Can you delay stamp duty payment?

MaryNB

Justonemorecupoftea said:

@MaryNB we accepted an offer at the start of May and have still budgeted for not making the September deadline! 2 months is super ambitious!!

My colleague was selling his flat to an FTB at the end of last year and was moving in with family to break the chain. Still took over 4 months. I know one person who has bought their house (no chain) in 6 weeks but that was well pre-covid and he said it took a huge amount of effort to do so. He was on the phone to all parties nearly every day pushing things along. 

Mutton_Geoff

rennes99 said:

The elimination of stamp duty until 30th of June

Sadly, it's not being eliminated. I am still on target to pay £66,750 on my upcoming purchase but if it's delayed a day or more, it jumps to £79,250, an extra £12,500. There is still an incentive, albeit lower, until end of August.

KF have a useful calculator so you can see the effect of the June and August completion dates.

https://www.knightfrankfinance.co.uk/stamp-duty-calculator

trance_abbey

It's a super ambitious timeline, but I think it'd doable if you take charge and keep on top of things. I hired a slightly more expensive solicitor who is in regular contact with me (which I admittedly feel a little guilty about when he replies at 10 at night, but only a little). I've asked them to keep me updated on what's outstanding from the vendor and then contacted the vendor and asked them to provide it. When they said that searches were going to take 12 weeks(!!!) I called the council and found out that they're actually only take 12 working days - so I called around and found a company who will get them back for me in 15 working days (my solicitor recommended not doing it myself because then I've got a CYA if something turns out to be incorrect). If you're a cash purchaser you can also decide not to do searches and get indemnity insurance as well.

It's worth about 9.5k to me to get the purchase through before the deadline, so I'm looking at it like it's a project management job and every day I do a bit more towards making sure it's all lining up.

rennes99

trance_abbey said:

It's a super ambitious timeline, but I think it'd doable if you take charge and keep on top of things. I hired a slightly more expensive solicitor who is in regular contact with me (which I admittedly feel a little guilty about when he replies at 10 at night, but only a little). I've asked them to keep me updated on what's outstanding from the vendor and then contacted the vendor and asked them to provide it. When they said that searches were going to take 12 weeks(!!!) I called the council and found out that they're actually only take 12 working days - so I called around and found a company who will get them back for me in 15 working days (my solicitor recommended not doing it myself because then I've got a CYA if something turns out to be incorrect). If you're a cash purchaser you can also decide not to do searches and get indemnity insurance as well.

It's worth about 9.5k to me to get the purchase through before the deadline, so I'm looking at it like it's a project management job and every day I do a bit more towards making sure it's all lining up.

I think that's it isn't it - can only do what we can do and keep all the factors on either side aligned, and treat it as you would getting something done in your own profession.... as it is essentially "earning" ourselves the equivalent by beating the deadline I reckon the process could be done within 48hrs if everyone set their mind to it and worked on it full time, one by one!

FTB_Help

To be honest the sd break extension was done to help those that had offers accepted at the end of last year but were experiencing delays.

I had my offer accepted 1st week of october last year and was not confident I'd meet the original deadline so kept aside 15k to cover that

You had your offer accepted a month ago, you really should have budgeted your sd as trying to complete under 2 months is ambitious.

Anyone that was scrambling to buy after the extension was announced should have budgeted sd and not feel like they've been short changed

NameUnavailable

Is it time for another petition?

AnotherJoe

You're a first time buyer spending 425,000 pounds paying a reduced stamp duty fee and you want an additional handout from the government !

You knew when you went into this what the possibilities were, you likely even went in when it looked like there would be a complete drop off and you'd miss entirely, but you've qualified for a tapered reduction, and you are still complaining?

Could almost be a definition of "chutzpah" .

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Can l very kindly point out...a £425k house is going to need a slush fund for repairs, assuming you aren't in an area where that buys you a terrace. Can you REALLY afford this? 

I know, l had the pain of not buying a house we loved because we would have been paying out for 2x chimney inspections, premium insurance due to previous subsidence, getting the cess pit emptied, repairing the oil tank and pipes if needed, higher council tax....yeah, we could have got the mortgage...but all those other costs would have made things too tight for us.

rennes99

AnotherJoe said:

You're a first time buyer spending 425,000 pounds paying a reduced stamp duty fee and you want an additional handout from the government !

You knew when you went into this what the possibilities were, you likely even went in when it looked like there would be a complete drop off and you'd miss entirely, but you've qualified for a tapered reduction, and you are still complaining?

Could almost be a definition of "chutzpah" .

I have scraped and saved, as has my partner who i'm buying with, over many years, and are only now in a position to obtain a mortgage on a £425k property (which a small 2 bed flat where I live, as this is what we need and is "cheap" where we live and work and must stay) because the £6/7k represents a half a year decrease in the time we'll have to wait wasting money on rent, and have done it as early we can. It should not take more than 8 weeks to buy an empty, no chain on either side property! Should it?! 
I'm not going to benefit from the taper as i'm a first time buyer. Yes I knew the possibilties, but when it takes 3 weeks for a solictor to be reminded to chase an initial contract pack (they seem to be COMPLETELY passive on both sides) and to refuse t run searches concurrently (i'm paying for the so why not?!) it just frustrates me.

If i took 3 weeks to remember to chase an email i'd be out the door at my job if i carried on. I;ve paid enough tax only to be taxed again for daring to want to buy a small property, despite being incentivised to do so, but being scuppered by the very fact the incentive exists?! I;ve had nothing during covid and have worked flat out all the way through. Not chutzpah, just would like some sort of equitable resolution for once

Slithery

rennes99 said:

It should not take more than 8 weeks to buy an empty, no chain on either side property! Should it?!

Yes. Average timescales between the chain forming and completion were 12 weeks before covid. Expecting to do it in 8 weeks currently was always unfeasible.