June stamp duty holiday and putting in an offer

[Kai1981]

As a buyer, if I want to ask seller to reduce the sale price if we don't complete by the end of the stamp duty holiday, do I have to mention this when I put the offer in (e.g. this week) or is it OK to wait until the solicitors start speaking to each other?

I'm chain free so I have a fair chance of completing (subject to the inevitable delays right now).

Also, I was pretty sure that you had to have completed before the stamp duty holiday ends but an agent told me they are now more relaxed. This smells like total BS but just thought I'd check in case things have changed!

He's talking BS, but remember it doesn't completely end June, it's tapered until September so depends on your house price. I think the only problem with amending house price that far down the road is reissuing mortgage paperwork etc, not sure if that's a drama, and I'm assuming you can't make them legally commit but good to be upfront with intentions?

Are your vendors chain free?

As a seller I wouldn’t accept this. If we got to the point of not being able to complete in time and a buyer reduced the price by £15k I might well put it back in the market.

You might well find that your solicitor won’t agree to work like that. The ones in our recent chain had a banner in their corporate email signature saying that they would not offer any guarantees to complete before the end of the current holiday.

Thanks so much. Yes sellers are chain free too (in fact they've moved out already)!

Looking at other threads, someone said they had been able to ask their solicitor to do this.

And as a seller, I suppose the choice is, put it back on the market when stamp duty ends but go through the whole process again. I'd be amazed if prices didn't fall a little after the ST hol ends anyway but of course, that would be up to the buyer.

The solicitor doesn't have to agree to work like that of course!

I don't see any harm in asking, you won't be the first! It's potentially a lot of money to gamble with.

As a vendor I wouldn't accept an offer from someone who whose purchase was dependent on completion before the June deadline.

There is absolutely no guarantee even a chain free sale will go through in time and I think anyone making offers currently needs to do so having budgeted for the possibility of stamp duty.

The conveyancers I work for are not guaranteeing anything. We ARE sending out lots of warning letters though

We’re viewing the extension more as time to get the existing files through.

And as a seller, I suppose the choice is, put it back on the market when stamp duty ends but go through the whole process again.

I don't think many sellers would knowingly leave themselves open to the risk of this happening.

If you are chain free, they are chain free, and there are no survey issues that your lender is unhappy with you should be OK.

Surveys, searches and solicitors are all slow atm though.

Hmm we put offer in in December, no chain and still waiting to exchange due to slow responses to enquiries etc. I would be annoyed if a new wave of transactions was prioritised now.

Thank you. I have a solicitor I've used before, will see what they think about timings before committing. Sounds as though I need to decide what I can afford to offer with the risk of delays in place (e.g. if I then have to pay stamp duty) and see whether the seller will accept.

As a seller I would absolutely reject your offer if it came with these strings, effectively you are asking the seller to pay your stamp duty! That is a total piss take

I've also said I won't be doing it. The seller has moved out already (to help buyers buy before the SD hol comes to an end as it happens).

Why don’t you offer a reduced amount and agree to pay an incentive if completion is prior to June?

Could you offer a bonus payment somehow if it completes before June? Not sure how legally it would be possible but a loss sounds worse to people than a possible gain if that makes sense. Then the vendor knows how much they are getting with a possible bonus if it goes faster. Maybe incentives for solicitors to go faster. I know when we bought it was possible to do an expediated option.

Prices will drop as soon as stamp duty freeze ends. Unless you are saving a lot and moving to a forever home I would wait.

Thank you all, an incentive is interesting. As you say, not sure how it would work but seems fairer. Will investigate.

If I don't do that and offer now, I'll still put in a lower offer to take account of the fact that the market is likely to fall/slow down soon. I'm planning to live there for a long time so less concerned about short to medium drops (and I'm in outer London where there's rarely enough supply to meet demand, especially for period properties like this one).

Fewer properties came in to the market in the run up to the current holiday deadline but there was no discernible drop in prices in my area of S London. It could go either way after June, if things do get back to more-normal.

Ah that's interesting. Think I'll just try to offer as fairly as I can and see what happens.

But it's not your seller that will hold up your completion if they've already moved out, so not sure what any 'incentive' would do. It's your solicitor who has to ensure it completes by the deadline.
I put an offer on a house just before the extension was announced, hoping that if it was extended I could take advantage, but it won't stop me buying the house if I miss it. The seller took my offer, saying that she would need yo complete to take advantage of the reduction in her purchase, which was confirmed in the three days she took to accept. Her agent kind of worded it like a condition of her acceptance, but there's no legal recourse for that (if we don't make the deadline I'm hardly going to pay her more, on top of having to pay the stamp duty). As it happens she has yet to find a place so I'm more worried that she will now not sell it to me at all.
Frankly you should not enter into a transaction without being prepared to pay the stamp duty, and if you make the deadline it's a bonus.

I've just offered and put exactly that to the estate agents (there was a place on the offer form for 'conditions of offer'). I don't have another £15,000. They accepted. In your case I probably wouldn't over think it though, if they've already moved out then surely they want to the sale to go through quickly. Good luck!

Thank you. Of course I could commit to the SD if push came to shove, but it would then stretch me to the top of the budget. And the seller could still decide to drag their heels for whatever reason, so an incentive would make sure both sides were motivated.

And thank you @overwork i think that's what my agents have been saying. They made it sound more like you could get the solicitor to add it to the paperwork but as you say, think it's more likely they mean, make it part of the offer. Good luck with yours!