Stamp.Expert Reviews 

I am remortgaging from a dual mortgage to a single-named mortgage as part of my divorce. In the remortgage total, are additional monies for my soon-to-be ex-wife, a "buy out". The divorce is amicable, and we are on good terms. A straightforward and common transaction, you will agree.
Stated all over various gov.uk web pages regarding SDLT is the confirmation that if you are remortgaging as part of separation or divorce and you have legal paperwork detailing this - a separation agreement or Court order- under no circumstances do you pay stamp duty. When my solicitor asked me to complete the Stamp Expert questionnaire so that my Stamp Duty amount could be confirmed, and pay £30 for the privilege, I refused. Why should I? I asked myself, this can't be any more straightforward. HMRC clearly state so. My solicitor insisted, and on reflection, for peace of mind and for this to go away, I paid the £30. That was a huge mistake! Stamp Expert's questions were written in the third person, and asked me about what they...? Have they...? This made little sense as the questions were about me. Halfway through the questions, it became clear that these were generic and not relevant to my straightforward situation. I submitted anyway. What came back was a shock. They stated that I owe £0 or £22k or anything in between; I knew very well how much I need to pay: £0. I called HMRC and spoke with a lovely lady on the HMRC SDLT helpline. She confirmed that £0 is what I owe and there was no need to advise them of my remortgage. This aligned fully with what I had read prior. Stamp Expert provided me with three reasons why this range was so high. There is a clearer & obvious fourth, which I will explain shortly. 1. A review needs to take place regarding other property I own. 2. Changing legal owners is complex depending on the circumstances. 3. I may not have to pay £0, but we aren't sure. So, a review is needed. In summary, in their opinion, a review needs to take place. 4. How do you obtain a review you may ask? Well, Stamp Expert have a chosen list of accountants you can speak to, and they all charge £464 for the review. You are then shown a list of companies. I mean, come on! This is a similar experience to the other one-star review on here. This clearly a scam and an upsell. An upsell, to tell me what I already know and what HMRC have already told me. It doesn't stop there. In their advice to your solicitor, they state that your case must be reviewed by a property tax specialist to determine the applicable rate. You use theirs or source your own. Or, if you don't want to do that, you must accept the £22k stamp duty liability, and if your solicitor ensures this advice is adhered to, they will insist you sign to say you are accountable for this. 1. I don't own any other property 2. My circumstances are straight forward 3. Had Stamp Expert asked me questions about this, instead of generic, non relevant questions they'd know my Stamp would be £0.
Stamp Expert's questions are poorly communicated. They are generic and not tailored to you or your needs. The reasoning behind their output is that they haven't asked the right questions to determine your amount. One could conclude that they do this so they can upsell you to pay for a £464 review. The damaging outcome is that your solicitor may choose to insist on this.
My advice: If you can avoid using Stamp Expert, and if asked, suggest your solicitor use someone else and vet them before you engage with them. Don't trust that this will be fine. In my case, it wasn't. If you are a solicitor and use this company, there is a possibility your integrity and reputation will be damaged.

I contacted Stamp Expert to ask for advice about stamp duty. I had a couple of problems with the website but the team were really responsive and helpful. In the end our house purchase fell through and the team was very professional and we were on time and they refunded the fee. One of the members of their staff (Paul Wood) was following my case and guided me in all the steps of the process.
We are really impressed with how they handled the situation.

UPDATE:
Since writing my original review, Stamp Expert has contacted me directly and has offered to discuss our experience and try to understand what went wrong. I am not currently well enough to have that conversation, but I have agreed to speak with them when I am able to, and I think it is only fair to acknowledge publicly that they have now made an effort to engage with us.

I have therefore tempered my original review to reflect this development. I have not, however, removed the substance of my concerns below, as I have not yet had the opportunity to discuss what happened with them or establish whether those concerns can be satisfactorily addressed. I will update this review again once that conversation has taken place.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
A deeply concerning and, in our experience, unnecessarily fear-inducing approach. We were directed to their website by our solicitor, not seeking them out, and were then bombarded with variously alarming and contradictory tactics to persuade us to pay for SDLT advice we absolutely did not need for a straightforward purchase of our primary residence.

ADDITIONAL to your response:
The email address used for the “assessment” on your website was my husband’s, which is probably why you have been unable to match my review to your records. We were directed to your website by our solicitor and were required to complete the assessment as part of the process.

At the end of the assessment, we were effectively presented with two choices: pay you for advice, or pay double the SDLT to protect ourselves against the possibility that we might “inadvertently pay too little”. There was no straightforward third option along the lines of, “Thank you, we are satisfied that this is a straightforward purchase of our primary residence and that the normal SDLT rules apply.”

We therefore chose neither option and immediately contacted our solicitor to complain about a service which, in our experience, appeared to be primarily designed to upsell paid advice. We then removed ourselves from your website.

That could have been the end of it. It wasn't.

We subsequently received further messages which, from our perspective, appeared to use increasingly alarming language to make us question whether we had got the SDLT position wrong and were at risk of paying too little or being penalised. When those tactics didn't work and we ignored them, we then started receiving messaging suggesting that you could potentially save us money or obtain a refund for us.

That sequence is precisely why I described the experience as fear-inducing and an upsell. I am not objecting to a company offering paid professional advice. I am objecting to the way that offer was presented to us when we had been directed to the service by our solicitor for what is, in our case, a very straightforward transaction.

There is also a question you haven't addressed: where did we opt in to being contacted repeatedly? We certainly did not knowingly request ongoing contact from you. We filled in an assessment because our solicitor directed us to do so, and when we decided we did not want your services, we chose not to proceed and didn't even complete the assessment process because we didn't want either of the two options you presented us with.

So while you may not have initially recognised my review from your records, I am quite confident that the experience I have described is an accurate account of what happened to us.

I am now willing to give Stamp Expert the opportunity to address those concerns directly. If our subsequent experience changes my view, I will be equally happy to say so.