Solicitor charging £90 for SDLT, house price is £100k

Leigh1987

Hello,

My solicitor is charging me £90 which seems to be for filling in a SDLT form. The purchase price is £100k which is no where near the threshold. Does this seem a bit excessive?

I'm going to phone the solicitor today about it, just thought I would ask for some advice first.

sirmosh

I believe you do still need to fill in the form, just like declaring income even if you were actually under the threshold for paying tax.

Whether or not £90 is a fair amount I don't know but you could always ask other local solicitors for a quote and compare that.

giddypenguin

I think we paid £50 - but if you are happy with all of the other costs he/she is charging you for does it matter?

G_M

The SDLT declaration has to be submitted to HMRC whether SDLT is payable or not.

The issue you have is not whether it needs doing, but how much you are being charged.

What does it say in the contract or Terms of Business you signed with the solicitor? I imagine this fee was specified somewhere.
Of course, any decent solicitor would include this within their standard fee, not charge extra for it, since it is part of the conveyancing process.

The option you have,of course, is to complete the form and submit it yourself. For free.

See:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sdlt/return/intro.htm

Richard_Webster

It is a lovely scam that some solicitors use in their quotes.

They put small print at the bottom of their quote as an extra - something like "Stamp Duty Land Tax administration" or "Completion of SDLT Form." Innocent FTBs buying up to £125K assume it doesn't apply to them - it does.

But solicitor who does this hopes that FTB doesn't add the figure to his overall total in deciding which solicitor to use.

PasturesNew

£90 is probably 20-30 minutes of the solicitor's time to get the file out, get the form out, fill out the form, sign it, then dictate a note to the secretary asking them to take a photocopy, put that on file, then put the original in an envelope and update the CRM system to say it'd been done.