I think that one of the skills of being a good conveyancer is being able to deal with anything which is thrown at you on any day. We all know that not each day is the same. What starts as an issue in the morning resolves itself within an hour; what is moving along nicely suddenly becomes urgent at four o’clock in the afternoon. We are used to this – calm above the desk but paddling furiously under the desk.
But there are those days when you get the real unexpected curve ball; and why does it always seem to be around Stamp duty?! I remember as we came out of the first lockdown, listening to the budget and hearing that there was going to be a stamp duty holiday – and cue the collective groan in firms across the country.
And then last week, completely unexpected – a rise in the surcharge on second homes. Where did that come from? And it wasn’t just that there would be an increase in three or six months’ time – oh no! from midnight. I rushed to my filing cabinet and checked to see if there were any transactions where I was almost ready to exchange – other than a sale, there were none which would incur the additional liability (and on that particular transaction, my selling client had been pushing me to exchange contracts and complete before Budget Day in case there was a change in CGT). And then I thought – it is not just my clients – what if I am in a chain and there is perhaps a Buy to let investor at the start of the chain. I braced myself for any unexpected calls – but thankfully, there were none.
But I think I was lucky. My client base does not tend to be investors but I am sure that there are many conveyancers who have a core of clients who are investors who were impacted by the decision and had to work until late in the evening to avoid the additional stamp duty.
So we will now all brace ourselves for the end of March – Easter 2025 is towards the end of April, so at least we don’t have the two coinciding as we did some years ago. But I forecast that it is going to get even busier and this will lead to a further drain on the profession .
Oh the joys of being a conveyancer.
This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.
