Solicitor fees and stamp duty

paddyposh

My grandparent is kindly paying the legal fees for us on our house purchase. We have to make our first initial payment imminently, from our card. Presumably if we make the payments and then grandparent sends money to me after is ok? Would we need to declare it as I was told before we’d only have to declare gifts for the actual house deposit (which another family member is doing, already got gifted forms and proof of funds etc).

But wondering in regards to the various conveyancing fees and stamp duty

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6662335/solicitor-fees-and-stamp-duty

Have you already received your AIP from the mortgage Lender? If so, you probably don't want to give new information that puts that at risk?

Did you answer all the questions from the Lender fully and truthfully when asked?

My gut feel would be that you don't need to advise, but I have no knowledge on the subject matter.

Also, do you know what is being covered by your Grandparents as you say

"kindly paying the legal fees"

and then end with

"various conveyancing fees and stamp duty"

While "legal fees" or "conveyancing fees" are two phrases for one-and-the-same thing, I would not consider that stamp duty is covered under that descriptor. Stamp duty may well dwarf the legal fees in value terms. You need to be sure so that you do not receive a large and unexpected (to you) cost at any stage.

paddyposh

from looking online and others past experiences I’ve been under the impression it was only the deposit that has the gift implications.

When we had the AIP call and then our full mortgage application call (current stage is that’s done, passed hard credit checks, been asked for payslips etc now), the only thing the lender asked about was if the 5% deposit was a gift. Which is it and they know about.

Grandparent has offered to cover all of the solicitor fees and stamp duty (which works out approx £2000 for fees and £2300 for stamp duty)

paddyposh

checked with lender (west brom) and they only need to know about the deposit

saajan_12

I don't think it would matter what the money was for - the point of AML checks is to ensure solicitors don't help with laundering money. A £1mil house has a £100k stamp duty bill, which presumably HMRC don't want paid in dirty money either. Now a solicitor may take a more pragmatic view when its smaller amounts of money.. there's no fixed answer.

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81947146#Comment_81947146

What does your solicitor say? It's more up to them - I've worked in a firm where incoming funds for fees etc were treated in the same way as the funds for the price.

paddyposh

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81947168#Comment_81947168

just rang them and yep they have said we should be declaring it as it's still technically a gift (in terms of the dispursements and Stamp Duty anyway, some of the cost is paid by card, what they class as legal fees)

They will want to email the grandparent with the forms etc needed

gwynlas

If you are paying your debt by card that is all they need to know,

Your grandparent can gift you any amount they choose and how you use it is again up to you ie you could pay off your card through normal income and use grandparents gift for ordinary living expenses