negotiating to below stamp duty threshold

ali-t

I am looking at houses as I recently sold mine and have seen a couple at around £280K. The two I am interested in are valued at £280k and £300k and I am wondering how to negotiate to get them down to £250k so the stamp duty isn't as severe.

For a £250K house the stamp duty is around £2500 and for a £280k house it is close to £8.5K which is crazy.

Both houses would require a revaluation (in scotland so home reports have to get refreshed if more than 12 weeks old) which may reduce the valuation price and therefore give more leverage but I am wondering if it is too cheeky to offer £50K under the current valuation price?

To put it into context, the value of my house (semi in suburbs) dropped by 5% in 3 months as a result of lower priced sales in the area and I accepted a price that was around 2% lower than the revised valuation price.

G_M

This is a common problem as any buyer near a stamp duty threshold resents paying huge increases in tax in return for marginal increase in price.

Offer £250 and explain why. The seller will agree.....or not.

But other buyers will have similar thoughts and reservations.

Wha you an'tdo is offer £250 + silly money (eg £20K) for fixtures and fittings/furnishings etc. HMRC are not stupid and a 2nd hand washing machine that would fetch £50 on ebay cannot be marked up to £500!

ali-t

I saw some websites that were offering some kind of apparently legal tax breaks/mitigation when I was looking for stamp duty rates recently. Are these worth looking it or are they just a con? http://www.stampdutyuk.org.uk/

myhouse_2

Absolutely not cheeky to be trying to get it below the threshold. The vendors might not like it, but they are likely to be expecting it.

theartfullodger

It's not patriotic to try & fiddle your way out of paying due tax, is it?

Come on, the country needs the money!!

G_M

ali-t wrote: »

I saw some websites that were offering some kind of apparently legal tax breaks/mitigation when I was looking for stamp duty rates recently. Are these worth looking it or are they just a con? http://www.stampdutyuk.org.uk/

They're a con.

PigletPig_2

Hello there. My house was on the market at offers over £275,000. We've had 2 offers. One at £265,000 and one at £247,500. We would have accepted an offer of £250,000 knowing full well that's where the stamp duty thresh hold is but the buyer wouldn't go up anymore and we wouldn't come down anymore. That's all for a different post!

Anyway, as a seller who's been on the market since June, I would happily accept an offer of £250,000 in a shot!

zara*elise

Lose nothing by trying. Explain your reasons why and they'll say yes or no. If the property is near the bracket they'll be expecting a few offers around that figure anyway.

timmyt

ali-t wrote: »

I am looking at houses as I recently sold mine and have seen a couple at around £280K. The two I am interested in are valued at £280k and £300k and I am wondering how to negotiate to get them down to £250k so the stamp duty isn't as severe.

For a £250K house the stamp duty is around £2500 and for a £280k house it is close to £8.5K which is crazy.

Both houses would require a revaluation (in scotland so home reports have to get refreshed if more than 12 weeks old) which may reduce the valuation price and therefore give more leverage but I am wondering if it is too cheeky to offer £50K under the current valuation price?

To put it into context, the value of my house (semi in suburbs) dropped by 5% in 3 months as a result of lower priced sales in the area and I accepted a price that was around 2% lower than the revised valuation price.

why would they accept up to £50k less when your reason is to save £7k in stamp duty?

if you cannot afford a better house than one priced at £250k, then look for ones at £250k and under

ali-t

timmyt wrote: »

why would they accept up to £50k less when your reason is to save £7k in stamp duty?

if you cannot afford a better house than one priced at £250k, then look for ones at £250k and under

Timmyt, it is not that I can't afford it but would resent paying that much for the house. It is very unusual for anyone to get the valuation price at the moment and the one I am most interested in is on at o/o £280 and valued at the same price so I will be very surprised if they get an offer of the asking price.

As the saying goes, fortune favours the brave so if I don't ask I won't get.

Clearlier

PigletPig wrote: »

Hello there. My house was on the market at offers over £275,000. We've had 2 offers. One at £265,000 and one at £247,500. We would have accepted an offer of £250,000 knowing full well that's where the stamp duty thresh hold is but the buyer wouldn't go up anymore and we wouldn't come down anymore. That's all for a different post!

Anyway, as a seller who's been on the market since June, I would happily accept an offer of £250,000 in a shot!

Why would you have a guide of 'offers over 275,000' if you're willing to accept 250,000? This is the level that we're looking at for houses at the moment and a few months ago when we first started looking we probably wouldn't have looked at something priced as your is. Now that I've read these boards and gotten to know the market a bit better I would look at it* but you could be putting off some people with the use of 'offers over'.

*Mind you, the last time I put in what I considered to be a reasonable offer on a house that I considered overpriced I was left with the impression that the vendors felt insulted - their house (probate sale) has now been on the market for 17 months!

Ali - If you're going to go in at a level that you consider to be a bit cheeky (do your research on what similar houses in the area are selling for) then it may be worth considering just putting in one offer (presumably at 250k) and making clear that it's the only one you're going to make.