happening. They told me that the vendor had agreed a sale with the other party at the original asking price and that they would prefer to do business with the other bidder (even though their chain is longer and includes a first time buyer) because, get this, they are selling with the same Estate Agent! I said I would be prepared to increase my offer by £5,000 but they said they weren't interested as the sale had been agreed.

Is there anything I can do in this position? I feel like the EA may well have misrepresented my position to the vendor - I mean, come one - who would choose to do business with a buyer for potentially £5,000 less just because they're selling their house through the same agent??!

castle96

Sounds like the 'typical' EA

threaten to/Go to their their Governing body/create a stink.

Even if you lose this house ... go for them !