solicitor just told me something I have never heard before, is it right?

tucbiscuit

I was ringing round for some conveyancing quotes for a house I want to renovate and one solicitor told me that you can't buy a house and sell it within six months of buying it these days, there is either some penalty or rule saying you can't do it altogether.

is he correct, if so is there a link to the rule anywhere?

if he's wrong what could he have been meaning?


thanks

trumpton

If so it must be a very recent change - on Homes Under the Hammer people are always buying and selling within weeks/months. It may be to do with money-laundering reg's, but sounds a bit unlikely to me.

chickmug

tucbiscuit wrote: »

one solicitor told me that you can't buy a house and sell it within six months of buying it these days, there is either some penalty or rule saying you can't do it altogether.
thanks

I think you may have misunderstood something the solicitor said as NOT true. Unless it is owned by another party like Housing Association that may have a quirky rule but never heard of anything like this before

pie81

Is it possible the solicitor was talking about the Principal Private Residence exemption from capital gains tax?... usually to claim this exemption you need to have lived in the property for 6 months.

but there's nothing to stop you selling earlier, you just might not be able to claim the PPR exemption.

just a guess really.

PasturesNew

I have heard this before. There is some criteria with some mortgage companies that you can't buy a house that has been bought in the last 6 months.

I'll dig out a link. Something about money laundering I think.

PasturesNew

Here's a link:
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/productsandservices/practicenotes/mortgagefraud/522.article

Section 3.1
Criminal methodologies are continually changing. However, there are several known warning signs
The current owner has owned the property for under six months. You should ask them to explain why they are selling so quickly.

tucbiscuit

thanks for the replies

cashndash

you will pay capital gains tax if you buy and sell within 6 months

PasturesNew

cashndash wrote: »

you will pay capital gains tax if you buy and sell within 6 months

Do you have a link for that? First time I've heard that one.
I could see that capital gains tax would apply if somebody bought it to develop it (never lived in it) and sold it for a profit... but even then they'd have their personal allowance to offset, so there might not be any tax due.