The chancellor considers ‘extending stamp duty holiday by six weeks’

[d000hg]

Another stupidity move from the government, imo.

Why they did this during a pandemic anyway is mental, when you are TRYING to keep people from mixing indoors, you're actively encouraging people to mix indoors to view, move etc. Exactly who is being protected here by trying keep a housing market stimulated at a time like this?

This would have been far better as a post pandemic recovery stimulus package - or am I missing something?

I don't imagine it's a high-risk activity but it does make sense not to encourage people to move.

[Scoobos]

Another stupidity move from the government, imo.

Why they did this during a pandemic anyway is mental, when you are TRYING to keep people from mixing indoors, you're actively encouraging people to mix indoors to view, move etc. Exactly who is being protected here by trying keep a housing market stimulated at a time like this?

This would have been far better as a post pandemic recovery stimulus package - or am I missing something?

Taking up the side point of commitment and sales falling through, I think it would be ok for the seller to cancel if by the end of it the Seller has footed the risk and cost, but in England this isn't the case - you literally gamble thousands as a buyer. Or that's how it seemed to me anyway, I was shocked how risky it was as a cash buyer.

[mattster]

So you agree to buy / sell then a member of your family falls seriously ill and doesn't have long to live so you make a call to halt the process until you're in a better place and you're happy you should be contractually obliged to go through with it?

There are loads of reasons why sales fall through and I don't think anyone makes that decision lightly once they've started spending money on it.

Well that could happen anyway once you've exchanged contracts, so its just a question of moving that stage forwards. The problem is that the "spending money on it" part of it is asymmetrical; the buyer has to spend far more than the seller, up until exchange.

[d000hg]

So you'd buy a house based on a search that was 12 months out of date?
Who do you think would lend you the money?

It can take 12 months to buy a house, your search could be out of date anyway.

And if I knew the area, yes. It's easy to keep up to date on planning applications in your area yourself.

[ladymuck]

The real issue with the process IMO is that you can spend months of your time, and thousands of pounds, just for the buyer/seller to pull out for no reason, and no financial penalty. There should be some sort of binding committment at the point of offer acceptance, contingent on satisfactory search and survey etc. How you define satisfactory, of course, might not be so easy. Still, they manage it in Scotland and Australia, and I'm sure plenty of other places too.

So you agree to buy / sell then a member of your family falls seriously ill and doesn't have long to live so you make a call to halt the process until you're in a better place and you're happy you should be contractually obliged to go through with it?

There are loads of reasons why sales fall through and I don't think anyone makes that decision lightly once they've started spending money on it.

[mattster]

So you'd buy a house based on a search that was 12 months out of date?
Who do you think would lend you the money?

The real issue with the process IMO is that you can spend months of your time, and thousands of pounds, just for the buyer/seller to pull out for no reason, and no financial penalty. There should be some sort of binding committment at the point of offer acceptance, contingent on satisfactory search and survey etc. How you define satisfactory, of course, might not be so easy. Still, they manage it in Scotland and Australia, and I'm sure plenty of other places too.

[Lance]

Amen. The fact I can buy a house and do all the searches, then sell it a year later and the new buyer has to do the same searches, for example.
I thought this was the idea behind the Home Information Pack but that was killed off IIRC?

I bought a place which had quite complicated curtilage and access. I was wondering if I use the solicitor I bought it with, to sell it, can they simply provide all that information to the new buyer? Clearly the same questions will be asked and it's a huge waste of my time filling in questionnaires but I'm pretty sure every sale starts with a complete clean slate on the solicitors' side?

So you'd buy a house based on a search that was 12 months out of date?
Who do you think would lend you the money?

[ladymuck]

Sure, but doing it all from scratch? Things like flooding reports, etc, as well. I suppose there is the risk that if the previous solicitor missed something the next one can't assume they were competent but if you use the same solicitor to buy and sell the house surely they can use the file they created for the sale when selling!

It's probably 'a process' and therefore more effort to identify the differences and issue an update than it is to start from scratch.

Not saying it's right but we are dealing with local councils here...

[d000hg]

A lot of the content would remain the same but there may have been planning applications granted / submitted in the interim that may be omitted if the previous information was reused. It's been a while so I can't remember what exactly is included these days.

Sure, but doing it all from scratch? Things like flooding reports, etc, as well. I suppose there is the risk that if the previous solicitor missed something the next one can't assume they were competent but if you use the same solicitor to buy and sell the house surely they can use the file they created for the sale when selling!

[ladymuck]

Amen. The fact I can buy a house and do all the searches, then sell it a year later and the new buyer has to do the same searches, for example.
I thought this was the idea behind the Home Information Pack but that was killed off IIRC?

I bought a place which had quite complicated curtilage and access. I was wondering if I use the solicitor I bought it with, to sell it, can they simply provide all that information to the new buyer? Clearly the same questions will be asked and it's a huge waste of my time filling in questionnaires but I'm pretty sure every sale starts with a complete clean slate on the solicitors' side?

A lot of the content would remain the same but there may have been planning applications granted / submitted in the interim that may be omitted if the previous information was reused. It's been a while so I can't remember what exactly is included these days.