The Intermediary – September 2025 - Flipbook - Page 58
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
Rayner’s fall
exposes a system
stuck in the past
A
ngela Rayner has
had to resign aer
admiing she
underpaid about
£40,000 in Stamp
Duty on an £800,000
apartment she bought in Hove.
She is said to have told tax
authorities that her flat in Hove was
her main place of residence. She took
her name off the deeds of a property in
her Greater Manchester constituency
only weeks before purchasing the flat.
The deed changes supposedly allowed
her to pay £30,000 in Stamp Duty
instead of £70,000, which would have
been applied if the Hove property was
her second home.
Ultimately, she had to resign aer
it became clear she had breached the
ministerial code.
I am not going to excuse her because
she was facing various personal
complexities – although divorce is
clearly a tricky time for anyone. But
I am tempted to take a slightly more
lenient view because I think this
episode raises broader questions about
tax complexity and the intricacies of
the wider property market.
For most people, purchasing
a property is the single biggest
transaction of their lives. Yet in the
UK, the system for doing so remains
painfully archaic, riddled with delays,
uncertainty and needless expense.
Compared with other developed
western countries, our conveyancing
process, for example, feels like a relic
of a slower, more bureaucratic age.
The first problem is speed – or
rather, the lack of it. In the UK, it
takes around five months, on average,
from making an offer to completion,
although the entire process, from
working out what you can afford,
finding a place to geing the keys, can
typically take six to 12 months.
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The Intermediary | September 2025
Chains of buyers and sellers oen
collapse because one weak link
pulls out aer months of waiting.
Compare that to countries such
as Denmark, where digital land
registries and standardised contracts
allow transactions to be completed
in as lile as two to four weeks.
Germany, meanwhile, benefits from
the involvement of notaries who act
as neutral arbiters, ensuring contracts
are watertight and binding from the
moment of signing.
Costs and efficiencies
The process itself is also strikingly
analogue. Much of UK conveyancing
still involves posting documents,
waiting for searches to come back
from local councils, and manually
checking title deeds. In Canada or the
Netherlands, digitised systems allow
title searches and land registry checks
to be completed online within hours,
not weeks.
No wonder the Open Property Data
Association (OPDA) is trying to change
the way people buy and sell houses by
implementing open data standards
and encouraging transparent data
sharing across the property industry.
Then, there is the issue of
uncertainty. In Britain, until
‘exchange of contracts’ happens –
oen weeks aer an offer is accepted
– either party can walk away without
penalty. Gazumping and gazundering
remain common frustrations. In
France or Spain, once a buyer signs
a preliminary contract, they usually
pay a deposit of 5% to 10%. Pulling out
without good reason means losing that
money, so both parties are incentivised
to see the deal through.
Costs are another sore point. British
buyers pay solicitors for conveyancing,
surveyors for inspections, and oen
multiple rounds of fees if chains
RICHARD SEXTON
is commercial director
at HouzeCheck
Archaic, riddled with
delays, uncertainty and
needless expense”
collapse – though of course, one of the
benefits of buyers paying for a survey
is that the sunk cost helps lock them
into the deal. In the US, while costs
can also be high, competition among
title companies and widespread use of
title insurance streamline the process
and provide certainty for lenders and
buyers alike.
Calls for reform in Britain are not
new. The Land Registry has made
strides towards digitisation. But the
pace of change is prey glacial.
For a nation that prides itself on
being a global financial hub, the fact
that buying a modest semi-detached
house still involves navigating
a Victorian paper trail is a bit
embarrassing.
We are doing our part. The average
time it takes HouzeCheck to get a
report completed and delivered is
between two and three days – not
bad considering a building survey
takes a day to complete. Recently, we
completed a valuation on the same day
it was ordered.
And that’s before we get to the tax
code! Rayner’s downfall may have
hinged on Stamp Duty, but the real
lesson is how tangled and opaque the
entire property system has become.
If even a senior politician struggles
to navigate the rules, what chance does
the average buyer have? The overlap of
outdated conveyancing, byzantine tax
codes and endless paperwork makes
missteps almost inevitable. ●
