Stamp Duty Land Tax and solicitors bills - payment options

Starlight_at_Sea

Hi, Thanks in advance for responses.

I am calculating the maximum offer I can put in on a property, and wanted to know the payment methods that solicitors usually accept for payment of their fees, and for SDLT (which as I understand it, is usually paid through the solicitors - please correct me if wrong!)

Is it possible to pay these bills by credit card, or do I need cash available to bank transfer? 

propertyrental

No. Bank transfer or CHAPS Few solicitors will take credit cards.

You'll need the total amount transferred to the S before Completion. Without it the S won't Complete.

Only alternative might be if there's no mortgage and you agree with the S that you'll pay the SDLT, then you won't need to transfer that tothe S. Instead you'll have 14 (I hink) days to pay HMRC yourself.

user1977

propertyrental said:

No. Bank transfer or CHAPS Few solicitors will take credit cards.

I would say a fair number do (at least for their fees, perhaps not for SDLT), but in any event I wouldn't assume so. The best way of finding out is to ask your solicitor!

EssexHebridean

Yes to 14 days to pay SDLT from date of completion. It's calendar days though, NOT working days, just for absolute clarity.

OP - if you are genuinely thinking of "needing" to put the SDLT on a credit card, I'd suggest lowering the price bracket you are looking in a little, or alternatively leaving yourself more time to save up all the associated costs.  

onemouseplace

I was able to put money on account with our solicitor (so to go towards their fees and any other costs) via an online payment on their website by credit card - it was a maximum payment of £2,500 though.  

I imagine each solicitor will be different though.

Starlight_at_Sea

Very helpful responses, thank you, you've confirmed what I thought might be the case. I've potentially got a relatively minor cash flow timing complication to take into account, depending on when we complete in a quarter, plus a relatively large initial SDLT as we will likely have two homes for a while, so I just wanted to be very clear about options before committing.