Stamp Duty Surcharge - Buy to Lets

[Ham_and_Jam]

I’m looking to move house in the next couple of months. I have an offer accepted and a sale confirmed on mine.

I also have two properties that are rentals, one which will be sold soon as the tenant has just served notice.

My question is - will I incur the additinal stamp duty on my new house purchase because I have rental properties?

I will only have one primary residence.

[Hawkshaw]

No. If you have only one primary residence, you are just selling that and buying another, your BTLs are irrelevant.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Hawkshaw said:

No. If you have only one primary residence, you are just selling that and buying another, your BTLs are irrelevant.

That’s great news. Thankyou.

I thought that, but a bit of Googling led me down a rabbit hole, that gave a lot of conflicting info.

[L1OFF]

Just to clarify, I have a house (Primary residence) but |I also still own my ex's house (joint tenants). If I was to sell my primary and buy another house would I be subject to additional stamp duty?

[esuuv]

Isn't that a similar arrangement to what caused Angela Rayer to have to resign (I believe her joint property was owned by a trust for her disabled son) - so probably best to get some proper legal advice.

[Hawkshaw]

L1OFF said:

Just to clarify, I have a house (Primary residence) but |I also still own my ex's house (joint tenants). If I was to sell my primary and buy another house would I be subject to additional stamp duty?

IANAL but was speaking from my own recent experience, which was similar to the OP, so I don't know, but I would have thought that if someone else was living in the ex's house (the ex possibly?) then it could not be counted as your primary residence, so again would be irrelevant.

[LooneyTunes]

The important part is getting the notification to HMRC correct. Ideally the same conveyancing solicitor for both sale and purchase so that they have the relevant transaction reference codes to show a sale and purchase.

[Armitage.Shanks]

L1OFF said:

Just to clarify, I have a house (Primary residence) but |I also still own my ex's house (joint tenants). If I was to sell my primary and buy another house would I be subject to additional stamp duty?

I believe it's where you live - primary residence and where you are registered for council tax, voting etc. So if you sell the primary residence to buy another there is no SDLT additional surcharge.

[L1OFF]

Its not imminent as the housing market seems to be dead (houses around here used to sell within a very few weeks, not now its seems). I would of course get professional advice when the time comes as I wouldn't want to have to resign as Deputy Prime Minister

[Sarnie]

The key is how many properties you own before the transactions and then how many you own afterwards.

If you own 3 properties, including your main residence, if you sell that main residence and buy another, you'll still own 3 properties, so you wouldn't be subject to the additional SDLT.

If you bought another BTL property, you'd then own 4 so would be subject to the extra SDLT.