Chancellor Rishi Sunak today confirmed that the stamp duty holiday for home buyers in England and Northern Ireland - previously slated to end on 31 March - will be extended for another three months.
This means that the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) threshold will stay at £500,000 until 30 June 2021. The threshold will then drop to £250,000 until the end of September, at which point the standard £125,000 threshold will take effect once more.
So if you are planning to buy a property for less than £500K, you now have a few extra months to finalise the deal without paying stamp duty.
Sunak's announcement is also good news for sellers, many of whom feared that buyers would pull out if they weren't able to get everything in order before 31 March. The three-month extension gives sellers more time to follow the correct protocols and seal the deal without cutting any corners.
Don't lie about Japanese knotweed to speed up your property sale!
The Daily Express recently shared the advice of property expert Ray Harriot: "If a property was known to have Japanese knotweed...[if the seller] were to omit that evidence - it's all on file - and the buyer was to buy it, and then they did a bit more research and it was established that Japanese knotweed was missed out, [the seller] could find themselves in hot water."
Now that the stamp duty holiday has been extended, there is no reason at all for a seller to risk lying about the presence of Japanese knotweed on their property. It is still possible for a property transaction to go smoothly in spite of a Japanese knotweed infestation - you just need to get an appropriate treatment plan (with insurance-backed guarantee) in place ASAP.
If you're trying to buy or sell a property that's affected by Japanese knotweed, get in touch with Taylor Total Weed Control. As members of the Property Care Association (PCA), we are qualified to get your Japanese knotweed problem under control and keep your move on track.
Our Japanese Knotweed Treatment Plans
Photo from Pixabay
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