Advice appreciated

happygirl78

We had an offer accepted on our house mid February. We had an offer accepted on a new barn conversion the day after. We were called by the estate agent for our new house to inform us that planning was not in place for the extended part but that the owner would put in a retrospective application and it would take 8 weeks. Three months later and our chain in close to exchange of contracts but the planning has been delayed and is supposed to be decided this week. I doubt we'll make the end of June stamp duty deadline after legals are complete. Do you think we are in a good position to offer 10k less in light of the unexpected delay, if we don't make the 30th June deadline? Full stamp duty would be 20k.

Thrugelmir

You can offer whatever you like. The vendors can either accept , compromise or decline. In February the stamp duty extension hadn't been announced. Presumably your original offer was made on the basis of stamp duty being payable. 

moneysavinghero

It won't be full stamp duty. The first £250,000 will still be exempt from SD until the end of September.

princeofpounds

If planning is meant to be decided within a week, and you are otherwise close to exchange, why would you miss end of June?

You can revise your offer if it looks like you are going to miss the deadline. The vendor may say yes or no. However, they will be aware that any new buyer they might seek to replace you will be hampered by stamp duty in a way that your original offer wouldn't have been, so they may accept if your offer was a good price and they are very rational about it. However, sometimes people get offended by this sort of thing and call the deal off.