Fixtures and fitting or completion bonuses?

Seany

Afternoon all,

a quick all round question. I'm looking at a house which is up for £265k - it's recently been dropped in price quite considerably for a quick sale. This puts the house in the 3% bracket and I know the vendors won't accept a £250k offer!

So how much can you get away with for fixtures and fittings these days? And is it possible to offer a cash completion bonus if the sale is completed in a certain time frame?

Many thanks

martinsurrey

Not much, and you can offer it, but it'll get added to the value of the house for Stamp Duty purposes.

HMRC are understaffed, but they aren’t stupid, they focus on houses with near stamp duty selling prices.

If you put down £10k of fixtures and fittings, the vendor had better be leaving £20k+ (retail price) of stuff, or you’re going to risk getting stung for the stamp duty difference (£5,300).

I wouldn’t risk it, if you cant afford the house + stamp duty, don’t turn to fraud.

hazyjo

If a house is up for £265k, that is its asking price. What was it up for before? I would still take the asking price with a pinch of salt and go in at £250k.

If it didn't sell before at the higher price, it was overpriced (probably). Do not feel you have to now pay the asking price. Do not see it as you getting a bargain - it may well be that it's now at the right price (ready to be dropped to £250k).

Is it actually up for a 'fixed price'?

You probably won't get away with more than £1-3k for f&fs.

What have similar nearby properties actually sold for?

I wouldn't be offering the vendors any sort of cash completion bonus. You'd have to arrange some sort of separate cash agreement through solicitors (and I'm not sure if you'd be able to do that legally without it being classed as 'house value' which would add to problems like mortgages, fees, stamp duty, etc - would prob be classed as stamp duty avoidance) and, tbh, it just sounds like more hassle than it's worth.

Jx