SDLT possible changes.....

[Pimms0clock]

Hello,

Could do with some impartial input / advice. We are buying a house and it has not been an easy ride, lots of issues with the sellers which has meant the 8 week promise from offer to exchange is now 7 months.

Just as the sellers are in a position to move forward there is now talk from the Goverment about stamp duty changes. This would be a second property for us (we will be renting our current home) so it could be quite a significant saving. What should we do? The sellers now want to move very quickly but I find I am hesitant.

Am I just having the house moving wobble and using this as an excuse or is there some merit in waiting and possibly saving money (not sure the sellers would be keen).

I should add although I have never been in love with the property I can see it has potential and nothing else has come on the market like it.

It's just talk at the moment.

Do you plan on selling your current property in the next 3 years to make use of the replacing a primary residence rule?

There’s always talk of changing stamp duty but you can’t rely on it or when and it might not be a change that would benefit you.

No, no plans to sell as we hope to use the current property as our retirement fund.

I did have a crazy idea we could gift the current property and get a rebate on the higher rate stamp duty to then have it gifted back at some point. But that opens up CGT and IHT 7 years rules..... so we won’t be doing that!

I agree with @MinneMountain, I cannot believe that this change will be anything but months / years away. Govt would have to get this change into law and then serve notice on legal and whole house moving industry for the shock of the change to go though.
Oddly if I was selling and this change happened overnight then the price of the house would suddenly jump by the extra charges I faced.
As you can imagine this change would cause more chaos in uncertain times if not introduced with adequate notice for sellers to budget for expense.

Sorry, I should have said I was hoping for the comment Boris made about removing stamp duty for properties under £500k (usually from announcement these changes happen with immediate effect) rather than the latest comment from Sajid Javid. I agree with you @Grumpy this would be a significant upheaval for the whole industry and would take a long time to implement.

Oh and I agree that despite them stating this would be a tax on the seller, house prices would just go up to accommodate it so it remains a buyers expense.

And this is all from one remark made by Boris Johnson?!

I wouldn’t change my behaviour on what bojo says - he says a lot of crazy things.

Yes your right. I guess it means I am having a major wobble and trying to justify it, as I’m not thinking logically at all. Thank you.

I cannot believe that this change will be anything but months / years away. Govt would have to get this change into law and then serve notice on legal and whole house moving industry for the shock of the change to go though.

Not sue this is true? If I remember correctly the last time SDLT changes were introduced it was overnight. If you had exchanged the day before the announcement was made you were on the old rate - if not you were eligible for the new BTL / second home tax.

Discussion / rumour this time is for the sellers to pay it - and properties up to £500 to be exempt.

Sellers only pay stamp duty if they sold the house to first time/moving house, if they sold the house to the second property/BTL buyer, it is still buyer to pay 3% extra stamp duty.

I think new policy probably benefit massively to first time or up-sizing buyer, it is still the same to second house or BTL buyer.