The Government’s very helpful aid to the property market is due to end on 31st March 2021.
The stamp duty (technically Stamp Duty Land Tax but most people still refer to it under its old name) holiday means that people buying a new home do not have to pay stamp duty as long as the price is less than £500,000 and the transaction is completed (not just exchanged) by 31st March 2021.
If you are a retaining your existing property or are buying property to rent out then different rules apply. Also different rules apply if you are buying commercial property. Company and trust purchases and property purchased by non UK residents also may have different rules. So, basically, this temporary exemption is only designed to apply to straightforward “normal “ residential purchases.
You may well think the end of March is way off but bearing in mind that the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors estimate that 3 months or more is the standard time for a transaction to reach completion it doesn’t need a Maths genius to realise that with the Christmas and New Year break this is not so.
Conveyancers nationally are under pressure, surveyors are taking time to visit pro and report, Mortgages are delayed (paradoxically sometimes because the Government salary schemes are meaning that enough salary details are unavailable), local authority searches (and sometimes other searches) are taking longer to obtain as councils are under pressure too.
So if you want to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday to stand any chance of succeeding you need to get the transaction underway quickly. Any conveyancer who is experienced and worth their salt will not be able to guarantee success for the reasons mentioned above and that you cannot control the speed others will move a transaction forward where they are outside your control but instructing experienced conveyancers will greatly assist.
For advice as to whether you can take advantage and get your conveyancing started please contact us on hb121solicitors.co.uk or telephone on 01562 702655 as soon as possible.
At HB 121 Solicitors, we have a team of experienced
