As mentioned previously, we had never been along the street in which the property was built. When we turned into the street on the day of the viewing we were very pleasantly surprised, and by the time we were half way along the street we knew that the location was probably the best we had seen. All individual homes with bags of character set in established gardens with plenty of trees and hedges lining the street.
The next pleasant surprise when we pulled up outside the property was an in/out drive and the property was actually about a third wider than the estate agents photographs had lead us to believe!
The house, known as 'Woodgates' (although these had long gone with only the leaning gate posts remaining), was being sold in the estate of the previous owner who had past away the previous year. The grandparents of the people selling it had built the house in 1928 and the same family had lived in it since then. Most of the previous owners furniture and possessions were still in the house which made it feel very homely.
Both interior and exterior of the house were extremely tired and a little neglected. Panelled doors had hardboard over them and the oak staircase had also been panelled over. It needed rewiring, replumbing and a new heating system just for starters.
On the positive side, it was solidly built, the roof was in reasonable condition, it had a great outlook at the rear over fields, was on a third of an acre and in an excellent location with really good local schools and motorway access nearby. Downstairs it had a large hall, 2 good reception rooms, a small snug and dual aspect kitchen. Upstairs were 2 good sized bedrooms, 2 more rooms that were only the size of boxrooms, a bathroom and separate WC. The garage was a little small for 2 cars and included a boiler room. The house made poor use of its footprint and offered 'considerable scope for improvement' as some 'property professionals' say.
In reality, we only stepped inside the hall, saw the view down the garden through the open snug doorway, and we knew we were going to buy it!
The asking price seemed absurdly high for a property of this size and condition, but upon checking the selling price of houses in the same street and surrounding area, it became apparent that the price was only slightly higher than it should have been.
We put in an offer beating one that had already been made. Our offer was accepted, only to be outbid by another offer from a third interested party. We then made a higher offer which was also outbid by the third interested party, but oddly, the vendors accepted our offer! This was a little suspicious. Was this price jacking? I'll never know, but fortunately I did address the price issue as described below!
I had a structural survey carried out just in case I'd missed something. The survey didn't really identify anything I wasn't aware of, but when assembled into a quite lengthy document, it did make me reconsider whether our money might be better spent elsewhere.
I decided to effectively withdraw our offer by substantially reducing it to a figure well below our original one, and down into the next Stamp Duty tax bracket. The new price reflected the cost of remedial work outlined in the survey, which previously I would have had to stand the cost of. The real benefit of the survey turned out to be that it allowed me to justify a price reduction. A fairly expensive survey turned out to be a good investment. I also gave a copy of the survey to the estate agents for the vendors to peruse. At least they would be able to see some justification for the reduction. Whether it was the survey or they had just got tired of waiting for a buyer, the vendors accepted the revised offer.
Why does it take so long to buy a house? You're invariably paying solicitors a not inconsiderable sum of money to act on your behalf, and yet the process seems to take forever. In our case, as cash buyers and the only people in the chain, it still took 2 months to complete; mainly due to the vendors solicitor.
It was the middle of February 2005 when we finally took possession.
The lower price we finally offered, came back to haunt me for several months, in the form of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Because our purchase price was bang on the upper limit of a Stamp Duty threshold, this apparently gives HMRC sufficient justification to treat you like a criminal and tax evader. Several letters passed back and forth between HMRC and my solicitors, where HMRC basically suggested that we had paid separately for fixtures and fittings to avoid paying Stamp Duty at the higher rate. This really pissed me off since we were at the very least going to gut the place and probably demolish part of it, so fixtures and fittings were hardly a consideration. Eventually they gave up, having wasted my time and money on solicitors letters, and tax payers money on a fruitless exercise.
I'm sure that there are many house buyers who do manage to avoid paying Stamp Duty by paying for fixtures and fittings separately, and I say good luck to them. HMRC takes too much money from home owners. The thresholds should have increased with the rise in property values. According to an article I found on the BBC News website revenue from house sales has risen from £465m in 1993-4 to £4.3bn in 2004-5. Stamp Duty and the steady climb in property values has been a real income bonus for the government. Without requiring any additional resources they have seen a substantial increase in revenue from Stamp Duty, but where has all that extra income gone?
