MSE News: Urgent stamp duty rebate - are you due up to £1,500?

teabelly

I queried the solicitor when I bought. I paid exactly £150,000. They said I had to pay as the exemption was only up to £149,999.99!

Looks like they were wrong and I was right.

Can you just write to the stamp duty office with a copy of the original return and ask for a rebate that way? I have the completion statements etc.

Does the office accept recorded delivery letters as clearly with the tight timescales normal first class post which isn't guaranteed or traceable might not be wise?

KnightSmile

Why are some areas exempt from stamp duty?

Aquamania

teabelly wrote: »

I queried the solicitor when I bought. I paid exactly £150,000. They said I had to pay as the exemption was only up to £149,999.99!

I'm no fan of gazundering, but if a 1p reduction would have saved me £1500.00, I know what I would have done.

I think what astonishes me more is that your solicitor, who you paid good money to, did not advise you. The money would have more than covered their fees.

No seller is going to walk away from a £150k deal for the sake of a penny.

teabelly

Aquamania wrote: »

I'm no fan of gazundering, but if a 1p reduction would have saved me £1500.00, I know what I would have done.

I think what astonishes me more is that your solicitor, who you paid good money to, did not advise you. The money would have more than covered their fees.

No seller is going to walk away from a £150k deal for the sake of a penny.

It wasn't until the completion statement that I knew anything about it.

Property was a repossession and deadlines were tight anyway so upsetting things by balking over £1500 could have lost me the house.

charlie3090

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

The guidance direct from LR is that after twelve months you must write to them preferably with the Land Transaction Return number from your original SDLT return.

Question - what about interest? More importantly what about the solicitors who didn't check properly?

X

Thanks for this, I suspect I will run into problems,I have never recieved any documentation for this,all I got was the solicitors bill so all I have now is the name of the solicitor and date of purchase,
I have nothing to lose by writing,but theres a bit of me thats wonders if the solicitor knew about this and kept the money.
I will call the solicitors on Tues but as its almost 10 years ago I doubt if they still have records from that long ago.
Even if it doesnt work for me,I hope that someone reading this thread can get a result,
Charlie.

littlebluebird

I am having the same problem.
Now will have to hope the solicitor has the right documents as I only have a receipt and a letter saying please sign the SDLT form.
:mad:

karlie88

£154,000.

Bummer.

Pixie5740

Strange that the Scotland list includes AB1 and AB2 postcodes when those postcodes don't exist. It starts at AB10 and goes to AB99. Very odd.

alexanderalexander

ScarletMarble wrote: »

How can areas in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea be classed as 'disadvantaged'?

You cannot buy a property for £150k in these places!

Firstly the list was put together a good few years ago when there would have been plenty of ex-council flats and studios available for sub-£150k in the less desirable areas of K&C and Westminster.


Secondly, from what I know of the particular areas listed for K&C and Westminster they are the most council estate heavy and least central parts of the boroughs (that's not to say you could buy a flat there these days for sub-£150k these days though, of course....).

alexanderalexander

teabelly wrote: »

I queried the solicitor when I bought. I paid exactly £150,000. They said I had to pay as the exemption was only up to £149,999.99!

Looks like they were wrong and I was right.

It is amazing how many people make this mistake with SDLT. I have seen so many houses listed on Zoopla sold prices as having changed hands at £249,999 despite the fact that £250,000 on the nose would've left the tax bill identical.


If you can be bothered, you should make a formal complaint to your solicitor's firm as this was obviously negligent advice. I would expect the firm to cover at least (i) interest on the money which I had unnecessarily paid for the period for which I was deprived of it and (ii) a token extra amount to cover the costs (e.g. postage) and inconvenience of re-claiming the money. Just write them a letter headed "formal complaint" as they are required to have a complaints procedure under SRA rules.

teabelly wrote: »

Does the office accept recorded delivery letters as clearly with the tight timescales normal first class post which isn't guaranteed or traceable might not be wise?

I'm sure that recorded delivery letters would be fine if you want to check for delivery confirmation. Bear in mind that recorded delivery isn't guaranteed either (you'd need to get the much more expensive Special Delivery for that) but given that 93% of first class mail arrives the next day, with almost all the remainder arriving the day after, you should be absolutely fine to get it in in time for 5 May