Buying separate items during house sale

kipsterno1

Another angle on this. Is the ride on mower an easily removable item or even one they need when they move? You can often find yourself buying items they would have left behind anyway.

HedgehogRulez

what happens if the vendor leave's their unwanted junk that they tried to hawk on you? do you have a comeback to get them to remove, or sue them for dumping?

gm0

if you pay for some chattels (wardrobes/curtains/furniture or anything else). This can help with a SDLT threshold and the seller's expectation for a "total". Been there done that with a seller who was difficult

The values have to be realistic (to a degree). You need to keep pictures of what you bought - even if you "change your mind" and sell it on again or recycle/otherwise dispose of it shortly after. And some evidence on a rationale for contemporary valuation is helpful - because:

HMRC can (at their option) challenge you for a period after the reported house sale. 6 months I think it was - not sure if that's still the time limit.

If they have reason to believe you are taking the mick moving significant purchase of the house (SDLT liable) into the chattels add on (not liable). Basically if it's 20k on 500k they are unlikely to be remotely interested.
If it's 150k on 400k - then they may well want to take a closer look at what smells of SDLT evasion.

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82077991#Comment_82077991

the values have to be realistic.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82076433#Comment_82076433

If they were refused (either via TA10 or otherwise) then in theory they should remove them under the Standard Conditions of Sale 5th edition. In principle you would give them notice to ask them to remove them within a reasonable timeframe (10=14 days). If they dont then you could take reasonable steps to have them removed (potentially sold if they have value) and attempt to recover the net costs from them.

In practice in most cases there is no real cost and no one sues anyone. In our case we refused a ceiling fan they wanted £200 and 9 years after buying the property its still in the bedroom and has been good in these recent heatwaves.

Silvertabby

Slightly off piste, but a word of warning for sellers….…

A friend is selling her mother's house to pay for her care. She was contacted by a chap who said that he had viewed the house, but it wasn't quite what he was looking for. However, he would be willing to take the bedroom furnishings and a couple of chairs off her hands to save her a bit of money off the cost of the house clearance. He seemed a bit 'off' so she did her research - and the furniture (perfect condition 60s retro) is worth several hundreds of £s, possibly even a £K or two.