Solicitors Records

[SIRandyraven]

How long do you think solicitors keep records for ?
We bought a house in April 2000 and Sold it in December 2002.
I need the purchase record and sales record.
The bill showing legal fees , stamp duty paid on sale , Estate agents fees etc.

I have searched high and low and can't find the records in the house ...all those boxes of stuff you keep ....Grrrrrrrrrr

So thinking of calling the two solicitors Monday and ask if they have duplicates of the records.
What do you think ?
(Googled both law firms and they still trade).

[Buenchico]

Wouldn't you have paid the estate agent's fee directly to the estate agent, rather than through a solicitor?

Many solicitors use archiving services, where they have to pay a fee to retrieve the files (to which they are likely to add their own fee on top). The last time I concluded a matter with a solicitor he advised me of a cut-off date, after which he'd archive the file and it would cost me £50 to retrieve it.

[237SJ]

My friend (who is a conveyancing solicitor) said that the past records of buying and selling etc end up in their vaults. There will be a record of transactions. The year 2000 onwards is quite recent. You should be able to get the information that you need.

[SIRandyraven]

Estate agent fees have been paid via Solicitor in the past and deducted from amount passed onto me from sale of property.
I think I paid them directly once also.
Have an invoice for estate agents fees in this case.

[SIRandyraven]

To be honest this is all the result of a second home sale back in 2002.
I was made redundant in 1999 and used my redundancy money and savings to buy a holiday home in Cornwall. We still had a £70k mortgage on out main property. Anyway we sold it in 2002. Paid £70K for it and sold it for £110K two years later. Never expected property prices in Cornwall to increase like that.
Anyway roll clock forwards 11 years ...
Reading Daily Mail (hate that paper) online and see item on how tax man is clamping down on Capital Gains Tax on second home sales !!!!
Errrr ...Call up tax man last Thursday and told him I was Mr Smith :-)
Yes it seems I should be paying tax on the gain of £40,000 ouch ....
After some checking it seems I will have to pay the following ...
Capital gains tax on £40,000 minus tax free gain allowance for me and wife of approx £15,000 (well £15,400) ....
I will pay tax at 40% on £12,500 and wife tax at 20% on £12,500.
Minus costs of buying and selling and improvements ...
Thus £25,000 we owe tax on could be reduced by say £5,000 approx for buying and selling costs.
Seems I'm now considered a tax dodger ...great ain't it !!!!
Looking at Tax web site we will have to pay interest on money owed ...
If it is say £7,500 that's £3650 approx and a fine of 20% approx of tax owed that comes to £1,500.
Of course this is based on confessing to tax owed by ther 9th of August.
If you fail to tell them , they will find you and come down hard !!!
Extract below .....
My screw up for not knowing I should have paid tax on this gain.
But being no tax expert and PAYE all my life , how the hell was I supposed to know.
MP's avoid this tax somehow on second homes.
Before anyone curses second home owners.
The property had a limit on it that said it had to be a second home.
So the council allowed 11 barn conversions and at prices that locals could afford to buy and then restricted sales to second home owners only !!!!
This was said to protect overwhelming local services.
Yet we could have lived in the property 12 months a year ?

"By using this campaign to come forward voluntarily, people will receive the best possible terms, as any penalty they pay will be lower than if HMRC comes to them first," a spokesman said.

Typically, someone who pays up now will pay the tax due, plus interest, and a penalty of up to 20% of the tax. If they are caught later they will be hit with a penalty of up to 100% – and in the most serious cases, criminal prosecution could follow.

[SIRandyraven]

The criminal prosecution bit is the best bit ....
Idea of 6 months in a nice open prison , cosy cell, TV and lots of books to read ...sort of sounds appealing. Away from wife and stress of life ...three meals a day ...early nights ,,,watch TV all day and DVD and catchup reading all those books I have ...learn a new skill ...
humm maybe I will tell the tax man I owe him and will not pay

[SIRandyraven]

Just kidding ...maybe I do read the Daily Mail too often :-)

[craft1948]

I'm sorry Andy but even I'd have known I was due to pay capital gains tax on a house which wasn't my main home.

[SIRandyraven]

Thanks for the reply (237SJ and Beunchico) - With luck and a fee, I can get what I want.
Every little helps ...

[SIRandyraven]

Wish i had know at the time craft or I would have paid it at the time.
I always thought gains in property prices were tax free.
Having moved a few times over the years.
First House cost us £50k and sold it for £64K ...next one £65K and sold for £190K ...next £250k ....now worth £400k.
It seems they are except for second homes :-(
This it seems includes Buy to Lets and even where people who have divorced and move into together have a spare house and let it

[SIRandyraven]

They even tax you for selling a bit of your garden lol

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/mar/05/hmrc-tax-crackdown-second-home-sales

[SIRandyraven]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/capital-gains-tax/9908066/HMRC-targets-second-home-sales.html

This must effect a few people these days also

[SIRandyraven]

“HMRC need to be very careful to operate with a light touch [as] there are situations where ordinary people will get caught. For example when two people, each with a property, decide to get married and don’t realise that there is a time limit of two years to elect a principle residence.”