Is it still possible to start a move and take advantage of the stamp duty holiday?

There is lots of talk about the stamp duty holiday having an extension.  It is risky relying on this as at the moment, they are just rumours and no official confirmation has been released.  

House moves take on average 16 weeks to complete when you have a buyer for your property, and you have had your offer accepted.  There is 16 and a half weeks with Christmas in the middle.  This makes it all a bit tight for time.  It’s not to say it can’t be done but things need to move swiftly.

You will need to have the best solicitors and estate agents that recognise that there is a time frame and work to this.  Every step in the process needs to be completed reasonably quickly without overlooking anything, so can this be done?  It is still possible, but you can only push things along in certain areas.  The local authority, for example, has to complete the searches. There is absolutely no rushing the local authority at all.  They do everything in their own time. Different local authorities have different timescales to get the searches completed.  Within Surrey the local authorities are the separate councils for each Borough.  Guildford Borough states that their searches take 2 to 3 working days, whereas The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames state they aim for 10 working days, but recently in reality I seen this take some weeks for them to complete.   By choosing the right services and professionals, you stand a better chance to get this completed as they’ll stand you in good stead to get everything moving quickly.

Previous data from Zoopla shows that 81% of mortgage applications in December complete by 31st March.  This reduces to 54% in January.  If you are still looking to move before 31st March, you really need to get started now.

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