House Swap/estate agency fees/stamp duty

ds3727

I am currently selling my property and a potential buyer has said they are very interested but could not put an offer in until they had received an offer on their property. She informed me of the property she was selling and it is in the correct price bracket for me and the sort of house I am after. I am going to view the house on Sat after directly arranging it with her but have a couple of questions.

Firstly:
Will she be liable to any estate agency fees if I purchased her property. She is selling with the Halifax whom I have never contacted and have never registered an interest in buying any property.

Secondly:
He asking price is £299.995 and mine £179.995. Is there anything from stopping me offering her £250,000 and me accepting an offer from her of £140,000 for my property. This obviously brings the purchase under the 3% stamp duty threshold.

Thanks for any advice

Slider

ds3727 wrote:

Secondly:
He asking price is £299.995 and mine £179.995. Is there anything from stopping me offering her £250,000 and me accepting an offer from her of £140,000 for my property. This obviously brings the purchase under the 3% stamp duty threshold.

Thanks for any advice

I once went through this with a part exchange for a new build, where we slid the prices down to avoid 3% stamp, but it was only a 15k adjustment, so not sure you will get away with such a big slide.

The revenue also takes a keen eye on house sales around the thresh-hold limits, so be careful.

spottydog

ds3727 wrote:

Will she be liable to any estate agency fees if I purchased her property. She is selling with the Halifax whom I have never contacted and have never registered an interest in buying any property.

As long as her agreement with the Halifax is sole agency rights rather than sole selling rights then she should not have to pay their fees as they have not introduced her (but you will still have to pay your agents as they introduced her to buying your property).

Sorry I can't help with the stamp duty question.

ds3727

Thanks spotty dog, no problem with my estate agency fees because I paid a one off up front fee of £297.50 with no other costs if I do my own negotiations once a buyer is introduced.

jockettuk

how many times on here have we seen a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay so if you are prepared to pay less than the asking price and they agree for whatever reasons.. then why shouldnt it go through.. i had a friend who sold her home recently after a divorce her ex stopped paying the morgage and she couldnt afford it .. she had it up £180,000 and bearing in mind she still paid the morgage till it was sold she had 2 buyers who pulled out the last week of the sale and she eventually let it go for £140,000 as she said she was getting into debt paying the morgage so as she saw it she would be better off getting rid of it.

ds3727

I agree jockettuk, if I beleive the house is 17% overpriced then I can't really see a problem with paying £250k for a £300k asking price. My only concern is if the Inland Revenue think there is some sort of ploy just to evade stamp duty especially as she would be purchasing my property at a reduced price.

Doozergirl

I don't think there would be a problem with the stamp duty idea. Houses sell for less than their ceiling price all the time, especially if they need work. Who says what a house is worth after all?

lin473

This is a similar situation to one we were in some 13 years ago now.We were moving to a larger house and the vendors bought our three bedroomed semi from us .As the property market was so stagnant at the time, it seemed a good option to part exchange.They paid estate agents fees as we viewed via them,but we did not pay ours,as they were not introduced to us via the agent in any way.We set the selling prices a bit lower as it was only the price difference that mattered ,and that saved us all a bit on all the various fees which were all worked out on percentage terms.I don't see any problem with setting the price to avoid 3% stamp duty . Houses are selling well under the asking price anyway so it is not unreasonable.
You've just GOT to like the house now!

MattyNeth

If someone is prepared to officially "offer" 250k and it is accepted then there is nothing the revenue can do. The only issue is whether the selling price affects the mortgage valuation and subsequent offer from bank/building society

Robert_Sterling_3

I would like to put an opposite point of view for consideration.
Is this a conspiracy to defraud?

lin473

.....No.....