Furious agent says Chancellor incompetent over Stamp Duty change
Sophie Arnold has written to her local MP over the Chancellor’s immediate introduction of a higher Stamp Duty rate for additional dwellings.
A furious estate agent has written to her local MP over the Chancellor’s immediate introduction of a higher Stamp Duty rate for additional dwellings, accusing Rachel Reeves of ‘incompetence’.
Sophie Arnold (main image), MD of 12-branch South of England estate agency Sandersons UK, says in her letter that Reeves should have anticipated the fallout that followed her decision to bring an immediate tax increase on the day of her 30th October budget for landlords and second home owners.
The change was immediate, with buyers given hours to get their purchase to exchange in order to dodge the increase.
In her letter Arnold gives several examples of the chaos Reeves’ decision created, revealing how one chain of ten properties collapsed because an investor pulled out of buying the bottom property after realising he couldn’t get the deal to exchange in time, which would cost him £10,000 extra in Stamp Duty.
“Nine parties, all of them selling their principal residence and moving from one home to another, are now left in a position of their chain having collapsed,” she said.
“Many of these people would have started the process some months ago and have packed their belongings and booked their removals. In this transaction alone, aside from the upset, the Government has lost circa £320,000 in Stamp Duty in this one chain.
“This scenario will have been repeated up and down the country.”
Arnold’s letter, parts of which were publihed in The Times over the weekend, was sent to Tessa Munt, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wells and Mendip Hills. In it the estate agent revealed that her staff have faced abuse from frustrated buyers following the Stamp Duty change.
“We are looking to lose revenue out of our pipelines in the region of £120,000 in just one day and we are not a large outfit, she also said.
“These transactions take us between three to six months to put together, to lose them in a day is pretty catastrophic for us and all the people concerned.”
Pic credit: Sandersons UK
Yes agreed. The other incompetence by successive governments is not reforming the system so that sales are binding at a much earlier stage.
Vote reform. The others are splitting hairs over differences.