While much has been made of the great stampede, what of the reverse – those buyers who could have gained had they been advised to delay completions by as little as 11 hours?
Wednesday is not a busy day for completions, compared with Fridays, and most completions take place between noon and 1pm – before the Chancellor made his Stamp Duty announcement on Wednesday at around 1.15pm.
Eye asked conveyancing firm The Partnership, which works for estate agency buyers and sellers.
It had just two completions on Wednesday, both in the morning and in one instance at nearly 1pm – and in both cases, the buyer will have lost out.
In both cases the savings would have been fairly minimal at around £2,000 each.
However, Peter Ambrose, founder of The Partnership, said: “This was probably not in the greater scheme of things, but I have no doubt there will be some very cross people out there.”
Eye would be interested to know if agents came across similar cases, or – rarely – any completions which may have been due for Wednesday afternoon and which were then put back a day.
* Yesterday evening, conveyancers reported that the SDLT submissions return on the HMRC website was not working correctly.
Comments (2)
It is a shame for those who could have saved some money… I get that…… BUT spare a thought for the negotiator who go it in the neck for the 3 weeks leading up to exchange when the buyer was saying "if it doesn't complete then I'm pulling out because any date after is JUST impossible"……..and now, it's not fair I would have waited!
"…what of the reverse – those buyers who could have gained had they been advised to delay completions by as little as 11 hours?"
HOW could they have been advised? Apart from a 'leak', there was only supposition taking place. What if it had gone the other way and they had been charged more?
People who come up with these statements clearly don't live in OUR world, Ric! ;o)