Thousands of house sales at risk as stamp duty break ends

The UK Government’s stamp duty holiday ended at midnight and solicitors reported the busiest day of their lives yesterday as desperate buyers tried to squeeze through their transactions. Joanne McIvor, a Partner in our Property team spoke to The Times to discuss the potential pitfalls in rushing transactions through to beat the deadline.

Almost 120,000 property buyers are likely to have missed yesterday’s stamp duty holiday deadline and one in five of these purchases may collapse because of a lack of funds, according to analysis for The Times.

Solicitors said that some buyers who forced through purchases in time may have ignored survey results to do so, potentially landing themselves with large repair bills…

…Joanne McIvor, a property partner at Edwin Coe, said: “Shortcuts in due diligence now could result in buyers encountering unforeseen large bills in the near future that could well exceed the monies being saved now.”

Read the full article in The Times (subscription may be required)