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HELP PLEASE: HMRC notice stamp duty not paid (but we sent the money to the conveyancers!)
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IlikeDogs
Posts: 2 Newbie

I've been a long-time lurker on this forum. It was incredibly helpful when I was buying and selling this year.
After a turbulent year, we finally managed to sell our house and buy our new forever home.
Just as I thought the sleepless nights were over, we received a letter to our previous address that we hadn't paid stamp duty (thankfully we paid for mail forwarding otherwise we wouldn't even know!).
We had paid our conveyancers the entire amount including the stamp duty fees prior to completion. We called the conveyancers and they told us they have paid the stamp duty fees. We called HMRC and were informed we have not paid the stamp duty fees.
We have started to be charged interest and our conveyancers are not responding.
What should we do? We absolutely have no money whatsoever to be paying anything right now. Thank you in advance.
After a turbulent year, we finally managed to sell our house and buy our new forever home.
Just as I thought the sleepless nights were over, we received a letter to our previous address that we hadn't paid stamp duty (thankfully we paid for mail forwarding otherwise we wouldn't even know!).
We had paid our conveyancers the entire amount including the stamp duty fees prior to completion. We called the conveyancers and they told us they have paid the stamp duty fees. We called HMRC and were informed we have not paid the stamp duty fees.
We have started to be charged interest and our conveyancers are not responding.
What should we do? We absolutely have no money whatsoever to be paying anything right now. Thank you in advance.
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Comments
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IlikeDogs said:I've been a long-time lurker on this forum. It was incredibly helpful when I was buying and selling this year.
After a turbulent year, we finally managed to sell our house and buy our new forever home.
Just as I thought the sleepless nights were over, we received a letter to our previous address that we hadn't paid stamp duty (thankfully we paid for mail forwarding otherwise we wouldn't even know!).
We had paid our conveyancers the entire amount including the stamp duty fees prior to completion. We called the conveyancers and they told us they have paid the stamp duty fees. We called HMRC and were informed we have not paid the stamp duty fees.
We have started to be charged interest and our conveyancers are not responding.
What should we do? We absolutely have no money whatsoever to be paying anything right now. Thank you in advance.Also contact HMRC and explain you paid the money to your solicitor and are following it up with them.1 -
If you have a copy of the final statement/invoice from the conveyancer and proof that you have paid (extract from bank statement?), I would suggest contacting HMRC again with this proof and hopefully they may at least stop the interest.
The only way this is going to get fully resolved is for the conveyancer to provide proof to HMRC of when they paid it. It may well be a glitch at HMRC end with the thousands of transactions they must get a day.
Keep on at your conveyancer too.
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I would expect that HMRC only know about the transaction because of the conveyancers having filed the "land transaction return" (LTR) assessing the tax. Filing of the return and payment of the tax are not entirely linked and HMRC need to match up the payment received with the Unique Transaction Reference Number (UTRN) generated when the LTR is submitted. (The UTRN is on a form SDLT5 which is generated by HMRC)
Sometimes HMRC do not match up the payment with the UTRN and the money goes into a suspense account until they allocated it. They would then normally cancel the interest.4 -
So sorry to read this, good you have your paper trail to prove the payment.
I had complete trust in my solicitor, until a poster on here recommended checking the amounts during conveyancing. I checked mine and discovered the solicitor had underpaid me £177.00 after my house sale, they refunded quickly but I was very surprised and will always keep track in future.£216 saved 24 October 20142 -
@IlikeDogs SDLT_Geek is correct. It is very unfortunate that this has happened to you, but do query it with your conveyancer. It is most likely that HMRC have not yet matched up the payment when the solicitor submitted the SDLT. Sometimes it is a simple thing like a human error typo. Don't worry, as long as you have raised this with your solicitor, they will be able to sort this out without any additional monies/interest being paid.2
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Make sure it's not a scamGather ye rosebuds while ye may1
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SallyDucati said:If you have a copy of the final statement/invoice from the conveyancer and proof that you have paid (extract from bank statement?), I would suggest contacting HMRC again with this proof and hopefully they may at least stop the interest.
The only way this is going to get fully resolved is for the conveyancer to provide proof to HMRC of when they paid it. It may well be a glitch at HMRC end with the thousands of transactions they must get a day.
Keep on at your conveyancer too.Lover_of_Lycra said:Raise a formal complaint against your solicitor following the firm’s complaints procedure and escalate to the Legal Ombudsman if you aren’t happy with firm’s response to your complaint.Also contact HMRC and explain you paid the money to your solicitor and are following it up with them.SDLT_Geek said:I would expect that HMRC only know about the transaction because of the conveyancers having filed the "land transaction return" (LTR) assessing the tax. Filing of the return and payment of the tax are not entirely linked and HMRC need to match up the payment received with the Unique Transaction Reference Number (UTRN) generated when the LTR is submitted. (The UTRN is on a form SDLT5 which is generated by HMRC)
Sometimes HMRC do not match up the payment with the UTRN and the money goes into a suspense account until they allocated it. They would then normally cancel the interest.Tiglet2 said:@IlikeDogs SDLT_Geek is correct. It is very unfortunate that this has happened to you, but do query it with your conveyancer. It is most likely that HMRC have not yet matched up the payment when the solicitor submitted the SDLT. Sometimes it is a simple thing like a human error typo. Don't worry, as long as you have raised this with your solicitor, they will be able to sort this out without any additional monies/interest being paid.youth_leader said:So sorry to read this, good you have your paper trail to prove the payment.
I had complete trust in my solicitor, until a poster on here recommended checking the amounts during conveyancing. I checked mine and discovered the solicitor had underpaid me £177.00 after my house sale, they refunded quickly but I was very surprised and will always keep track in future.jimbog said:Make sure it's not a scam0 -
I doubt HMRC will be interested in who has the money if it isn't them - as far as they're concerned, the penalties and interest need paying, and it's for you and your conveyancer to sort it out between themselves (unless as suggested HMRC do in fact have the money and haven't realised it).0
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youth_leader said:So sorry to read this, good you have your paper trail to prove the payment.
I had complete trust in my solicitor, until a poster on here recommended checking the amounts during conveyancing. I checked mine and discovered the solicitor had underpaid me £177.00 after my house sale, they refunded quickly but I was very surprised and will always keep track in future.
This was only noticed as we're using this money towards our new purchase now and the completion statement doesn't match the bank transfer!
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Mizydoscape said:youth_leader said:So sorry to read this, good you have your paper trail to prove the payment.
I had complete trust in my solicitor, until a poster on here recommended checking the amounts during conveyancing. I checked mine and discovered the solicitor had underpaid me £177.00 after my house sale, they refunded quickly but I was very surprised and will always keep track in future.
This was only noticed as we're using this money towards our new purchase now and the completion statement doesn't match the bank transfer!0
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