I'm about to put an offer in on a house for a friend, asking price 180k, offer 174,950 to avoid stamp duty. Offers have now gone to sealed bids, vendors have stated that they could include 'an amount' for soft furnishings if any bids were accepted over 175k (stamp duty limit. Furnshings are limited e.g. 2x curtains, 1 cooker, 2 carpets.

If an offer of 178 was accepted is this still legal? Could this be challenged on the basis that the furnishings are not worth 3k? Surely there must be a limit to the amounts?

Any advice greatly received thanks,

Gareth

As far as I know this goes on a lot and is a common loop hole.

it used to go on a lot and used to be a common loophole. Now you need a separate valuation of chattels that make up the difference in excess of the threshold price.

Make sure you're confident in the chattel valuations before you make the offer. Otherwise, start factoring in the SDLT into your offers. Its not as significant as you might think.

I'd also heard that nowadays it's not so easy to do this. As Stoner says, you need an independant valuation of the stuff. I know curtains can be expensive but you have to be realistic or they'l 'ave ya!:-)

Don't forget that the stamp duty limit has only been raised to £175k till the end of the year so you will need to complete before this date otherwise you'll have an extra £1750 on your costs 😯

Stamp duty is also based on the purchase price of the property so if the offer is £178k then this is the purchase price and so stamp duty would be chargable. If you want to pay £174999 and then agree £3k for fixtures and fittings it really needs to be plausable for what you are getting and check with your solicitor before submitting any bid that he/she would be happy with that set up.

Thanks for the advice guys, seems like a common ploy, don't want to get involved in ridiculous soft furnishings valuations, probably only worth about 800 tops,

Cheers,
Gareth