Stamp Duty Incentives

AnotherJoe

If you’ve “only” exchanged contracts, it’s too late for negotiation. You are locked in and reliant on their goodwill. You are most likely to get that by going higher up the chain than the local sales office. Your argument could be that were you to be buying now Barrats would most likely have given you similar incentive to SDLT via enhancements to their offering, eg better kitchen, landscapes gardens, whatever.

You could do that via a letter to the CEO or a post to their twitter feed. But ultimately you have no leverage.

You could also take the view that OK they have benefited from this incentive, but suppose that some supplier of theirs gave them a better deal, let’s say they managed to negotiate £1k off the kitchen, you wouldnt expect that £1k to be refunded to you..this isn’t that much different except it’s out of the blue. Or if the kitchen supplier forced a raise, again you wouldn’t expect you to be asked to pay.

When you exchanged contracts with them you agreed a deal that both parties would stand behind that, whatever changed in the meantime. It obviously didn’t occur to you but you were at liberty to have the contract say that in the event of a SDLT decrease the equivalent value should be provided in other ways. But you didn’t.

davidmcn

Like I asked:

davidmcn wrote: »

If you mean you've exchanged contracts but not yet completed, then what does your contract say?

csgohan4

you give them an inch, they want a mile, sigh.....

citag21

Thanks again to you all, I will definitely digest all the questions/comments; it seems I am one of a few people who feel that this slightly un-fair to us as FTB; I would expect a better level of service and commitment from an enterprise like Barratts.
Just wanted people's opinions about Barrett's saving £1000's on 100's of house sales throughout the UK and not event offering a gesture of Goodwill to FTB who made it possible for them to increase their profits.
I have spoken to my solicitor and it seems Barratts at my local site in West Yorks, are the only local developers in the area who are not still giving the money as a cash back - take from that what you will.

citag21

AdrianC wrote: »

So neither side can vary the contract without re-signing and re-exchanging.



If SDLT had gone up in your specific circumstances, would you be complaining if Barratt said "Well, hold on - we're only paying the amount we thought we were paying"? If so I can honestly say I would pay the difference, only because at time of exchange we'd agreed to SD amount as per government guidelines at the time. It isn't their decision to increase or decrease the amount - so I expect the same courtesy.



How on earth do you figure that?

SD is to be paid by the owner of the property and not the seller; this is why they specify in the T+C's of their offer:“Offer is to pay a sum equivalent to the purchaser’s stamp duty up to a maximum of 4% of the purchase price of your new Barratt home".

G_M

Listen to 'You and Yours' on BBC Radio 4 (now broadcastting Fri 27/11/7: 12.30):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09gbn0m

davidmcn

citag21 wrote: »

SD is to be paid by the owner of the property and not the seller; this is why they specify in the T+C's of their offer:“Offer is to pay a sum equivalent to the purchaser’s stamp duty up to a maximum of 4% of the purchase price of your new Barratt home".

I think you're still quoting from something which isn't your contract. What does the relevant clause in your contract say?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

citag21 wrote: »

My question is, why should Barratts benefit from a government incentive to help FTB not building developers?

If you think the Tories have ever come up with any policy related to housing that wasn't designed to help developers, you are impossibly naive.

michaelm67

There's so much negativity here, some people spend WAY too much time on here.

I'm in the same position as you OP, exchanged contracts but not yet completed. The Builder's incentive was to pay stamp duty, relief was given last Wednesday which was great.

I come on to this forum and the same people say the same things, you're no worse off, some people want it all, how can you expect money back etc.

I went back and politely asked the builder if they could put the money towards other things as a good will gesture, they came back and said they were happy to do that. So I have saved myself a significant amount of money just by asking, yet if I was to take everything that was on here as gospel, all the relief would be doing is saving the builders money, not the intention!

AdrianC

citag21 wrote: »

I would expect a better level of service and commitment from an enterprise like Barratts.

<raises eyebrows>
They are a large, by-the-numbers housebuilder. Realistic expectations include a reasonably-built property that meets building regs and looks a bit like the picture in the brochure. Not much more...

They are not philanthropists...

citag21 wrote: »

SD is to be paid by the owner of the property and not the seller; this is why they specify in the T+C's of their offer:“Offer is to pay a sum equivalent to the purchaser’s stamp duty up to a maximum of 4% of the purchase price of your new Barratt home".

That's just some careful wording to prevent people forgetting to do the paperwork then whinging they thought Barrett would do it.. It does not mean they cannot "pay the SDLT".

michaelm67 wrote: »

I went back and politely asked the builder if they could put the money towards other things as a good will gesture, they came back and said they were happy to do that.

Good for you. I'm very happy for you that your particular builder decided to make that goodwill gesture. It doesn't mean every builder will, of course, nor that they are under any kind of obligation. The wording of the OP's Ts & Cs is clear that they are not, and if the OP took the builder to court, the builder would win.