We were contacted on Monday 4 March by a couple who had made a £10m offer over the weekend on a beautiful country house in the Cotswolds with a separate annex and three acres of land the subject of a grazing licence.
With just two days before the spring budget we needed to act quickly as:
we anticipated that the chancellor would announce changes to the mixed used rules for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT); and
such changes to SDLT would be significant for our clients given the grazing licence in situ.
We agreed to do everything in our power to exchange ahead of the budget (with completion to follow three months later). Our clients' offer on the house was accepted that same morning, so it was over to us to make it happen.
Executing the Brief
We had no concerns about meeting this timeframe. Indeed, we have exchanged in as little as a few hours before, and still occasionally carry out an attended exchange, so two days felt relatively comfortable.
Proactive engagement
We immediately picked up the phone to the seller’s solicitors and sought survey quotes (and importantly, timings for both the inspection and report). We have close working relationships with a selection of surveyors that we can call upon to deliver a quality survey in short order. We also immediately submitted the local authority search and started reviewing the title and available planning and buildings regulations information. This meant we had a head start and our enquiries and report to the clients substantively drafted before the contract and sales pack landed with us.
A collaborative approach
As usual, we worked as a team with both a partner and an associate on the deal, which means we can divide and conquer and have two pairs of eyes looking at any problem areas in the pack. It was clear from our initial review of publicly available planning information that the house had been extensively renovated in recent years. Expertise from our planning team was called in and our construction team put on notice so they were ready to review the construction documents once these arrived with the sales pack.
We kept our enquiries to a minimum, ensuring that everything we raised was essential to the buyers’ decision to proceed and/or to our ability to certify that the property had good and marketable legal title. A strong rapport between solicitors and agents is crucial to the smooth running of a transaction and something we really value as a team. The great relationship we have with the seller’s solicitors and agents acting on this transaction helped ensure communications were positive and proactive throughout.
It was all hands on deck to meet the required deadline and ensure our clients did not have to take the budget risk!
The debrief
We exchanged on Wednesday morning, just two hours before the chancellor’s spring budget. Picking up the phone to discuss a few tricky points rather than waiting for formal replies to emails was key to our success.
Incidentally, there were no changes to the mixed-use SDLT rules, but our clients are delighted that they will benefit from multiple dwellings relief from SDLT which the chancellor announced will be abolished from 1 June 2024.
It is perfectly possible to get a deal done swiftly where there is a super agent and a willingness to do so from both parties and their professional advisors.
