Stamp duty

Helen Barber

Helen Barber

Helen Barber

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Joined
9 Aug 2020
Posts
492
I own a flat. I want to buy a house. I understand I have to pay a higher tax as I own a second property.

I plan to sell my flat, but might buy the house first, can I claim the higher stamp duty tax back later?

Thank you :)
 
Yes. You will need to pay the higher stamp duty but will be able to claim it back after you sell the other property. You have 3 years to sell the other property and must file the claim within 12 months of selling it.
 
I did this when we moved house about 5 years ago. If you can afford to do it, the reduction in stress because you haven't got to do everything the same day is fantastic. (Although, of course, after the move there's an element of stress n worrying about whether the old house is going to sell!)
 
We are currently doing the same, going to let our old house out for a couple of years and then re-asses at which point we will either sell up and reclaim the excess stamp duty or continue renting the house out.
 
a1ex2001 said:
We are currently doing the same, going to let our old house out for a couple of years and then re-asses at which point we will either sell up and reclaim the excess stamp duty or continue renting the house out.
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It has a time limit on reclaiming. IIRC it is 12 months.
 
dLockers said:
It has a time limit on reclaiming. IIRC it is 12 months.
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There's a potential point of confusion which I think might have caught you. To get a refund you have to sell the old house within 3 years of buying the new one. The 12 months is how long you have from the sale of the old house to applying for the refund.

Personally, we applied for the refund about 5 seconds after the sale of course. :D
 
bazzabear said:
There's a potential point of confusion which I think might have caught you. To get a refund you have to sell the old house within 3 years of buying the new one. The 12 months is how long you have from the sale of the old house to applying for the refund.

Personally, we applied for the refund about 5 seconds after the sale of course. :D
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Interesting! Learnt something, thanks.
 
FYI - it took us just over 2 weeks to get the refund. I submitted the form the day after we completed on the sale
 
a1ex2001 said:
We are currently doing the same, going to let our old house out for a couple of years and then re-asses at which point we will either sell up and reclaim the excess stamp duty or continue renting the house out.
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Old thread i accept, but watch out for CGT, if you let it out then you lose the CGT exempt status of it being your main residence. It might not be subject to the full amount, but would be tapered :)
 
a1ex2001 said:
We are currently doing the same, going to let our old house out for a couple of years and then re-asses at which point we will either sell up and reclaim the excess stamp duty or continue renting the house out.
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I really wouldn't advise renting out a house for 1-2 years - there's a very real risk the tenants will trash the place and the deposit is laughable (ours managed to do £7k's worth of damage in 2 years and deposit was £1400). I would either plan on renting it for like 10 years to maximise profit on both rent and price increase, or just sell it over the next 12 months. It doesn't look like house prices are going to rocket up over the next 2 years so probably not worth the hassle imo. There's even a bit of a risk that house prices will drop as the covid-rush-out-of-cities is basically over and cost of living is about to rise substantially, even interest rates are going up which will affect people's ability to get mortgages. And you'll also get a hit on CGT of rented out.

We got £330k for the one we sold and one practically next door just went on the market for £320k, so that would have been a years rent profit lost straight away just by waiting 6 months.
 
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