Stamp duty holiday stress

lookstraightahead

Why are people paying so over the odds for properties if they need to save this relatively small amount? Doesn't bode well for interest hikes.

Keswick1uk

The problem would have been defining what's a "transaction that's started"

Keswick1uk

The mistake was in giving a stamp duty holiday at all.

Slithery

This has been discussed plenty of times already. Have you read this thread?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6262048/petition-stamp-duty-holiday-to-be-triggered-upon-exchange-of-contracts

Kyresa

TBG01 said:

I'm not saying don't chase. I'm saying you're not the only one chasing. You might feel like it is, but your transaction is no more special than anyone elses. You know I'd really love to see what backlash there would be if a Solicitor turned round and said 'Yeah sorry we didn't manage to complete yours today so you're now being hit with Stamp Duty. Why? Because I dropped you to answer someone needlessly chasing'

You can say it till you're blue in the face.  We can all write the auto responder saying please DO NOT chase us till we're blue in the face... makes not a blind bit of difference.    I have to admit I have never come across such rude clients (sorry, consumers as the LSB now want us to call them) as I have in the past 4 months!     


 

NameUnavailable

Keswick1uk said:

The mistake was in giving a stamp duty holiday at all.

This. There was no need to 'boost' an already over inflated market.

Redwino222

TBG01 said:

Tiglet2 said:

I work for a conveyancing solicitor and can't wait for the stamp duty deadline to end.  It has been absolutely manic since July 2020 and all staff were politely asked not to take any holiday during this time if possible.  I am exhausted, everyone I work with is exhausted and I am done with rude clients constantly reminding me that they want to complete by the SD deadline.  I know they do, they don't need to tell me every day.   A client who instructed us on 10th June, is also now phoning and emailing every day because they too want to complete by 30th June.  Yeah right.

Hear, hear.

I keep checking the The NEW waiting to exchange thread... and I'm still astonished at the sheer lack of self awareness. Like maybe the reason you haven't had a response from your Solicitor yet is because they're busy responding to the 100th email from the the poster you advised to 'Chase. Chase. Chase' up something that is completely out of the Solicitors hands. 

However, and from the other side of this, I am paying my solicitor £4,000 to manage a transaction for me.  I expect them to communicate with me regularly and to respond to my queries within a reasonable timeframe. 

A solicitor should not take on so much work that the standard of their service falls below acceptable levels.   

I am realistic - while I wanted to complete before end June I accepted this was largely outside of my control.  That said, had a not chased on a few occasions things simply would not have happened. Also if my emails were responded to fully and I had an accurate picture of where things were I would not have had to chase so much.

hippocrates1

Admittedly my solicitor has been very good but twice I have had to chase my vendors solicitor through the EA and ended up doing things for them same day as things they had supposedly been chasing themselves everyday for weeks. One example involves them no forwarding an email to my solicitor for two months. Yeah chasing is annoying. I’m a doctor so my job is chasing jobs all day everyday. But certainly things would not have been sorted had I not chased them.

Ally_E.

It would be silly to pull out. We knew there's a good chance we would miss it, so we are OK with it. Stamp duty holiday has already been extended to allow for the transactions to complete. If you didn't stand a chance of completing before end of March, then I don't see what the problem is now. That extension was for them, not us.

arrows123

Most of the issues with solicitors could be resolved by setting the right expectation. I sold a house in Jan, was completely reasonable, was in no rush but it did start to annoy me that whenever I spoke to them, they’d tell me they had enquiries to send across and they’d do it by the end of the next day then didn’t meet their own deadlines so I had to chase. If they’d told me five days I would have waited five days before chasing.