Stamp duty holiday ?

sukhshant

As officially announced today about the Stamp Duty Holiday. I have reserved a new build house last month with due to exchange the contract by next week. I reserved the house through Barratt and they gave a promotional offer of paying 80% towards the stamp duty and remaining 20% I will be paying. Now that government has announced that no stamp duty holiday. The builders said the promotion scheme will not be compensated. What can be done in regards to this, since they were paying for the stamp duty and now even, they don't have to pay. I asked if they can contribute to toward other benefit as per commitment to which they mentioned they cannot. 

Please assist on this.

cjrmail2k

They were going to pay 80% of your stamp duty, if your stamp duty is £0 then they can still oblige. Unless you are opportunistically asking for a discount on the sale price?

davidmcn

Marvel1 said:

rmd91 said:

I live in Wales and we have different stamp duty thresholds to England. Would the stamp duty holiday impact all of the UK or will devolved governments have to introduce their own, if they so wish?

Anything like the COVID-19 announcements, I'm guessing it's just England.

And Northern Ireland.

GixerKate

sukhshant said:

As officially announced today about the Stamp Duty Holiday. I have reserved a new build house last month with due to exchange the contract by next week. I reserved the house through Barratt and they gave a promotional offer of paying 80% towards the stamp duty and remaining 20% I will be paying. Now that government has announced that no stamp duty holiday. The builders said the promotion scheme will not be compensated. What can be done in regards to this, since they were paying for the stamp duty and now even, they don't have to pay. I asked if they can contribute to toward other benefit as per commitment to which they mentioned they cannot. 

Please assist on this.

so you want them to put the money towards something else as they don't have to pay 80% of the stamp duty?  Depending on the wording in the documentation I don't see why they would do this.  Why not look at this as the 20% you no longer have to pay.

ChloeHanlon22

I am in exactly the same situation as yourself, our builder is Bellway and they were going to pay £11,500 for our stamp duty. Not sure where we stand now, it feels wrong to feel frustrated, but when you could have had other incentives it feels like you’ve now lost out somehow. 

GixerKate

The aim of this stamp duty holiday is to help people push along the house purchasing, for the people who were dithering about whether to take the plunge now or wait a bit.  Also, for the people who are pushing ahead anyway, its money that can now be spent on the economy which is so very needed.

Andyjp1

Well the saving I’m making will be spend on new house furnishings so it’s also a way to help businesses too.

OleSmokey

Having seen the news this afternoon, I'm now desperately trying to get hold of my conveyancing solicitor.  However, I imagine she is pretty inundated with calls at the moment and seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.  Wondering if anyone here might be able to help with an answer to the following question:

Is the date of exchange in any way relevant to this?  If I exchanged contracts two weeks ago, but complete on Friday, my understanding is that I would benefit from the SDLT Holiday?  Thanks in advance for any replies.

jbpaton

OleSmokey said:

Having seen the news this afternoon, I'm now desperately trying to get hold of my conveyancing solicitor.  However, I imagine she is pretty inundated with calls at the moment and seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.  Wondering if anyone here might be able to help with an answer to the following question:

Is the date of exchange in any way relevant to this?  If I exchanged contracts two weeks ago, but complete on Friday, my understanding is that I would benefit from the SDLT Holiday?  Thanks in advance for any replies.

My understanding is the same. Martin Lewis thinks also. Our solicitor isn't 100% but is generally agreeing. We complete on Friday too, so fingers crossed...

gingercordial

OleSmokey said:

Having seen the news this afternoon, I'm now desperately trying to get hold of my conveyancing solicitor.  However, I imagine she is pretty inundated with calls at the moment and seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.  Wondering if anyone here might be able to help with an answer to the following question:

Is the date of exchange in any way relevant to this?  If I exchanged contracts two weeks ago, but complete on Friday, my understanding is that I would benefit from the SDLT Holiday?  Thanks in advance for any replies.

Generally speaking (and bear in mind there is always a chance there will be something more specific for this) the date for SDLT is the date of completion.  See here for the official HMRC position: 

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm07600

"the effective date of a land transaction is when that land transaction is completed"