£250k house plus £2-5k chattels

Zigster

New joiner here - searching the internet for this topic.

And the reason I'm searching for that is that I'm currently buying a house. The current owners have only been there a year (divorce making them sell) and so the price they paid hasn't yet shown up on nethouseprices. But their agent reassured us on several occasions as to the price they paid - in the current market having a recent market-tested price is very helpful in determining what feels like a sensible value now.

Land Registry documents turned up at the weekend from our solicitor. They confirm that the price actually paid was £40k less than the estate agent told us. We feel very hacked off at the deception but interesting was the vendor's response to our challenge - apparently, they feel it is "none of our business" what agreement they came to a year ago with the previous owners who happened to be friends of theirs. Digging deeper, it seems that they paid a significant amount for chattels - we don't know how much but, given the price difference we're talking about, it appears to be far more than any chattels can possibly have been worth given what's actually in the house. At this price range, every £10k saved off the official price saves a further £400 in stamp duty.

It feels a bit dodgy to me. But, perhaps more importantly for this thread, if you pay a significant amount for chattels when that additional payment is really a stamp duty dodge (and, from what you've said, that's what's going on for the OP) then it potentially distorts the apparent price you paid for the property. If you sell in the near future then potential buyers are likely to look at the price you paid and place a current value on it accordingly by considering market movements. Perhaps a few £k isn't a massive problem but it could mean that any future buyers revise their offer down by a similar few £k.