stamp duty

[mattoc66]

Im in the process of buying a new house and have recieved a Land Transaction Return form from my solicitor to be completed and returned to them before the exchange of contracts. The form is highly complicated for someone who isn't in the legal proffesion and full of legal gibberish I can't possibly understand. However my solicitor has kindly offered to fill in this form on my behalf for the princely sum of �50!!!! I think this is rather excessive just to fill in a form.. How have other AB'ers who have bought houses got around this and is there a way I can fill it in without using the solicitor to do it? Any help would be fully appreciated

[gina32]

ive bought several houses and have never had to fill in this form, its usually done for you and you just have to sign it. think youre solicitor is pulling a fast one, after all you are already paying him a fortune

[MustafaTickl]

SDLT do operate a Monday - Friday Helpline on 0845 603 0135. If you were to work through the Form completing the obvious one's, then talk to the Helpline about the remainder, and then post on here any specific matters that were still not clear, then one of us might be able to get you through it.

[lauratee]

I work for a firm of solicitors and you will find that most do charge a fee for completing the SDLT forms - ours is actually �75.00 plus V.A.T!!!! You can obtain a guidelines document to assist you and use the helpline as above. The guidlines are easy to use and to be honest they are not as frightening as they look and in any event if you fill it out incorrectly in the first instance - they will return the document to you for amendment.