Avoiding the Stamp Duty Deadline Scramble – How We Steered Well Clear of the Drama for Our Clients

It is not a surprise that most Estate Agent posts today will be about how many sales they managed to drag to the finish line today – either that, or it will be a simmering rage against the machine, with a punitive stamp duty increase inflicted on clients that they couldn’t quite manage to get pushed through.

We get it.

But, you know us by now… that’s just not the way we roll! 

Whilst many agents are bracing themselves for a frantic day today, lining up the last of their simultaneous exchanges and completions, we are reflecting on a particular case. 

So, we thought we’d tell you a little story. 

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This is the story of Andrew & Pamela – call it a ‘case study’ if you like. We want to tell the story though, because to us it sums Bartlett and Partners up. It nails our ethos and what we’re all about, in a nutshell.

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And, so… 

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The Tale of Andrew & Pamela, moving home in Teddington

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When we first sat down with Andrew & Pamela, we knew this was no ordinary move. It was their first time moving home in nearly 40 years. The last time they moved house, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, Berlin was still split by a wall, mobile phones were as big as your head and the internet was not yet even a glint in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. 

No Rightmove, no drone videography – these were the days of having your home on a Fuji-Film print, glue-sticked onto an A4 property description, checking the local rag on a Thursday to see if your advert made the pages.

Things have changed!

It was an honour to have the privilege of getting them moved bestowed upon us, trusting us to handle such a huge life event for them with care, compassion and diligence – putting their faith in the sort of cutting edge marketing that we pride ourselves on, that would have seemed like science fiction to them the last time they moved home!

Frankly, when first we met them almost a year ago, nobody could have predicted the ups and downs ahead! 

The sale began well, with a pre-launch social media campaign, a top notch marketing video and some spectacular photography, and we secured a buyer quickly, in a good position and offering an excellent price – it was the home of their dreams.

But from there on in, the process turned into something of a rollercoaster…

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The House Moving Rollercoaster Begins 

For a start, Andrew & Pamela lost their original purchase. I have to say, we were gutted for them! After so many years, they had to be the ‘one in three’. 

For our part, we managed to keep our part of the transaction safe, looking after the buyers and keeping them on board, always well informed and advised until Andrew & Pamela managed to find another property; great news!

But, the joy was short-lived; our buyers then lost their buyer – and to top things off, having held things together at our end for a second time, the sellers' seller above us in the chain pulled out completely, just when we thought everything was back on track.

This is where being a smaller, hands-on Estate Agent in Richmond upon Thames really makes the difference. 

We kept our buyers on board, and we kept Andrew & Pamela from throwing in the towel, and of course we reached the stage again of finally seeing a complete chain in place, upwards and downwards.

And that’s when the real work began. 

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Getting it done – properly

This was no call-centre style process from us, no faceless progress-chasing. We rolled up our sleeves, we dropped round in person to provide critical updates (and critical reassurance), we kept the phone calls up and made sure our communication was on point – not just with our clients and our buyers, but also – crucially, I would say – with the other professionals through the chain, keeping everyone calm, aligned, and moving forward.

Despite all the setbacks around them, both our sellers and our buyers stayed the course. 

After all this time, the last thing we were going to subject anyone to was a last-minute scramble to complete on Stamp Duty Deadline Day. 

That is why, whilst others today will be popping the champagne corks when they do finally push their sales over the line today, we made sure that our ‘deadline day sale’ happened a week early. 

Andrew & Pamela moved house last Tuesday.

The end result? Some very happy sellers and some very happy buyers – and a great story to tell.

For us, it’s never just about getting it done — it’s about getting it done right.

Good luck to all those who do get over the line today. We’ll be spending our day doing viewings and valuations!

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