Vocal Voices

The people we're buying the house from are really really really trying our patience

We signed the promissary contract, which is a very legally binding contract. In that contract, it stated that they were leaving all the furniture. It's not a lot, most of it will be chucked out, but it suited us to have it there and we'll replace it with our new furniture, as and when.

On Sunday, we had a message from the estate agent, asking us to basically lie and say we bought the house for 100,000 and will pay 10,000 for the furniture, wood, tools etc.

This is just so they can not pay so much capital gains tax. We said no, sorry.

They then came back today, also via the agent, to say could we possibly do it for 5,000, as it would reduce their tax bill. Due to the laws in this country, that would cost us a little bit more, because we're buying for less, even though we're not, if you follow, when we eventually sell.

Grumpy initially said, tell them to take all the furniture out and we'll manage, but as we've now got rid of most of our furniture we'd be stumped for a cooker, something to sit on (apart from the floor ) and some where, apart from suitcases, to put our clothes in.

So we've agreed to pay them, on paper the same amount of money, but they get to save 5,000 in capital gains.

So we've bitten the bullet, told them we'll let them do their tax fiddle but we're not happy bunnies.

And their solicitor, as we know, is the biggest rogue in the country,.

Sadly, he's the only notary in the town, so we have to work with him for the final deed.

I would be as unhappy about it as you Ton, but I suppose you have no choice

I rang one of our friends up there, before we made the decision, and he said they're both (the people we're buying from, the biggest pain in the posterior that he knows.

Except he wasn't quite so polite

He also said that they're the type of people to make it rather nasty

It's no different to what happens here though really to avoid paying the extra tax if you go over the threshold - bung it on as fittings instead.


Sent from Santas grotto

debih wrote:It's no different to what happens her enough really to avoid paying the extra tax if you go over the threshold - bung it on as fittings instead.

Absolutely, was just going to post the same thing as Debih. Here, it's done to put you in a lower stamp duty bracket for residential housing. It's also especially rife in the commercial world if you're selling a business containing a building, fixtures & fittings / plant & machinery, and goodwill. The tax treatment of gains in the various categories is different, so plenty of scope for, let us say, creative accounting ....