Advice - Stamp Duty / Exchange

jack1992

Hi all.

Scenario: I am selling my property.
Buyer is buying from me (cash) and completes his own sale mid Feb which provides funds to buy mine.

He wants to exchange mid Feb to complete on his completion date, mid feb

He is pretty fair and understanding but obviously wants the Stamp benefit.

Just realised I have a early mortgage exit fee £5000 which is ONLY nulled from 31 March (typical eh). Ie, if I complete on 31 March I save £5k. I am not buying onwards at this point.

Would you

1) ask the buyer to exchange early Jan and complete March 31 (are there risks for not completing then?; obviously dont want buyer to not get stamp exempt). obviously they will need accomodation for 5 weeks

2) explain to buyer your situation and ask if they will go halves on the 5k?

3) just deal with it and accept the £5k fee?

i have been very reasonable on timeline so far and we have a good rapport.

thanks so much!

MFWannabe

Is buyer paying asking price or less for property? 
How much is the property? Therefore how much are they saving in stamp duty? 

jack1992

Good question - tks - 700 asking. He’s cash paying 690 so full £15k saved on his stamp. I have good will with him as I declined a 700 offer (mortgage) post accepting his. 

Thrugelmir

When is your buyer planning on exchanging on their sale?  Is mid february completion a hope rather than a confirmed date. 

jack1992

He has exchanged already so is confirmed.

dimbo61

So your buyer is paying £690,000 for the property which is 97% of the asking price and you want to delay this sale over £5,000 ?
If you have already exchanged your both commited to the sale.
Waiting 8/9 weeks between exchange and completion is a long time so I hope your taking good care of the property.
PS the 31st of March 2021 is going to be the worst day possible for solicitors and selling/buying properties ever !

davidmcn

dimbo61 said:

If you have already exchanged you're both committed to the sale.

No, the OP's buyer has exchanged for their sale.

numbercruncher8

Your situation is not their problem really, so it's unreasonable to expect them to cough up.
The risk:reward doesn't seem worth it to me.

bolwin1

Option 3 - take it on the chin. It's your mistake & you shouldn't make it their problem. 
Option 1 is completely unfair on the buyer - they may well walk away from the deal if you tried to put them in that position.  

jack1992

bolwin1 said:

Option 3 - take it on the chin. It's your mistake & you shouldn't make it their problem. 
Option 1 is completely unfair on the buyer - they may well walk away from the deal if you tried to put them in that position.  

I somewhat agree. However we haven’t yet agreed a completion date, so one could argue that 31st March is reasonable? It was never accepted on condition of his completion date.

numbercruncher8

I can't see how it adds up for the buyer. What are they actually getting out of it? They have to then pay for over a month's accomodation and storage somewhere, and they also have the worry of actually completing it on the day.

Presumably they wanted an exchange well ahead of the deadline on their transactions to avoid getting into a situation that you are wanting to put them into. It also seems off that you are wanting a cut of £5k to complete on their terms (which I presume is many days in Feb), but offering nothing for them to complete on yours (which is only possible on one day). If there is rapport I wouldn't try and ruin it by trying a ****-taking offer.