A petition launched yesterday for the stamp duty holiday to be triggered upon exchange of contracts, rather than completion, attracted more than 1,700 signatories within 24 hours.

Property Industry Eye reported on Thursday that a new petition, started by an individual looking to take advantage of the existing stamp duty holiday, had been set-up.

Chris Holland, who created the petition, contacted EYE yesterday, an hour after it had gone live on Westminster’s official petition.parliament.uk website.

The petition has currently gained 1,744 signatures.

Holland said: “People are finding themselves becoming trapped in a scenario whereby house prices are muh higher, and at the same time they will now miss out on the stamp duty holiday. People are being financially punished from both sides, this from a policy that was designed to do the exact opposite.

“Exchanging contracts is exactly what it says. A contract, a legally binding agreement, to purchase a house often with an immediate 10% deposit being paid. So why shouldn’t you benefit from the stamp duty holiday being triggered at that moment of exchanging contracts, rather than at the point of completion? This will allow in particularly new build buyers, with continuous building delays due to COVID-19, to benefit from this policy.

“If you can help in any way it will be greatly appreciated.”

Petitions posted on Westminster’s official petition.parliament.uk site are guaranteed a government response if they accrue more than 10,000 signatures.

If a petition gets more than 100,000 signatures on that site it will be considered for a debate in parliament.

You can add your signature to the petition here.

The last major SDLT petition, which called for the government to extend the stamp duty holiday until September 2021, led to a debate in parliament – it attracted more than 150,000 signatures!

Government to debate extending stamp duty break