Selling home - mortgage fixed rate finishes on the 31st of March (Stamp duty holiday) Early Exit Fee

27 Posts

I have recently agreed on a sale of my property. The buyer is obviously going hell for leather to ensure the it fits into the Stamp Duty Holiday, otherwise he'll owe an extra £17k.
However if this was to happen, then I would have to pay an early exit fee of £8500. Even though there is a window of just 24 hours before that 2 year fixed contract finishes on April 1st. I've rung up the bank about this whom a representative is adamant that it's a brick wall and contract is a contract.
From there I rang up a legal property lawyer and she told me that you can get out of this situation.
EDIT: She told me that if its like a 24hour window then that is something you can deal with. "If it was more than that, it's a problem"
So before I decided to spend 1.8k (London prices) on her as a solicitor to deal with the sale, I decided to ring the bank up and confirm that this was the case. The response i got was a firm no, and there was no wiggle room at all.
I proceeded to relay this back to the lawyer who basically said "They have nothing to do with this. Why would you ring them at all?". And now she has gone cold. Am I missing something here?
However if this was to happen, then I would have to pay an early exit fee of £8500. Even though there is a window of just 24 hours before that 2 year fixed contract finishes on April 1st. I've rung up the bank about this whom a representative is adamant that it's a brick wall and contract is a contract.
From there I rang up a legal property lawyer and she told me that you can get out of this situation.
EDIT: She told me that if its like a 24hour window then that is something you can deal with. "If it was more than that, it's a problem"
So before I decided to spend 1.8k (London prices) on her as a solicitor to deal with the sale, I decided to ring the bank up and confirm that this was the case. The response i got was a firm no, and there was no wiggle room at all.
I proceeded to relay this back to the lawyer who basically said "They have nothing to do with this. Why would you ring them at all?". And now she has gone cold. Am I missing something here?
0
Latest MSE News and Guides
Replies
The obvious way to avoid the ERC is to port the mortgage to a new property.
Do you want to lose your buyer ?
How much are you making on the sale ( London price rises over the last few years )
Can you port the mortgage to another property ?
In terms of your contract with the solicitor, if the engagement letter does not include anything you have described, you have no way out
Given that the 31st March is the cut off for the stamp duty holiday. By delaying the sale you might well be offered less for your property. A case of swings and roundabouts.
Thousands of buyers are going to miss this deadline.
You can see with the sudden increase of opening up higher LTV products and much better rates.
If you are not a quick case or already down the pipeline, I doubt it will complete before 31st March 2021.
In this instance, you do what is right for you. Another buyer will arrive, do not pay the ERC for the buyer to suddenly decide to drop out as well potentially. Do what is right for you ALWAYS.