Paying Vendor's Estate Agents Fees?

[Dangerous666]

The Vendor on the property my wife and I are interested in buying has a really tight financial set of constraints that she needs satisfied in order to allow her to buy the property that she had seen.

As such, she has factored into her asking price all her disbursements and fees.

She will sell her house, valued at £250,000, so long as we also buy various fixtures and fittings to the value of approx £5,000. However, she needs to pay her estate agent about £5,030 (Fees including VAT) and has added this to her asking price and won't go below this figure (£260,000).

This means that my wife and I will have to pay SD at 3% solely so that the vendor has the money she needs to buy the house she has placed an offer on and pay all her associated bills.

I have suggested that I pay her estate agent's fee directly upon completion, so this is an expense that she won't have to pay.

My conveyance solicitor said that so long as this was an arrangement between the vendor and us as purchasers, there is no problem. However, the vendor's solicitor doesn’t like this and has advised the vendor not to accept our proposal.

This is therefore a deal breaker.

I think the vendor's solicitor is playing cautious, probably because they don't want to think about anything that is out of the ordinary.

With 2 legal opinions giving different opinions, the first questions is, Is this proposal whereby I pay the vendor’s estate agent’s fees directly legal / acceptable to HMR&C

[maths]

Vendor and purchaser can contractually agree whatever they want. Thus, if as part of the deal you agree to discharge the vendor's estate agent fees then no problem, per se.

However, this amount is chargeable consideration for SDLT purposes and this amount would be aggregated with the so-called "purchase price".

Re "fixtures and fittings" amounts paid in respect thereof also constitute chargeable consideration and would again be aggregated for SDLT purposes.

Chattels are not subject to SDLT (eg carpets, curtains, white goods etc) and their worth is their second hand value.