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.

You'd need a fair wind to complete by end of march, if the owners of the house you are buying have somewhere to go and its a short chain it might be possible, unless you try youll never know.
There could be a chance govt will extend stamp duty holiday or a possibility the venders might accept a lower offer after march. You've made your position clear, theyve accepted , so now you'll have to wait and see. Good luck

Our last house we offered around this time in 2017, first time buyers buying a house completely out of a chain (second property) and we still didn't complete until April, no major hold ups it just took that long, even with the seller desperately pushing for a 4 week completion (lol).

Your seller was fair to be honest with you, many would have said "yeah sure..." and saw what happened because there is a limit as to how much you can push the speed of a sale, even at the moment.

We’ve recently bought and sold and both took around 11 weeks (buyers were FTB and we broke the chain for them after a prior house fell through, house we were buying was us, our sellers and the house they were buying). All I will say is it’s possibly doable but only if your sellers are as motivated as you are. In the final weeks we were on the phone to each other and our solicitors daily to make sure we were in before Christmas.

I don't really understand OP. Even if the vendors would 'guarantee' to be out by the end of March, that wouldn't make completion by then certain. And an estate agent will just say whatever you want to hear.

Are you mortgage free? We recently sold and the buyer's mortgage offer took almost 2 months. We were told the average time to receive an offer was over 40 days; it'll be longer now. That's not pessimism, it's from our conveyancer. Not only is the level of demand an issue, staff levels have decreased due to sickness, and working from home is slowing things up Then all the searches are taking much longer than normal. Conveyancers and solicitors are overwhelmed with work, add in covid and again, there's an issue with likely delays there. Removal firms, if you need them, will be extremely difficult to source too. Best of luck, but it will be a really tough deadline to meet.

I think there is every chance the stamp duty holiday will be extended beyond March. But you can't rely on that happening.

Your seller was fair to be honest with you, many would have said "yeah sure..." and saw what happened because there is a limit as to how much you can push the speed of a sale, even at the moment.

Further to this point - is your seller aware that if you don't complete by the deadline, you can't afford it?

Maybe they'd be willing to push ahead in the hope that it does work out, but there are costs involved for them, instability for any onward purchase, etc. It's not a gamble that I'd be prepared to take as a seller.

you can pull out and hope the price drops after the stamp duty deadline.

March is unrealistic

No chance, DS bought a house 2019, offered beginning of jan and completed 10th may. Empty house, no problems, FTB.

That was a whole year before Covid.

I really hope they don’t extend the SDLT holiday. Most conveyancers have been working flat out since June.

And it’s not pessimistic to say OP can’t complete by the end of March. It’s very realistic.

I know it's no comfort but we missed the last stamp duty break when we bought, only by days. Worst was it was a probate so should have been quick!

Why not just reduce your offer by the amount the stamp duty will be?

March is unrealistic, we are in the process of moving at the moment found our property in mid Oct, still not exchanged, we are chain of 3, none of us needs a mortgage, taking forever, when things should be fairly simple.

Solicitors are really busy, ours has x3 usual workload for example, searches are taking longer due to COVID, everyone wants to move before stamp duty holiday ends etc.

Personally I do think stamp duty holiday will be extended, I can’t see how Gov have any other option, perhaps an extension for people already in the process, who knows.

Good luck with whatever decision you make. Bloody awful process I know.

We also had to wait 3 weeks for a survey, totally dependent on where in the country you are buying of course.

It was the searches for us, they took months. No chain. Still 3.5 months.

Also, people saying about stamp duty being only a few grand. Our move would have been £16K in stamp duty, and we definitely could not have afforded that on top of the £10k we had saved up to pay for the move.

@Littlepond

Why not just reduce your offer by the amount the stamp duty will be?

Why would the vendors accept that though, it's not really their problem that the OP can only afford their house if they pay reduced stamp duty..

We've accepted an offer and had ours accepted. In every interaction with estate agents, solicitor and mortgage company, they have highlighted how unlikely it is that we will make 31 March deadline, and checked that everyone in the chain can afford to move after that date. Would be nice though 😅

It’s possible by the end of March op, but they can’t guarantee it, I’m sorry, becayse it’s not in their power to guarantee it.

I agree everything is very slow, often for completely unavoidable reasons that happen when you are moving house during a pandemic!

We accepted an offer in October, that fell through due to a sudden death, and then a person in the chain getting covid.

We are finally getting closer to completion with new chain but I think it will probably still be tighter than we'd all like before the end of March.

Why is the process in the UK so slow? We are in Australia, made an offer and moved in six weeks later. And that was over Xmas! No chain but we had a mortgage.

In normal times it would be possible - we bought our last house in 10 weeks (chain of 3 people), and our first house in 28 days. It was a repossession & completing within 28 days was a condition of sale. They also kept advertising it till we completed!

We started buying a house back in July/August, just one house. Nothing to sell and it's still ongoing and I'm starting to worry about missing the stamp duty holiday.

@WinstonmissesXmas it's really not that simple. We thought we were going to be all ready to exchange back in November, but here we are in Jan still having not exchanged. Wait until you actually exchange before saying how fast the process has been for you.

Our delays have been nothing to do with banks or solicitors. Ours have been due to divorcing vendors not communicating with each other. Enquiries not being answered for months and then when we finally get answers saying "I don't know". Last minute compliance issues with septic tanks that only came up because of the delayed "I don't know" answer and then negotiation over who will cover the legal septic tank responsibility. Waiting for agreement over indemnities and who should pay and if excesses are reasonable. And then trying to fit in with the vendors work and holiday, plus their preferences on moving at a time that suits them.

It's really not just down to having a good solicitor and bank.

It might technically be “possible” by the end of March @Bluntness100 but it’s extremely unlikely. Don’t get OP’s hopes up. And I say this as a conveyancer, which I know you’re not.

@cloudchaos

Wait until you actually exchange before saying how fast the process has been for you. I have exchanged, it’s been fine!