Gutted - stamp duty

[MrsJocelyn]

Found the perfect house and made an offer, on the condition that they would vacate before the end of March. The seller accepted our offer but won't guarantee to be out before the stamp duty holiday ends. We can't afford it after March. ☹️ Gutted and don't know what to do.

Yes thank you for all this good advice. We offered beginning of January and they took ages to come back to us. We did tell the EA we were looking to beat the holiday, and they gave us the impression that would be fine, given that there are no chains.

Hopefully the stamp duty holiday is extended. I've seen the petition online.

I really don’t think it’s possible. Friends of ours are buying currently with no chain on either side. They first had their offer accepted in August and they’re still not in due to all the delays with mortgages at the moment

Are they waiting to find a property or are they in a chain ?
Is it possible that you can buy the house and rent it to them ?
What is your current situation ... renting/ in a chain yourself ?

Just reduce the deposit to cover the stamp duty? That’s what we’ll be doing. No one can guarantee a date for completion, our buyers said the same re completing before the holiday ends. They can’t get a mortgage so it’s their fault we’re delayed!

I think this is still doable if you have a decent solicitor and a decent bank. Offered just before Xmas, mortgage all sorted and offered by last Friday, draft contracts shared between solicitors, survey next week and providing that’s fine, we’ll be looking to set an exchange date.

@MrsJocelyn

Yes thank you for all this good advice. We offered beginning of January and they took ages to come back to us. We did tell the EA we were looking to beat the holiday, and they gave us the impression that would be fine, given that there are no chains.

Hopefully the stamp duty holiday is extended. I've seen the petition online.

Nothing is ever a problem to the Estate Agent. They're just looking for the commission on the sale.

I’ll get flamed for this I’m sure but if you can’t afford the house without saving a few thousand in the stamp duty, should you really be buying it?

I would figure out what I could afford, factoring in the stamp duty cost, and offer that. It’s likely that’s the real value of the property as house prices will come down once the stamp duty holiday ends.

@MrsJocelyn

Yes thank you for all this good advice. We offered beginning of January and they took ages to come back to us. We did tell the EA we were looking to beat the holiday, and they gave us the impression that would be fine, given that there are no chains.

Hopefully the stamp duty holiday is extended. I've seen the petition online.

Well, the EA would say that. They want the house to sell so that they can receive commission. I sympathise with buyers who made offers months ago and are still struggling to complete but this situation is different. I don't think the government should extend stamp duty (unless just for those who have already exchanged). They may do, of course, because successive government have made it their business to inflate house prices.

@Thehousejackbuilt

I’ll get flamed for this I’m sure but if you can’t afford the house without saving a few thousand in the stamp duty, should you really be buying it?

I thought the same, how much is the house?

My brother is a mortgage advisor and had 11 new mortgages to put through today alone. He has been working flat out for months. We are looking to move and he’s told us no way will be able to beat the stamp duty cut off, that there is a massive backlog with banks and solicitors.

I think you do have a chance of getting it done before end of March. Started another thread about similar situation and our solicitor and broker quite confident. Definitely not out of the question!

We’ve just completed (last week). Ours took 12 weeks + 3 days and we were a chain of 4 houses.
Our mortgage offer only took 5 days but that was October last year.

If there’s no chain you might just squeeze in but it’ll be to the wire.

If you can’t afford stamp duty then you probably can’t afford to lose money to solicitor / survey / fees if you pull out.

Tbh perhaps you’ve over stretched yourselves financially anyway.

@organisedmother

Never would of completed in 11 weeks! No matter what the chain is unfortunately

11 weeks is far more reasonable than the three weeks a poster was wanting to sell her house in on a thread last week.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable it is ten weeks time, but you need both sets of solicitors on board with the date and to be giving the attention that is required to the sale and purchase. It is not impossible.

We were in no chain, from offer to getting keys was 6 weeks.

From my recent experience its the mortgages holding things up. I had an offer accepted on a house end of July and only moved 18th December. The sellers mortgage company took ages and ages to even do the survey. I was in rented so no chain and they were moving to an empty house but still 4.5 months. Never again I hope. The English system of buying and selling needs a complete overhaul.

@combatbarbie

We were in no chain, from offer to getting keys was 6 weeks.

During COVID and with a mortgage?

@MrsJocelyn

Thanks for the responses. Neither of us are in a chain so it should be possible to move in before end of March.

Hahahahahahaha Sorry. No. We put our offer in in summer and moved 2 days before Xmas. We were cash buyers.

Being realistic, we just bought somewhere with no chain on either side (inheritance by buyer, second home for us) but we needed a mortgage. We had the offer accepted 29 October and completed 6 January. We maybe could have done it by 20 December without a minor query from the bank. So it would be a massive push to do it by end of March but not completely impossible.

Is there a reason they don’t want to complete by end of March or just they won’t guarantee it?

Would they consider completion by this date but moving out after? I don’t know the ins and outs of how this would work but I guess you’d have a fixed term tenancy agreeement and that way you’d save all the stamp duty.

Not having a chain is obviously going to make things easier but trying to get surveys, searches, mortgages, removals booked etc. all done in 11 weeks (also beer in mind that all these services are at an all time high in terms of demand right now) is very unlikely. Best that the seller was honest with you and said they couldn’t promise. The agent wants a sale so will claim anything is possible. However, a lot of house prices seem overly inflated at the moment anyway so you may be able to negotiate a discount when the stamp duty holiday ends

Even if it was empty now I doubt you'd complete by the end of March . Banks and solicitors are snowed under

There are way too many pessimists on this thread. No issue booking a survey here (and that was after first company pulled out at last minute due to Covid), mortgage offer back quickly and searches no issue either. Engaged solicitor. It’s possible. You have to set the bar high and demand the level of service you’re paying for and not accept being fobbed off. Get a good mortgage broker who knows which banks are being quick. It’s not rocket science!

I’m in a tiny chain - FTB buying our flat and we’re buying a probate (owner deceased) house. We had offers accepted in July/August and we still haven’t moved! Everything is taking much, much longer. Even if your seller agreed to move before end March it might not actually happen.