Older people should be paid to downsize

TV property guru Kirstie Allsopp reckons older people should be paid to downsize as stamp duty costs are discouraging them to do so.

Speaking on the the podcast Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women the presenter, best known for Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location, said stamp duty costs were preventing older people from making the final move which would make their life easier.

FINAL MOVE

She told Johnson: “I think it prevents older people from making the final move which will make their life easier, which will make their caring more easy.”

The Neg reported in February how influential think-tank Policy Exchange was calling on the government to scrap Stamp Duty on residential home purchases to help older people downsize.

Its report revealed the £14 billion stamp duty tax stalls the property market by punishing retirees looking to sell large homes.

Report author Dr James Vitali, Research Fellow at Policy Exchange, said at the time: “Improvements will not happen overnight, but the government cannot continue to put off the strategic action that the housing market requires.”

AMBULANCE-CHASING

At the same time, professional portfolio landlord Kundan Bhaduri is warning against a spike in the number of ambulance-chasing companies claiming to get buyers a refund of their stamp duty.

Bhaduri says he is regularly approached by these companies, some of which operate on a ‘no win, no fee’ and ‘fully indemnified’ basis.

Bhaduri, Property Developer and Portfolio Landlord at The Kushman Group, says: “The Bewley v HMRC judgement has opened a veritable Pandora’s box of SDLT refund claims.

A bunch of fly-by-night operators have cropped up.”

“While a number of these claims are genuine, a bunch of fly-by-night operators have cropped up, who can be easily found online if you tap ‘stamp duty refunds’ into Google.

“I get contacted by them regularly, as I’m a portfolio landlord. They claim to get unsuspecting home buyers refunds on stamp duty for basic defects in their properties such as damp or mould or unmodernised houses.

“These cases are way outside of the HMRC judgement and do not warrant a claim for an SDLT refund.

“Since HMRC operates on a ‘refund now, investigate later’ policy, these companies will often get a hefty share of the claim and then leave their clients open to investigations and penalties later on.

“Be wary of them as many might not be around when HMRC comes knocking on your door.”