Stamp duty solicitor mistake - pls reply

mslane

Hi,

I recently purchsed a property for £265k owning 88% on a shared equity scheme. Because the solicitor worked out our share to be less than the £250k stamp duty threshold he charged us 1% stamp duty instead of 3%. We questioned this with him several times but he insisted it was right. The sale went through the we got a statement of completion showing the 1% stamp duty.

Months on he has written to us saying that to register the sale with the land registry he has realised he made a mistake and actually we should have paid 3% therefore we owe £5k.

Where do we stand legally? Because it was his mistake is he liable at all?
Is a statement of completion a legally binding document? We have the keys, the mortgage, etc etc so it is like buying something from a shop and then weeks later the shop calling up and asking for more money?
This is very annoying as we had since budgeted for paying a lot less stamp duty.
I dont care if he registers the sale with the land registry or not to be honest. And we have already paid his fee which I dont think he has earned as he made such a whole error.

Also he sent the letter to our previous address so only got it by chance as the residents passed it on to us.

Pls give your advice on this.

Mobile101

Legally, the liability is yours, and this is not afffected by him having made a miscalculation, I am afraid, annoying as it may be. You can raise this as an issue of poor client service, and he is bound to investigate it and reply to you formally. If you are dissatisfied with his response then you can take this up with the Legal Complaints Service, who can order compensation for poor service. You will find details at the legal complaints service web site, including amounts of compensation awards, and how they are calculated. (Sorry, site rules will not let me post the link!) This does not affect the legal liability to pay however, which is yours. You have to bear in mind that if the SDLT is not paid, then your ownership cannot be registered at the Land Registry. This may or may not matter to you, but it also means that your lenders interest cannot be registered either, and this would put you in breach of your mortgage conditions, which would have more serious implications, ranging from impact on your credit rating, through to demand for immediate repayment of the entire debt - so, pay, get it registered, and demand compensation for poor service from your solicitor. Hope this helps!