Q. I am trying to sell my property, but becoming increasingly frustrated as I am marketing at £265,000 but have so far received no offers over £250,000! The feedback from my agent is that no buyer is prepared to offer above £250,000 because of the increase in stamp duty above that level. A friend has suggested asking buyers to pay extra for fixtures and fittings, is this possible?
A. Stamp Duty thresholds always present issues for sellers that are just not comfortably above the two main Thresholds of either £250,000 where stamp increases from 1% to 3% and £500,000 where it jumps from 3% to 4%. On my discussions with sellers at this problematic level above the stamp duty increase I always advise that either they wait for a little longer for the market to increase so that the marketing price is comfortably enough above the stamp level or if they need to sell quickly then advise that it will likely sell below the stamp threshold. In the past it had been popular to use fixtures and fittings as a way to achieve a better price for the property without paying the extra costly stamp duty, now however, the government are extremely vigilant that this is being used as a loop hole to evade payment of stamp duty and in respect of that, solicitors are now extremely cautious in agreeing fixtures and fittings at any level.