London: unable to negotiate after survey

ognum

I think you may either have to just get on with it or walk, this house will sell again without having to conduct viewings.

So you choice is get it done, get some of it done, get none done and just live in or let it. the people living there now have lived with it!

Hopefully capital growth will pay you back your 30 k and presumably it was well priced before hand,it's hard to get a bargain that is trouble free!

mrginge

Tancred wrote: »

HMRC couldn't give a monkey's about a property worth so little. Do you honestly think they have the resources to pursue small fry? They go after £1M houses and the like. It's not worth their effort to chase a couple of grand - not cost effective. I used to work for the Inland Revenue as it was known then in the early 1990s and there was a policy of targeting potential offenders only if the amount that could be recovered was above a given level. HMRC are even more short staffed now than they were then, so you can imagine.

Yes, policy twenty years ago is definitely the same as today.
And we have things called 'computers' that can very quickly work through millions of transactions in a few seconds and flag up any which appear to be suspicious.
And even better, they can raise automatic paperwork to instigate challenges without any human even having to get involved in the process.

Tancred, as per usual is spouting garbage.

OP - I do hope you can fairly justify this 2k of F+F at second hand values.

Tancred

mrginge wrote: »

Yes, policy twenty years ago is definitely the same as today.
And we have things called 'computers' that can very quickly work through millions of transactions in a few seconds and flag up any which appear to be suspicious.
And even better, they can raise automatic paperwork to instigate challenges without any human even having to get involved in the process.

Tancred, as per usual is spouting garbage.

OP - I do hope you can fairly justify this 2k of F+F at second hand values.

You are the one who is scaremongering with your ridiculous nonsense. You can raise as much automatic paperwork as you want but the process of trying to investigate any such transaction can be long and complex. It's simply not worthwhile for a couple of grand. Also, they would need to actively prove in court that the additional sum for the furniture in excessive, which would not necessarily be straightforward.

movilogo

HMRC couldn't give a monkey's about a property worth so little. Do you honestly think they have the resources to pursue small fry?

Yes they probably would. Even solicitors confirm this. HMRC takes special interest on sales at cusp of SDLT with fittings & fixtures. If you search on web, there are cases where HMRC successfully sued individuals for exact same issue.

250k house + 2k chattels is far more risky than 240k house + 10k chattels.

Unfortunately, HMRC is notorious for pursuing small fries rather than going after heavy weights like Amazon, Google, Starbucks etc.

mrginge

Tancred wrote: »

You are the one who is scaremongering with your ridiculous nonsense. You can raise as much automatic paperwork as you want but the process of trying to investigate any such transaction can be long and complex. It's simply not worthwhile for a couple of grand. Also, they would need to actively prove in court that the additional sum for the furniture in excessive, which would not necessarily be straightforward.

No, I am the one who is pointing out that it is much easier for the HMRC to identify potential fraud around stamp duty thresholds these days, whereas back in the day when you were a junior pen pusher it was not.

They can do a compliance check based on the evidence submitted through the purchasers solicitor (another slight hurdle you seem to have forgotten). If they find a discrepancy, then they will charge the correct amount. You have 30 days to pay it. If you do not pay it you get hit with late fees. If you do not agree with the charge you can go to an independent tribunal. If you still did not agree with that i guess you could go to court, but which judge is going to overturn that decision? Oh and you'd probably pay all the costs too.

We have no idea whether in this case the 2k is justified. Given the OPs statement that it's an EA ruse i would guess not. However, your assertion that HMRC don't care about fraud around the 250k threshold is both incorrect and irresponsible.

Tancred

movilogo wrote: »

Yes they probably would. Even solicitors confirm this. HMRC takes special interest on sales at cusp of SDLT with fittings & fixtures. If you search on web, there are cases where HMRC successfully sued individuals for exact same issue.

250k house + 2k chattels is far more risky than 240k house + 10k chattels.

Unfortunately, HMRC is notorious for pursuing small fries rather than going after heavy weights like Amazon, Google, Starbucks etc.

I agree to disagree - let's leave it at that! I sold my house for £250k + £3k for kitchen furniture and curtains with rods. To be honest, this is pretty much spot on. The range oven alone is worth £800.