buying a house for £124,999?

tucbiscuit

I've seen a house I like and it's £150,000 and needs work and I'm buying for cash so am hoping for a discount.

Stamp duty applies from £125,000? so if I offer and get accepted at £124,999 will there be any problems? I'm not looking to avoid stamp duty by then buying their carpets and curtains in a 'seperate' deal for £15,000 or anything like that, just a straight £124,999.

Would that raise suspicion from whoever looks at these trhings?


thanks

Doozergirl

Stamp Duty kicks in at £125,001.

It doesn't raise suspicion if what you pay is the Stamp Duty threshold - lots of people won't pay go over a SDT threshold and prices of some houses are kept artificially lower because of that. It would be more likely to raise suspicion if you were paying for carpets & curtains on top.

Not sure that being cash gets you a £25,000 discount mind! Not impossible but hard if there is a lot of interest. You need no other interest to stand a chance - as it's not the cash that gets you a house for that much less, it's the lack of interest; the ones where the EA knows it's a pain and can't be bothered to try selling it anymore and actively puts you off.

tucbiscuit

to be honest I had the offer accpeted earlier today at £124,999 but felt a bitsilly asking the question after I had the offer accepted when I should have found out before, it's 16-17% below asking price which is a good price for me imo and not awful for the seller either

tucbiscuit

and thanks for the answer as well btw

secla

just sold out house for 125000. it was up for 130k but i knew that no one would offer over the stamp duty threshold.
theres nothing dodgy about someone offering less to avoid tax

tucbiscuit

secla wrote: »

just sold out house for 125000. it was up for 130k but i knew that no one would offer over the stamp duty threshold.
theres nothing dodgy about someone offering less to avoid tax

right cheers, just wondered if it would draw suspicion, seems like it is common though

Fire_Fox

Tax avoidance is legal whereas tax evasion is illegal. You are avoiding tax through a perfectly legitimate avenue, you aren't lying to anyone or paying £20K for a £2K kitchen.

Richard_Webster

In some cases if there are newish white goods, curtains, and carpets, it may be reasonable to pay £1-2K for chattels and fittings on top - but not £15K!

As others have said you do not have to mess about with £124,999. There's no SDLT at £125,000.