Getting letters about second home stamp duty refund

TishyMouse

Just pondering really... we recently purchased a second property before completion of sale on our main property, so obviously initially had to pay second home SDLT which we subsequently reclaimed when the second sale completed. All good. But we have been a bit disconcerted by a few letters we have received from claims companies offering to help us reclaim the excess. How on earth do they know that we had paid this tax and had a possible refund due? Is this info available if they query the land registry database? 

moneysavinghero

Maybe your EA has been a bit naughty (i know, not like them) and sold on your details.

AnotherJoe

They might not know, in the same way that spammers who send you an email about your Barclays account know if you have a Barclays account.
Or did you perhaps Google for reclaiming the tax and go on any websites that may have been able to harvest your details in some way?

TishyMouse

Hmm I don't think our EA could be the source. Firstly they were actually quite a professional bunch (perhaps that is naive of me but they were certainly better than others that I have to deal with!) but actually I don't think they were even aware that we had another property to sell never mind what our tax liabilities would be. Second property wasn't part of our proof of funds.  

TishyMouse

^ that was the EA of the house we were buying. EA of house we were selling knew we had a different address but nothing about our position (we could have been renting for all they knew..) Very puzzling, but given the scattering of enquiries we have had it is clearly A Thing. 

TishyMouse

@AnotherJoe we just applied directly to the Inland Revenue no Googling involved. I would think maybe 'random spam' if we just got one letter but there have been a few since we moved in 6 months ago, albeit addressed to 'homeowner' rather than to us specifically. Just seemed very coincidental.

stig

It’s not your EA or your conveyancer. SDLT  reclaim companies download reports from  the land registry of all property transactions in a certain period, for free, and blanket bomb new buyers.  They  probably didn’t  even know you’d paid the surcharge personally,  they just send out thousands of letters and hope a significant number meet the criteria and take them up on the offer to reclaim the SDLT in exchange for a share of the refund.  It’s not entirely random, as it’s targeted at new home buyers, but it is spam!

Stig

TishyMouse

@stig that sounds entirely plausible. Thanks. (Obviously they all went straight in the bin but I was just a bit taken aback.)

moneysavinghero

stig said:

It’s not your EA or your conveyancer. SDLT  reclaim companies download reports from  the land registry of all property transactions in a certain period, for free, and blanket bomb new buyers.  They  probably didn’t  even know you’d paid the surcharge personally,  they just send out thousands of letters and hope a significant number meet the criteria and take them up on the offer to reclaim the SDLT in exchange for a share of the refund.  It’s not entirely random, as it’s targeted at new home buyers, but it is spam!

Stig

Just checked on the Land Registry website and yes this is true. Example of what they can see is below. They get the price the property was sold for and the full address and property type, but they don't get the name which would explain why your letter was addressed to the householder.

Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

{BEF7EBBF-9765-7A76-E053-6B04A8C092F7},1500000,2021-02-09 00:00,"CH5 2QJ","O","N","F","UNIT 3","","FACTORY ROAD","SANDYCROFT","DEESIDE","FLINTSHIRE","FLINTSHIRE","B","A"

SDLT_Geek

TishyMouse said:

Just pondering really... we recently purchased a second property before completion of sale on our main property, so obviously initially had to pay second home SDLT which we subsequently reclaimed when the second sale completed. All good. But we have been a bit disconcerted by a few letters we have received from claims companies offering to help us reclaim the excess. How on earth do they know that we had paid this tax and had a possible refund due? Is this info available if they query the land registry database? 

Some such unsolicited letters suggest a reclaim can be made on the basis that the property has a self-contained annexe and so multiple dwellings relief could be claimed.  It does not sound as if that is the angle here, but worth mentioning, just in case.