Valuing the contents of a flat

zygurat789

martinsurrey wrote: »

No, the entire purpose of valuing the contents is to separate the value of the contents from the value of the flat.

You are valuing the asset, with the asset being the contents.

Follow your own logic above, why would the purchaser pay any less than the full sales price for the contents, as it'll save them money as the house would then be free, no stamp duty at all, and if your thinking is right, that would follow all the rules as you interpret them, but that’s not the case, as that’s not how it works!

If you can logically answer the above you might be onto something as you’ll be able to save people £X,XXX by selling a teapot with a house and value the teapot at £500k saving stamp duty, but you cant.

Again, if you can show me whole houses of stuff being sold as one sale for more than expected, please do.

The key word is reasonable, something you don't seem to understand.

Can you show the opposite?

System

zygurat789 wrote: »

But in this case the OP is not buying an individual anything off ebay he is buying a whole matching fitted set which makes it more valuable

The seller is selling a matching fitted set which would have to be dismantled to realise a market sale, which makes it less valuable.

zygurat789

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

The seller is selling a matching fitted set which would have to be dismantled to realise a market sale, which makes it less valuable.

Therefore by not having to dismantle it it must be worth more

DominicJ_2

barney66 wrote: »

I've just made an offer on a flat including its contents (i.e. furniture, white goods etc).
Does anyone have advice on how to value the contents? A professional valuer quoted several hundred pounds so would like to avoid this if possible.
This is so I can avoid paying stamp duty on that part of the purchase.

Maybe a quarter of retail if its less than a year old.
Theres no market for year old washing machines.

If you buy a house for £250,000 and £5k of furniture, the taxman WILL investigate.
It is on YOU to PROVE your innocence *not* on HMRC to prove your guilt

Unless you can come up with some convincing arguments as to why your valuations are fair, they will treat it as tax evasion, and fine you very heavily.
So that means, essentially, ebay.
Or possibly reducing balance depreciation of 50-75% per year

Theres probably a local "for swap or sale" on facebook, join it, you'll see £1000 sofas go for £50 that are three years old

lincroft1710

Interesting that the OP hasn't returned to give us more info

lincroft1710

My late father bought a bungalow a few years ago, the sellers didn't want the job of moving several items of furniture, so asked my father if he wanted them, they were quite prepared to leave them. The 3 piece suite did match (the sofa matched the chairs).

barney66

Thanks everyone for your answers, particularly martinsurrey for those links.

To clarify I have agreed to buy everything in the flat from the (mostly freestanding) furniture right down to the teaspoons and cleaning materials.

The value of the goods is not high enough to knock it down to the next lowest stamp duty unfortunately!

I will go with adding up a guesstimate for each item based on the ebay price.