Can I pay vendors solicitors fees ???

rhodod

Can you not pay for movables or house contents or something along those lines???

When i bought my house for 128k, my solicitor put it through as 125k and the other 2k was movables.

Not sure if its the same thing or not but

That left 1k which we paid the seller...... was told this isn't really legal but it was all done and dusted,

timmyt

betsie wrote: »

Ooh some people on here do seem to get out of bed on the wrong side !!!.

House on for £279,950 but has been on for 7 months. Vendor offered to pay half the stamp duty so to clear £255k he would need an offer of around £260k (taking into account stamp duty, extra EA's and sols fees).

Did not speak to the solicitor only his assistant about my proposal and no I did not go cheap - it is a well regarded local firm of solicitors who I have used on two previous house purchases.

I have not suggested this offer to the vendor yet as I wanted to check out the legalities of it first and just ask if anyone else had done this.

you are not doing anything wrong there,

timmyt

sunshinetours wrote: »

No they don't. I get a number of general tax queries we are talking about SDLT for conveyancing. Keep up. NO solicitors don't know tax in general as they are not accountants or tax advisers from solicitors who clearly don't understand in full many tax rules. Possibly they don't keep up to date there is no up to date with SDLT rules just thresholds that change I don't know but certainly not all qualified conveyancers or solicitors understand tax rules.

Choosing any service professional is difficult. Legal services even more so and from next year when market is opened up further there will be even more non-solicitor based firms offering certain legal services. I keep saying, use a plumber for plumbing and a SOLICITOR (an actual one you can check on http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor/view=solsearch.law not one that calls himself one which is illegal) for legal work. If you go cheap and get a former secretary/unqualified, or licensed conveyancer then good luck, you'll be posting a problem on this forum very soon.

Always use a 'solicitor' for conveyancing work, as you'll otherwise end up posting a problem on this forum. Legal work = solicitor. Plumbing work = plumber

Apple45

This is a good forum, but do get legal advice on the matter as you could be in trouble with the Inland Revenue

neverdespairgirl

rhodod wrote: »

Can you not pay for movables or house contents or something along those lines???

When i bought my house for 128k, my solicitor put it through as 125k and the other 2k was movables.

Not sure if its the same thing or not but

That left 1k which we paid the seller...... was told this isn't really legal but it was all done and dusted,

It's not just not "really legal", it's tax fraud. A criminal offence. You got away with it, but suggesting it to others is a Bad Idea.

olly300

betsie wrote: »

Hi
I spoke to my solicitor's assistant re fees and she seemed to think it was ok to pay a vendors solictors fees and EA fees to avoid going over the £250k stamp duty threshold whilst giving the vendor an extra £5k in real terms.

Buyers never pay the vendors solicitor's fees - so don't try it.

As already pointed out there is nothing stopping the EA sending a bill to you in your name for services that they could have reasonably performed for you in purchasing the house i.e. finding trademen to do quotes.

The only other thing that could be done is for the vendors to do a truthful list of fixtures and fittings that they are leaving with the prices. The maximum this would probably get up to is 1K as goods are not worth much second hand.

There is another thread on here where the vendors are trying to get £5K but many posters including myself have pointed out the flaws in the prices being charged for objects. Somethings i.e. satellite dishes you simply cannot charge for there as other things like curtains and curtain poles (not curtain track) you can charge for.

bris

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's not just not "really legal", it's tax fraud. A criminal offence. You got away with it, but suggesting it to others is a Bad Idea.

It's not tax fraud, buying the vendors fixtures and fitting is perfectly legal and is done all the time.

sonastin

bris wrote: »

It's not tax fraud, buying the vendors fixtures and fitting is perfectly legal and is done all the time.

and the extra £1000 in the dirty brown envelope??

bris

sonastin wrote: »

and the extra £1000 in the dirty brown envelope??

Just looked back at the post, didn't see that at first, yes this is illegal. Don't see why they didn't just make it 3 grand for the moveables as they call them.

olly300

bris wrote: »

Just looked back at the post, didn't see that at first, yes this is illegal. Don't see why they didn't just make it 3 grand for the moveables as they call them.

Simply because if you are near a stamp duty band and pay a large amount for second hand fixtures and fittings then it will raise suspicion with the tax man.

Any solicitor involved in the buying process won't want to get involved to safe guard their own business.

To put it simply second hand furniture is worth nothing especially as a job lot so spending 3K F&F on a 125K house is suspicious but on a 500K isn't. However spending 5K on F&F for a 500K house is however if the house was near a million then it's not.

However in more expensive properties it's expected the buyer will rip the F&F out before moving in so won't be happy to pay for them.